Back in August our journey north continued upstream on the River Severn. We enjoyed an overnight stop on the pontoon at Upton, a very pretty little town, built up to take advantage of river trade, and the fact that one of the few bridges that spanned the river for many miles.
Upton upon Severn
That river trade is still in evidence as we realised when a heavily laden barge thundered past us. These are the 350 tonne Cemex aggregate barges that plough up and down steam all day, to both a processing plant and then onto the ready mix cement plant near Gloucester
Aggregate extraction, river transport is still the most efficient and greenest option.
We gave them a wide berth if we saw one approaching, and we carried on cruising up to Worcester.
Diglis bridge, Worcester
We had planned to leave the river and moor in town, but, surprise surprise there was a problem with one of the locks, so we bagged another 48 hour pontoon mooring. And with a view of the cathedral it was a good decision.
We have friends who live in Worcester, so it was nice to be invited into a home for a cuppa and cake for a change. We made a few more friends in Worcester during our 2 days, as 80 penguins were also exploring the city as part of a fund raising initiative for the local hospice. https://waddleofworcester.co.uk/
I think I saw about 20 of them on my waddle around town. They were auctioned off in October and raised £330,000. They were all fun to look at and even more fun was seeing the smiles on the faces of the children enjoying them
Especially for the big kids
As boaters we still get excited seeing kingfishers along the cut, but they’re notoriously hard to spot. And sadly this is one i didnt spot.
Beautiful though it may be, the 30 miles cruising upstream on the Severn to Worcester is too far for us to do in a day. Our Gloucester Dock Lockie recommended mooring at the Lower Lode Inn just before Tewksbury. It’s nice and peaceful and the food’s good …..
Not sure where the sun had gone, but otherwise it was perfect
And he was right, a whole pontoon to ourselves, with a pretty willowherb garden and a whacky sculpture on the flood post, (is it really possible for the river levels to rise that high?- the answer is yes) so we moored up and went for an obligatory pint to check if we needed a reservation for dinner. I even took my knitting. (If you look closely at the header photo, you’ll see a spinning wheel in the upstairs window of the pub)
But the bar maid said…. “if you want a table grab it now to stake your claim and order your food before 5:30….” sure enough, half an hour later we were over run, motor bikes and bikers in all shapes and sizes
I’m not going to attempt to describe the bikes, I’ll just share some photos. I admit to knowing very little about bikes, but the atmosphere was amazing, (although I’m not sure that’s how I’d describe the noise)
It was one of the Cotswold bikers weekly meets and it wouldn’t surprise me if there were over 500 bikes.
We chatted to several people and we were taken on a tour looking at different wheels and chassis and to admire the shiny chrome and leathers
The Gloucester and Sharpness canal was completed in 1827 in order to provide a safer transit than the dangerous tidal Severn estuary. Although only 16.5 miles long it was once the deepest and broadest canal in the world. It was a major route for goods being brought in from overseas, there was an oil tanker delivering to Gloucester and in 1937 two submarines also made the journey inland. Commercial traffic more or less ceased by the mid 1980s but the largest inland hotel boat in UK, the Edward Elgar still uses it regularly.
Just a bit bigger than Firecrest
It’s a fascinating waterway for us with lots of unfamiliar boats making it home
Dutch Barges, Pirate Galleons, Yachts and little launches
lot of the journey south you can look to the west and see the river running close to the canal, and the Welsh hills in the distance.
Glimpsing the big River
The proximity of the river and canal proved to be a constant source of worry, as any breach would have rendered the canal unusable. At Purton, there was little more than the width of the towpath between the two during a high spring tide. When the river bank collapsed in 1909 a plan was devised to create a tidal erosion barrier Between 1909 and 1965, ships and boats that had reached their sell by date were “hulked” by towing them up to Sharpness then releasing them to be carried up the bank to Purton at high tide. They were then holed and left to fill up naturally with silt, much in the same way that stone groins protect coastal beaches.
