New canal strange locks

I've spent the last two days making my way south from Penkridge on the Staffordshire and Worcester canal, another stretch of canal which is new to me.  The weather has been mostly dry with the odd shower and cold wind.  When the sun is out it's lovely and I'm enjoying exploring a new waterway and collecting a few more logs along the way. The chainsaw was a good investment and I guess I've already collected around £30 worth of free logs.

I've covered 21miles and 21 locks including the very unusual Bratch locks.  I've described before the two types of locks, normal locks which have gates at the top and bottom and a length of canal, called a pound, between each one.  The other is a staircase lock where the bottom gate of one lock is the top gate of the next.  These require side pounds to hold water released from the upper lock to fill the lower lock.  Bratch locks are a unique combination of the tow as they are a set of 3 individual locks but are separated by only a few feet.  In the photo below the boat is in the middle of the 3 locks and the top gate is visible in front of the bridge.  However the closed bottom gates of the upper lock can be seen through the bridge and there is only10 feet between the two. I believe these are the only locks of this configuration.  The locks also have a rather unusual octagonal lock keepers house.

A little further down is a pair of staircase locks with an unusual ornate cast iron footbridge.  It's the first I've seen one like this and finding these little gems of architecture is one of the joys of travelling the canals.

I expect to reach Kidderminster tomorrow where I'll spend a day or two before continuing on to join the river Severn at Stourport and heading on to Worcester by the middle of next week where I'm looking forward to catching up with some good friends. 

And I'll leave you with a little puzzle.  The canal towpath often switches sides and I've only just realised, after 5 years afloat, why this is.