Kinver
With our “Day of Rest” behind us, we got up and set off early again, this time heading for the village of Kinver. The two hour trip with its two locks flew by and it seemed that no sooner had we set off, we were tying up on the visitor moorings below Kinver lock. Showered and changed, we were out and walking by 11.30. St Peter’s church stands high on a hill and although the views from the churchyard are superb, sadly the church is locked up. Maybe this is because it is a bit isolated but it’s the first church on this trip that we haven’t had access to.

St Peter’s church, Kinver

A view to die for?
Our walk continued and we eventually found a farm shop where we had a sandwich for lunch before pressing on. We were hoping to visit the Kinver rock houses but when we asked a couple of walkers if we were heading in the right direction, they told us that they had been but that the houses were closed until Thursday. We did a bit of walking on Kinver edge before returning to the village itself.
Someone once asked me how we find our way around the canals and how do we know where various facilities are located. Most boaters will have a number of books and the most popular series are “Nicholson’s Waterways Guides” and “Pearson’s Canal Companions”. Nicholson’s are better for maps as they use the Ordnance Survey maps. North is always at the top of the page and the scale is consistent. Pearson’s maps are not so easy to follow but the narrative is much better than Nicholson’s so between the two series of books, the boat traveller is well catered for. Well, to an extent anyway. The problem is that books go out of date because things change over time; pubs close, facilities move or get withdrawn, supermarkets get built and so on. The internet is a wonderful thing and many boaters write blogs like this one. I read a few but only the ones that are interesting and more importantly, informative. Real life experience is invaluable when it comes to making recommendations especially when that experience is recent and therefore up to date. One of my “Go To” blogs is this one. I’ve harvested countless nuggets of information from this source since we first met the author back in 2010.
Where is this all leading to, you’re probably wondering, well wonder no more – it’s leading to a string of sausages!
My “Napier’s Enchiridion” recommends pre-war sausages sold by the local butcher so of course I had to try them. Trusting that it’s the recipe that’s pre-war and that they’re not peddling eighty year old bangers, we bought half a dozen and Sue kindly cooked two of them for my dinner in the evening. From what I understand, the main difference is that they are bound with breadcrumbs rather than rusk. They were really good, meaty and tasty but not highly seasoned – the remaining four are now in the freezer and will be savoured over the coming weeks. Thanks for the info, Bruce – another nugget of information which can’t be found in a Nicholson’s guide!!!!