Only visible at low tide
A total of 86 known vessels were hulked, including Severn Trows, Kennet Canal Barges, Schooners and some WWII ferrocement barges.
Tread carefully cause you don’t know what’s lurking in that grass
Nowadays, the “Purton Hulks” would be preserved as historic boats as there are so few of them left. Burocracy stands in the way of doing so now, as they are neither covered by the “Preservation of Wrecks” act because they aren’t on the sea bed and they aren’t classed as “Ancient Monuments” because they aren’t on land. Although since 1999 an enthusiastic team of Friends has been doing what they can to record what they can and the tales these ships can tell. Our favourite story, was the Katherine Ellen a schooner that was impounded for gun running to Ireland in the 1920s. But the most impressive to look at now are the ferrocement barges
Hard to imagine a boat made of concrete
It really was a surreal and quite emotional sight seeing all these boats at what is the largest Ships Graveyard in Britain. It’s not the safest place to walk, around because there are metal ribs and sink holes camouflaged by the grass, but nothing that common sense and respect can’t handle.
A poignant image that such a splendid boat will rot away to nothing in time.
Sad though it is that most of them are now lost, they have served their purpose and the canal is safe. For most narrowboaters, Sharpness is the end of the line. You can walk along to the disused lock and stand in awe as the tide swirls around.
Now that’s a lockies cottage with a view
And there is a tidal basin and dock yard which provides access onto the river. Some intrepid travellers, engage a pilot to take their narrowboat out onto the estuary and down to Bristol, like our friend Jo did this summer, but not for us. The currents and tides can be legendary at certain times of the year when surfers ride the Severn Bore. We were quite disappointed not to have arrived when the tide was more dramatic. But even so the size of the estuary is awesome, you can just about see the severn bridges in the distance.
Looking to the south with the Severn Bridges in the distanceLooking inland
We spent a week, there and back on the Gloucester and Sharpness canal. It was a novel change, the channel is deep and wide so highly efficient on fuel, the variety of boats is interesting and the mooring is rural and peaceful. There’s no locks to pass through and all the swing bridges are operated for you. It’s not somewhere we will rush back to because it’s so far off the main system, but we’d strongly recommend it as a short trip.
As we’d reached the last day of our 14 night ANT licence, we only had one night in Tewkesbury. Of course I made straight for the Abbey to enjoy one of my favourite sculptures in the country. It’s called Touching Souls and depicts 4 children sitting in a circle with their feet touching. Their soles and their souls reaching out. It was created as a copy its Romanian artist Mico Kauffman, who sculpted the original for the United Methodist Church in Tewksbury, Massachusetts. The entire high street and town centre is interesting to walk down, with a merry mix of independent shops in olde world buildings which encourage you to look beyond the modern day window displays. And even after we first stopped here in 2017, I still rate the Gloucester Old Spot sausage, from Halfords butchers the best, and we’ve done a lot of research. I also like this gate to the garden of the Tudor House Hotel on the high street.
Where antiquity walks hand in hand with time and still retains its dignity, there is peace.
Whilst I was out exploring (and buying sausage for tea) Eric was prepping the boat ready for our trip down the big River Severn
We didn’t think our mud weights would cut it if we got into trouble on the Severn
We left the Avon at its confluence with the River Severn,
Scary and exciting adventure ahead
and as the river is now subject to a tidal flow, from now on all the locks are manned. Not only is the river big, but so are the locks.
Albert is a proper sea worthy barge, who was planning to continue onto the Severn Estuary
The scale of our surroundings certainly reminded us what a small cog we are in the grand scheme of things
You could build a marina inside Upper Lode Lock
We say this over and over again, we love the variety of waterways that we can cruise on, from some rather grotty backwaters of neglected canals, to picturesque rivers like the Avon and onto super highways like the Severn.
Poor Firecrest, we usually travel about 2.8 miles an hour today we reached 6, and could have gone faster
Going with the flow helped our journey time down to Gloucester. We made the 13 miles to Gloucester dock in about 4 hours.
A nice manageable sized lock to see us into the Historic Gloucester dock
