Leaving my Air BnB flat this morning after breakfast I spent an age making sure I had left everything clean, if I was leaving a hotel or B & B I would not take as much trouble yet the Air BnB charges are just as much as a hotel room. A fairly easy day today although my feet complained, as they were not forced into boots yesterday they thought the holiday was over.
I soon came to an outlet from a sewage works with a big fence and the sign “No photographs” and another saying “No drones”. I assume it is to stop people taking pictures of them polluting the river but firstly under what law could they prosecute me and if they did it would be an awful “Own Goal” which would highlight their polluting.
All the signs did was indicate where to watch, perhaps that is the idea and they have another outlet downstream with no notices or fences where they dump all the sewage and this one only releases clean water.
Three miles down stream from Bewdley is Stourport where the river Stour joins the Severn but perhaps more importantly is it also is where the Staffordshire and Worcester Canal joins the river. The canal opened in 1772 and connects the Severn with the Midlands and the Trent and Mersey canal thereby giving access to the north and east of England. The port is where goods could be unloaded from the larger vessels coming up the Severn onto narrow boats. Now of course it is full of holiday canal boats and the basin is leisure area with pubs, restaurants and a permanent funfair. Picture at the top of the page.
Before the canal was built Stourport was just two or three houses on the side of the river so almost all of the town dates from after 1770.
In 1835 a decision was made to “canalise” the river between Stourport and Gloucester thereby making it easier to navigate. Prior to this boats often had to be dragged across sand or rock banks or wait until a high tide. A few years earlier a canal had been opened between Gloucester and the sea so it made sense to upgrade the river further upstream so now there are large locks (with lock keepers to operate them and quite large boats can travel up from Bristol to Stourport without difficulty.
I passed two locks today and a couple of marinas and there are plenty of 30-40 ft cruisers moored along the banks plus a couple in fields, presumably dumped by the last flood.
The introduction of locks and weirs prevented a fish called a twaite shad (no I had never heard of it either) to reach it’s spawning grounds and as a consequence it has become almost extinct. The Canal and River Trust are spending millions of building multi step fish ladders round the Severn weirs to help them pass, the one in the picture at the bottom of the page has just been completed. Apparently salmon don’t need help, they can leap the weirs without difficulty.
The picture shows my pub for the night, the more observant of you will notice a snag. I am on the opposite bank and there is no bridge. I knew this when I booked but it was a bit frustrating to have to walk ¾ mile to a bridge and ¾ mile back on the other side. Off to the big city tomorrow - Worcester.