Delph Locks to Stourton Junction
This is a Black Country trail in the Heart of England, reaching into the soul of the canals. It's neither rural nor conventionally beautiful, but this walk is a privilege for anyone who wants the full taste of real canals.
The walk starts near the metropolis of materialism, the Merry Hill Shopping Centre, and then the canal ironically takes you quietly away from But it's always more than a linear park. History runs riot, playing with your imagination the whole way. The area once thrived on industries around the local coalmines and Stourbridge became world renowned for glass making. One of the glass cone furnaces survives and stands like a cathedral of the industry on the landscape. The Red House Glass Cone is an awesome sight that makes you feel as close to the beauty of canals as any of the greener and leafier miles ahead nearer the outskirts of the Black Country and Stewponey Wharf. This is a fascinating walk with a friendly local feel, but an extraordinary charisma lies in its working past. The ugly duckling of walks - unforgettably beautiful. Don't miss it.
About the Stourbridge Canal
Length: 5¼ miles Town Arm: 1¼ miles Locks: 20 Aqueducts: 1 Tunnels: 0 Engineer: Thomas Dadford Completed: 1816 Reason built: To link the Dudley coalfields with Stourbridge glass manufacturers & onward to the river Severn. Fell into decline in the 1940s then reopened in 1967    
Walk 08 Delph Locks to Stourton Junction
Approx distance: 5¼ miles Stourbridge Canal
Start: Delph Locks Grid ref: SO917863 Finish: Stourton Junction Grid ref: SO861851  Our walk starts by the bottom lock of Dudley No.1 Canal's Delph Locks, known locally as the 'Nine Locks', although rebuilt as just eight in the 1850s after subsidence problems. Delph Road, which runs parallel with the Dudley No.1 Canal & crosses it just here, is often called the 'real ales riviera' of Dudley, due to the amount and variety of pubs along it.
At first the canal is tree-lined with the odd glimpse of houses and flats appearing through or above the trees, becoming more industrial up to Bowen's Bridge as small factories line one side of the canal, moored boats in front of them, before returning to leafy green dominance. The canal widens as it turns the corner to Leys Junction, where the Stourbridge carries on to the left while the short Fens Branch heads off right, to the Fens Pool Nature Reserve. The first of the Stourbridge Sixteen Locks is at the junction, with a couple of striking storage tanks next to it. Cross over the bridge to continue down the flight on the opposite side. Greenery on your right conceals the entrance to Buckpool Nature Reserve and, after the next two locks, the welcome sight of the Samson and Lion pub. As you walk down the next few locks, the dramatic scene with the Red House Glass Cone in the distance opens out by the Dock general stores and Dadford's Shed - a good place to linger and look at the old working boats before continuing down past the Cone. To visit (see 'Don't Miss'), go under the road bridge and turn back on yourself up to the road. Continuing down past the old warehouses (soon to be transformed into housing), the views open out ahead of you as you approach Wordsley Junction, where the canal continues straight ahead and the short Town Arm leads off left towards Stourbridge.
Well worth a diversion, the Town Arm is lined with warehouses & evidence of the glass industry including signs for Tudor Crystal & Ruskin Glass Centre. Less used, an abundance of water lilies adds a peaceful ambience as it ends by moorings at the Bonded Warehouse.
From here to Stourton Junction, the canal becomes more rural again, with open fields, trees, the odd glimpse of the river Stour below the canal, and evidence of residential areas only reappearing as you near the four locks leading down to the junction where the Stourbridge meets the Staffs & Worcs.
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Where to stay
Canalside cottages
Canalside hotels
Canalside pubs & inns
Holiday hireboats nearest to the Stourbridge Canal
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Our guidebooks are packed full of ideas, colourful photos, and some of the best highlights we've found along the canals...
Find out more >> Don't miss
Red House Glass Cone
Half way up the Stourbridge lock flight stands the  Red House Glass Cone, 100ft tall, like a cathedral of the glass industry on the skyline. It's one of only four surviving cones in Britain, and one of the most complete cone sites in Europe.
Don't resist having a look inside - it's now a museum and visitors can stand right where furnaces used to burn. From inside the cone the sweat of the Industrial Revolution is tangible, especially if you look upwards from the centre through the bricked tunnel to the sky. This is a place where you can let your imagination run wild. Cut glass and Art Deco-inspired pieces would have been unaffordable for glassmakers working insufferable bone-burning hours, and this place was probably more like Hell's flames to them, than the breathtaking beauty it is today. You can have a cup of tea in the museum's canalside cafe and, if you sit outside, you'll see the back door where raw materials of coal and sand were once unloaded from the water, and cargoes of finished glass loaded back onto narrowboats. On the opposite side of the water, spot the bridge to nowhere. Along the Stourbridge you'll find several blocked-off boat entrances like this to long-gone ironworks and other factories. Did you know?
Secrets of the past
The Bottle and Glass pub that once stood beside the Stourbridge 16 Locks was taken down brick by brick and reconstructed, as a working pub, in the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley. Fact file
Train info
Nearest train: Stourbridge Junction & Stourbridge Town
Bus info
National Rail Enquiries T:08457 484950 Traveline T:0871 2002233
Nearest Tourist info point: Kinver (in Just Petals shop) T:01384 877756
Red House Glass Cone
Open all year Mon-Sun 1000-1600 inc. Bank Hols
T:01384 812750 redhouse.cone@dudley.gov.uk
International Festival of Glass Held every two years, the next festival will take place between 27-30 August 2010 in & around Stourbridge
T:01384 399410 info@ifg.org.uk more... IBuckpool & Fens Pools Nature Reserves Stourbridge Canal T:01384 812780
Boat trips Blackcountry Man T:01384 375912 fmcblackcountryman@blueyonder.co.uk
3-hour cruise April-Oct Sundays 1430 from Bonded Warehouse. Also special trips & charters 
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the consumer mayhem that it so successfully created in the 18th-century Industrial Revolution. The towpath trails effortlessly from shopping heaven into industrial landscape, and then prettier green pockets humming with wildlife and narrowboats.
