Not a wasted trip

The phone call from Mr Wilson Jnr didn't come last night, so we assumed that was that and we would have to find some other way of repairing or replacing our pram hood cover. When the morning's rain stopped we walked into Kinver village to post our referendum votes, bought a few groceries, and had a slightly early lunch before packing up to make our way back to Great Haywood. We needed to turn Erin Mae, so sauntered down to find the winding hole south of Kinver. It wasn't quite where the guide implied, but was worth the wait. Winding hole with summer house and floral border!

Coming back to Kinver lock, what should we see but NB Matthew Flinders, which occupies a marina berth just three down from Erin Mae's. They must have arrived while we were winding.

We drew attention to ourselves, but nobody appeared, so we pushed on up the lock. Another boat was coming the other way, and my best beloved got chatting the way she does, with the subject turning to boat covers. It transpired that just yesterday they had had a cover mended by Wilson's, and they gave us Keith Wilson's mobile number. We rang him – and he said he'd be with us in 5 minutes!

It seems that Keith himself, having been simply an employee and not a director of the company that defaulted, had been able to set up on his own account. He had absolutely no obligation, of course, to do anything about our cover, but it was something he accepted. He took it away there and then, repaired the section where the fabric had torn and had it back with us after an hour. I think that deserves an honourable mention on this blog – accepting corporate family responsibility when he didn't have to.

So our trip down to Kinver was not wasted, after all. We've started the return journey, but are taking a slight detour to see Stourbridge, since we didn't go up the Stourbridge Town arm when we passed three years ago.