Category: Cruising

A city with a very interesting history. It has a number of self guided walks but we also had a tour with Guide Frank who was very knowledgeable Here are some of the things we saw and heard about. Firstly Beatrix Potter who had family in the town and frequently came to visit

Charles II

The statue now resides in an obscure position beside a block of 1960s flats

Robert Raikes who began the Sunday school movement

And one of the schools pupils

The pnerhaps not as well known to us as to Mr Dyson

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The Judges Lodging is now a self catering holiday let

Ignore the Costa signs and look up at the embellishment on the upper walls

And above the jewellers and clockmakers are these amazing figures

And so on to the New Inn

One member of staff, seeing our interest, kindly showed us a very fine bedroom with amazing plasterwork on the ceiling.

A lovely park bench just too dirty to sit on! We probably need people to act on the poster below

The Cathedral is stunning. We arrived to find a rehearsal in progress so that added to the atmosphere

I love cloisters and these are truly magnificent

Cloister garden

Edward II

Some other non royal, but interesting, people are noted here. Below is the founder of the Imperial War Graves Commission

The composer of the american national anthem

And the founder of the WEA

And because I am reading Bernard Cornwells The last Kingdom Series I was interested in the Saxon christians and the Lady of the Mercians Aethelflaed

The crypt

I suppose it was safer here than in London.

So that completed our afternoon tour but we had to return the following day for the tower tour.

View of the entrance above and below note the solar panels and cloister garden

And you can just see part of Matilda by North Warehouse

Well worth the climb!

Cathedral entrance. A good choice of plants and so much better that a car park!

Gloucester lock has been closed for repair for some time. Here are some shots of it…..We counted 13 workman and a couple of divers

Even BBC local radio became interested…The cost has escalated of course….

Moored next to Towpath Tipples narrowboat selling fruit wines and ciders

Viking river cruises????? First spotted this cruise ship at Sharpness

National Waterways Museum more of this later

Sketch from the museum

Signpost points to the Panama Canal to the left and the Falkirk Wheel to the right. Haven’t seen the Panama Canal yet but heard a lot about it from fellow towpath volunteer Joe

Trying for more artistic shots!

Had to leave this mooring as our 48 hours were up and we are law abiding boaters so off to next to Sula

A seven/Severn bedroom home available at £395,000 Not bad!

A bright and sunny morning we left Saul Junction at 9.40. Here are a few photos. An abandoned barge sporting an excellent crop of reeds

Another lovely lock cottage

Always something amusing!

Still a lot of timber yards along the canal bank

A smart Sainsburys with four hour mooring and coffee shop on first floor overlooking the canal

Approching the dock area you pass Llanthony Secunda priory, the Sula and Glos college. Then on to the Llanthony swing bridge

Moored in Gloucester Dock at quarter to twelve. Clouds gathering and showers forecast…….

And a happy first birthday to Harry Ashton

Left Patch Bridge and arrived at Saul Junction just an hour later following a large dredger. There was only one other boat moored on the Visitor Mooring which surprised us as this semed a popular place on our road recce

Flour mill

Had a good chat with Richard and Polly the excellent volunteers at the Visitor Centre over a complimentary coffee

Very disappointed to find such a dirty laundry room. It is supposed to be cleaned daily. CRt need to sort this out with the cleaning firm they employ

Cruise ship about to go through the lock

Felt rather smug when reading these notices. Just done our 10,000 steps for the day and were carrying shopping!

Frampton on Severn boasts the longest village green in Britain. It has a cricket pitch and pond

Some lovely houses too

Carol read this notice carefully!

Notice it was the birthplace of Rosamund Clifford who was mistress of Henry II (1154-1189) son of Matilda!

Had a great chat with the bricklayer who was repairing the wall

Always take you tray indoors when you have finished eating or this happens! Have you ever tried this?

Trying to capture the sunset

Walked down to Slimbridge and arrived just before 10.30. It has changed since my last visit in about 1994! Much more greenery more ponds and lakes and considerably more building. Also more “family” atractions that I am not keen on & more at home in a theme park but then they need to raise money……

A selection of what we saw follows

Lots of goslings

Mandarin ducks are so pretty

Peter Scott

Tony managed to capture this mouse in his feeding bowl

Interesting way to capture birds

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And thinking of theme parks there were a series of ducks……

If you are fan of Countryfile you will recognise the person in the photograph!

At closing time we had not seen everything…… Pity they don’t give a ticket that permits another visit as happens at Windsor Castle and Eden Project as we would have returned the following day to finish off and probably spent more money!! And note we always Gift Aid our tickets!

Morning drizzle but as we only encountered the two swing bridges we managed to stay relatively dry. We saw the swan nesting alongside the second swing bridge. Moored at Patch to visit Slimbridge. Had an an excellent lunch at The Tudor Arms Inn. We sat indoors unlike our recce in February when we dined alfresco!

Stormy sky

Wildlife notice

A bird in the hand is worth two in a bush so goes the old proverb. It’s probably referring to pheasants!

This amused us. There is a Monday to Friday only school bus.

One of the Willow Trusts boats

An early start for this cruise ship at 9.30 came down to Sharpness to turn around. We were still having breakfast!

An early morning walk through the marina

Past the lifeboat station and wind turbine – a great landmark as you come upriver

On to the Vindicatrix memorial

Then retreated indoors as the rain began. Stormy sunset

In the afternoon we decided to walk up to Purton to reach our ten thousand steps for the day. We first encountered the old railway that crossed the canal and river until 1960

The bridge over the canal had to be able to swing to let large vessels reach Gloucester

Disaster struck in 1960 when two ships missed the canal entrance, carried on up the Severn and hit the rail bridge over the River Severn. The boats were carrying oil and the first ship exploded. Five men died This picture shows the result of the collision. The bridge was demolished

Caught a glimpse of a train running alongside the river on the track above

Then we came to the ships graveyard. Ships were beached to protect the shore and stop the canal bank being eroded

All the ships are noted with their position and each one has its own plaque. A nice touch

On a more cheerful note a resident of Purton has made this little canalside grotto to collect money for The Willow Trust. A charity that runs daily trips on two large boats for disabled groups.

Purton is a tiny village with two swing bridges and a helpful bridge keeper. Nick. He recommended a visit to the church

It has an amusing poem to ask for donations. Needless to say we made a donation!

And simple flowers

Our step count was 9,324!!! Must try harder!

Our second sea crossing, coincidentally is two years to the day since crossing The Wash. Not a seal in sight just logs and debris.

Up at 5.45 to be ready to enter the lock at 6.45. Light hazy cloud, 13.8 degrees, pressure 995mb. Lifeboat still moored! Little fishing boat left the lock first. Beware of traffic from Portbury Dock!

Pilot Carl was in charge.

The first bridge to go under was the Second Severn Crossing

I never realsised how much it curved

Approaching the old bridge

You can just make out the former service station

It was turned into offices and Tony worked there for a while. I suspect he spent some time gazing out to sea!

The sea was reddish brown thanks to all the mud. The tide at Avonmouth was 12.9 metres, that is forty two and a half feet! This is higher than normal!

Approaching Sharpness

Notice how Matilda is coming into the lock entrance at an angle and at high speed

Ropes are lowered down to secure the boat. Matilda is in the smaller lock below not the one above which is for huge ships. It takes 1 hour 20 minutes to fill

A bridge swing to leave the docks

Sharpness Marina

Moored up on the Sharpness Visitor Moorings at 10.28. Able to relax now although it was a very smooth voyage. Definitely needed a pilot. Thank you Carl. He even gave us a plaque!