Workman Gardens in Evesham is a super place to moor,
lots to see and nice and close to walk over the bridge into town. I didnt expect to see a whale in Evesham, but there it was in the gardens, albeit a scaled down sculpture.
Crossing over the river into the town, we found ourselves in the Abbey gardens. The Norman Abbey was built in the early 700s, it was huge, almost a town in its own rights, not only a place of worship but providing employment, health care and education and a reason for Evesham to thrive. Shamefully, it was razed to the ground during the 16th century dissolution of the monasteries, but the newly built clock tower was saved.
There’s some fascinating history in Evesham, most famously the Battle of Evesham where Simon De Montfort was fighting for democracy, in the belief that the common people would be less resistant to paying taxes if they had representatives negotiating on their behalf, as opposed to the king, (Bad King John at the time) just helped himself.
We’d been leap frogging down the River Avon with some lovely narrowboats all chug chugging their way to the river festival and a Russell Newby convention (big traditional thud thud engines, that are beautifully maintained and usually housed in an engine room for ventilation, ) despite Eric having a beer belly, he doesn’t smoke a pipe, have a beard or keep his brass polished so we moored at the opposite end of the gardens so as not to draw too much attention. But it looked like we were going to be in for a lively weekend
As more and more boats appeared, signs went up on the towpath saying “closed from 9am Saturday morning” We were a bit confused by this, what was closed? There was reserved mooring notices at one end for the RN boats, but nothing to indicate if it was the towpath, park or the mooring that was closed. And none of the organisers seemed to be able to give us an answer. Feeling a bit disgruntled we untied the ropes and cruised on, luckily only as far as the pontoon 200m away. And we soon realised why as the cruisers emerged from their marinas to join the party. We were treated to an array of boats in all shapes and sizes
But the best one had to be the Dutton amphibious car enjoying a trip out.
Despite big expectations that the River Festival would be fun to watch, it turned out to be a bit of a damp squib, all the action took place on the short frontage of the gardens so we hardly saw any of it. At least the steam boats were all fired up when they returned home late afternoon
I stayed up way beyond my bedtime to watch the fireworks only to realise too late that the trees were in the way and I should have been on the other side of the river.
Still, we’d had a nice few days in Evesham and been visited by friends who live locally. Look out Pershore, we’re coming your way.
