The Boat and River Severn and Avon

Saturday 27th May set off from Gloucester in Sue and Martin's narrow canal boat (58 feet long and about 7 feet wide) for Tewkesbury up the Severn River, 15 miles and then the River Avon to Stratford-on-Avon, another 25 miles.  The Severn is quite wide for canal boats and can be dangerous if windy but it was fine the day we travelled on it.


River Severn, this is probably the widest and is 15 miles long.  It has a swift current.

 We turned at Tewkesbury into the River Avon.

 

Approach at Tewkesbury into the lock and then into the River Avon.

Eckington Historic bridge, built in 1400's.

Boat moored at Comberton Quay

We moored the night at Comberton Quay, the only boat there, very peaceful.  Went for a walk around the nearby town of Great Comberton, a lot of old black and white houses with thatched roof's.  Very quiet for a Saturday night. 

Visited Sunday morning by these 2 white swans with 6 cynets on their backs !!!   There are white swans everywhere up the rivers or canals, they are protected.

White swans with  6 cynets on their backs.

Sunday continued up the River Avon passing through 4 locks, one at Fladbury, a very picturesque place with a mill at the lock.

The Mill, lock, weir and lock and Fladbury.  Every lock has a weir where the surplus river water goes over.

From Fladbury we continued up the river to Pershore where we went under 2 historic bridges before we got to the lock.

View of one Pershore historic bridge from under the other one.

Typical notice at each lock up the River Avon.  The river and the locks are maintained by the Avon Navigational trust and it costs them half a million pounds a year to do so.  There is a fee to use the river and the locks and this goes towards it.  The river and the locks were restored 40 years ago and this is ongoing.

Sue on the boat at the Pershore lock, the lock has filled.

At each lock it involves one person steering the boat in and out of the lock, the other person or persons have to close and open the gates and wind up and down the paddles to allow the locks to fill or empty.  The boat goes into the lock, the gates are closed behind it, the paddles at the front are opened to allow the lock to fill and the gates opened when it is fill.  It can be quite exhausting and hard to open and shut the big heavy gates but also fun !!!

When then stopped at Pershore for lunch, a roast pork lunch at the Miller's Arms and had a look around the town including a look through the Abbey, now the Parish Church.

The Pershore Abbey.

We went onto Evesham for the next 2 nights, spent the day there on Monday while Martin went back to Gloucester to attend a funeral.