Carpet City

Kidderminster once was England's carpet city; today it just has a Carpet City retail shed. It's a familiar story and we, like most boaters, transited through the town with just one intention - to stock up at the canalside Tesco at 'Weaver's Wharf'.
Kidderminster does seem to have suffered less badly than some in the transition from manufacturing to shopping as its raison d'etre. There's less decay to be seen though its replacement can make you grind your teeth in frustration at lost opportunities. The mass of new housing on the approach is the ubiquitous Tesco school of architecture, crammed together and surely destined to be the slums of the 22nd century if they last that long.
Then come the retail sheds and fast food outlets - all the usual suspects - before the canal ducks under the rting road at Kidderminster Lock and emerges at Weaver's Wharf where a huge carpet warehouse has, I have to concede, been given a decent make-over to become a giant Debenhams.
Shopping done and the town left behind unvisited, we headed on to our destination at Stourport, the great inland port created by Brindley to link his new canal to the Severn and ultimately the sea.