Canal Boating – Avon
Ring
Following a restorative week in London, we headed up to the
small historic village of Wootton Wawen, just out of Stratford on Avon, to pick
up a narrow boat from Anglo Welsh Boats for the start of a two week trip around the Avon
Ring. The basic ring is a circular route of 109 miles (175 Km), with 129 locks
to keep the boater busy. The waterways of the Avon Ring are:
- River Avon
- River Severn
- Worcester and Birmingham Canal
- Stratford-on-Avon Canal
We also added a side trip up to and from Birmingham, and travelled via an alternative way to Worcester using the Droitwich Canal. This had been closed in 1939 after declining since the end of WW1, but was
re-opened in 2010. The Ring includes the famous Tardebigge flight of locks (30
locks in 2 miles, closely followed by another 6 in the Stoke Prior flight), the
longest flight of locks in the UK.
Our narrow boat was the Silver Crest, 64 feet long and 6’10”
wide, and surprisingly roomy inside for such a long skinny boat. The narrow boats have a flat
bottom (no keel) and are built very solidly (weighing about 18 tons), to withstand
inexperienced drivers scraping the sides of locks and bridges, and occasionally
bouncing off the sides of them!
There are many canal-side pubs, so finding somewhere to stop
for lunch or dinner is not a problem. The boat had all the kitchen facilities
needed for self-catering as well.
We headed north from Wootton Wawen, stopping for the first
night alongside the towpath in a wooded area, after negotiating our first few
locks. More locks next day which necessitated a stop at a pub (the Boot Inn)
for an excellent dinner. We had been warned not to stop overnight on the
outskirts of Birmingham, so put in a longer day to reach the Birmingham Gas St
Basin the following night. Georgie and Andrew arrived by train on Friday night,
so we would have their help to do the Tardebigge locks over the weekend.
Birmingham is a mixture of grimy industrial outskirts, lifted by some excellent re-developments in the inner city, which include the canal basin itself
and a nearby brand new library, the largest in Europe! On Saturday morning we
headed off down the Birmingham-Worcester canal, including the 2.5 Km long Wast
tunnel. We entered this and could see a dim light in the distance – this turned
out to be a boat coming the other way, not the light at the end of the tunnel!
The tunnel is just wide enough for two boats to pass (slowly and carefully)
with a few layers of paint being donated to the tunnel sides.
We arrived in Tardebigge and moored for the night just before
the top lock, then repaired to the pub to fortify ourselves for the next day’s
work. The guide book suggests 7 hours to complete the flight – with Penny driving
and the rest of us running, cranking paddles and pushing lock gates, we managed
it in four and a half hours, leaving plenty of time to have a drink at the Boat
and Railway Inn before Georgie and Andrew caught a cab back to Birmingham for
the train back to London.
Next day Pen and I headed on towards Worcester, but took a
detour via the Droitwich Canal. The environmental conditions for re-opening
this canal included leaving large amounts of canal side vegetation for the wildlife.
The result is that you push through a narrow channel with deep reeds on either
side, with clouds of mossie/midgie looking insects – however, these were polite
English mossies and did not bite. After a night moored among the deep weeds, we
reached the Severn River at the end of the Droitwich, and headed into our first
river lock – huge compared to the narrow canals, and operated by a lock keeper –
luxury!
We chugged down the Severn through Worcester, with another
lock at Diglis, where the Birmingham Worcester canal joins the Severn, then on
to Tewkesbury, where the Avon and Severn are joined. The only commercial traffic
on the river these days comprises day cruise boats and an aggregate loading/unloading
operation south of Worcester. At Tewkesbury there is another lock operated by a
lock keeper, who was also a font of tourist info. We visited Tewkesbury Abbey –
as big as many cathedrals, and wandered around the pretty historic town itself.
After dinner at the Black Bear Inn (oldest pub in Gloucestershire), and a good
night’s rest, we chugged on up the Avon River. The Avon locks were a lot of
work – twice the width of the narrow locks, with extra, and larger gates to
close. Each lock has to have a weir to carry the river overflow around the
lock, so it is imperative to avoid taking a wrong turn or getting dragged over
the weir. Despite these manifest perils, we managed to get to Pershore that night,
where there is another (albeit smaller) Abbey, an historic bridge, and where we
had dinner at the excellent Belle House restaurant.
Next day we chugged through the picturesque and quaintly
named village of Wyre Piddle which was the home village of Claude Choules, who
was born in Pershore on 3 March 1901 and became the last surviving male veteran
of World War I. He moved to Australia in 1926 and died in Perth, Western
Australia on 5 May 2011, aged 110.
We stopped overnight at Bidford on Avon, before the final
leg into the Bard’s birthplace. We managed to get a mooring in the Avon right
opposite the Royal Shakespeare Company’s large new theatre, a short walk over
the old Tramway bridge into the old town. Stratford upon Avon is a lovely city,
and even with the autumn cool weather, full of tourists from all over the world.
Georgie joined us on Friday night and after some sightseeing on Saturday
(church where Shakespeare is buried, oldest pub in Stratford, and other similarly
important sights), we headed off on Sunday to start the 17 lock journey towards our end point at Wootton Wawen. We stopped near Mary Arden’s house (Shakespeare’s Mum) for lunch
and for Georgie to catch a cab back to Stratford. Following a rainy night Pen
and I completed the final leg back to Wootton Wawen, passing over one very long
aqueduct (crosses two roads and a railway line) and one short aqueduct just at
Wootton Wawen itself. We visited the 9th century Saxon church in the
village, had fish and chips at the Navigation Inn, and a good night’s rest before
catching the train back to London. Great trip, very relaxing most of the time,
with a bit of drama and exercise provided by the locks. The boat survived
intact, minus some paint!
