I thought I would like Bewdley and it does have some very nice buildings and an excellent museum more of which below, but it has two serious blights.
Firstly the road which runs through the centre and over the bridge is incredibly busy, what is worse on sunny weekends every middle aged male who has a ridiculously noisy car (you know the sort of thing, Ferrari’s, Lamborghini’s or Caterham 7’s) or a motorbike decides to drive through the town revving the engine to show off. There were a posse of about 100 Harley Davidsons yesterday afternoon, conversation was impossible.
Second - despite its genteel appearance the town has a nightclub and a large Wetherspoons which attract hen and stag parties, walking back from dinner last night at 8.30 was mayhem, goodness knows what it was like at midnight. Fortunately my little flat is away from the centre.
But as I mentioned the town does have a very good museum which is housed in The Shambles, it is mixed in with lots of little craft shops creating a nice atmosphere. There was a big display about Stanley Baldwin who was born in the town, it was all very positive and had a picture of him chatting with Churchill but by 1939 he had been branded “one of the guilty men” because of his support of appeasement.
Yesterday I mentioned the Severn Valley railway, it runs from Bridgnorth to Kidderminster and follows the same route I took next to the river, it was one of the first lines to be taken over by enthusiasts opening in 1970.
It runs a mixture of steam and diesel engines and even lets rookie drivers drive their steam engines, my sister Jill and her husband Neil kindly bought me a train driver experience day a few years ago, great fun (picture taken then). I had a walk round the station today including a splendid “gentlemen’s” urinal which was restored and then, according to the sign, opened by the Mayor of Bewdley, I do hope this was done by having a wee and not cutting a ribbon.
I have mentioned on several occasions about the river Severn floods, indeed you are probably getting bored with me keep mentioning it. I will try to avoid the subject from now on (this might be difficult in Tewksbury) but Bewdley suffers badly when it rains hard in Wales.
The house I am staying in is perhaps 20 feet above the current water level yet the windows and doors have slots in which boards are put when a flood is threatened and the waste pipes have one way valves so that the water does not flood the house from the sewer. These extra defences have to be put in place most years.
The previous bridge was washed away in 1795 and the replacement designed by Thomas Telford. It has three big spans and lots of little ones either side. This is to allow the floodwater to pass without straining the bridge. The new bridge cost £9,000 and was financed by tolls, after 36 years some local businessmen realised the accounts had not been published for some time and started to ask questions, it seems the building cost had been recovered and someone was now pocketing the income. A few weeks later the tolls were removed but there does not seem to be a record of who was taking all the money.
Tomorrow I load up the rucksack again and head south, not too far which will give me plenty of time to explore Stourport on Severn.