Short breaks from Tardebigge
Short break canal boat holidays available from Tardebigge on the Worcester & Birmingham Canal
Birmingham Gas Street Basin & back (10 hours, 0 locks)
From our Tardebigge base near the top of the Tardebigge flight, it takes just five hours (with no locks) to reach Gas Street Basin in the centre of Birmingham.
Heading north from Tardebigge, in just one hour boaters reach the village of Alvechurch, with its canalside Weighbridge Inn, passing through fields, wooded glades and one short tunnel along the way.
The next pub is the Hopwood House at Hopwood, which serves freshly roasted Rotisserie chicken and house and guest cask beers on tap.
Then the canal goes through the 2493-metre long Wast Hills Tunnel, one of the longest in the country before reaching King’s Norton Junction, where the Worcester & Birmingham meets the Stratford Canal.
Soon the canal passes Cadbury World in the historic village of Bournville, where Richard and George Cadbury decided to move their expanding business in 1879, with the canal a critical mode of transport for the chocolate factory’s products and raw materials.
The landscape is now increasingly urban as you travel on into the very heart of Birmingham, passing through Edgbaston Tunnel.
With more canals than Venice, travelling by canal boat is a great way to explore Britain’s vibrant second city. Once moored up in Gas Street Basin, it’s a short walk to Brindleyplace with its National Sealife Centre, Ikon Gallery and dozens of waterside restaurants and bars.
Many of the City’s top attractions are within easy reach, including the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, home to the most important collection of Pre-Raphaelite art in the world.
Lapworth & back (14 hours, 0 locks)
On a short break from Tardebigge, you can cruise lock-free to the village of Lapworth, home of the National Trust’s Packwood House.
The journey takes you along the Worcester & Birmingham Canal, through the remains of the Forest of Arden, to Kings Norton Junction. You then transfer onto the Stratford Canal to reach moorings in Lapworth.
From there, it’s a short walk to the Tudor Packwood House, with 150 acres of parkland and gardens to explore, including the famous Yew Garden. The journey to Lapworth takes around seven hours and passes through three tunnels.
Birmingham’s Black Country Museum & back (16 hours, 6 locks)
On a short break from Tardebigge you can cruise to Birmingham Black Country Museum and back, to visit this superb 26-acre open-air site, home of the Peaky Blinders. Here you can meet costumed characters explaining what it was like to live and work in one of the world’s most heavily industrialised landscapes.
There are period shops and homes to explore, the ‘Bottle & Glass Inn’, a 1912 school lesson and traditionally cooked 1930’s-style fish and chips. There are also vintage tram and bus rides and the chance to take a trip ‘into the thick’ to experience life in an 1850’s coal mine.
