This morning I was soon out of Gloucester and in the countryside, I guess the constant threat of flooding keeps the builders away.
The river winds its way towards the sea, it is now tidal with many treacherous sandbanks so in 1793 a decision to build a canal to bypass this bit of river was agreed. It did not go to plan and it was not until 1827 that the 16½ mile canal between Gloucester and Sharpness was opened. At 86ft 6in wide and 18ft deep, taking craft of 600 tons (with maximum dimensions 190ft long and 29ft wide), it was the biggest canal in England, a true ship canal. The canal takes a more direct route of course but today I stuck to the riverbank. You will also notice in the map a big loop which I cut across today, it is 9 miles long and I will tackle that tomorrow but as I am staying in Frampton two nights I won't need to carry my pack.
The ship canal and river almost meet again near Saul where the picture of the boat passing a swing bridge is shown. It was the site of the Battle of Whitminster Weir which you probably didn't cover in history at school, it occurred in 1833 between the owners of the local water mills and the operators of the canal.
The mill owners had agreed to supply water to the canal but became upset when their mill streams became silted so withdrew the agreement. Throughout May various gangs opened or closed the sluices and fought off the opposing sides men which culminated in a gang of 60 men (paid thugs) who arrived at 5.30 one morning and smashed the sluices and all the surrounding infrastructure beyond repair. In the end the canal company had to purchase the mills.
Elvers are juvenile eels, also know as glass eels, which migrate from the Sargasso Sea (that's just east of Florida and the Caribbean) to the River Severn. In the past so many elvers arrived at the River Severn in the spring that the leftover catch was spread over fields to fertilize the soil. But during the mid-1970s Britain’s elver population saw a sudden and very nearly total collapse. Stocks declined by 95% and the European Eel was put on the Red List and fishing banned.
In Frampton-Upon-Severn close to where I am staying there used to be an elver-eating competition, people would be given a pint of elvers, and whoever swallowed the most won although I don’t know if they were raw (alive) or cooked.
There was no clear reason for the sudden decline. Scientists looked to the shifting Gulf Stream, which carries the baby eels from the Sargasso Sea to Britain, parasites, changing water temperatures and the dams that were preventing the glass eels from travelling upstream to feed in fresh water but none explained the sudden decline.
A big surprise is that eel numbers have begun to rise over the past few years, just as suddenly and mysteriously as they declined. 2020 saw the biggest migration of elvers arrive in the UK for 20 years and in 2021 there have been even more.
So licences to fish have been issued and the fishermen will be waiting with their traditional hand-held nets for the tide, and the eels, to come in. The elvers hitch a lift on the bore, using the wave to travel upstream for maybe half an hour, when the wave ends, the elvers drop to the bottom, where the fishermen collect them with their nets. The elvers surrender themselves. The fishermen just stand there: they don’t even have to scoop, the elvers just fall into the net.
They are worth £150 per kilo so much more worthwhile than salmon fishing hence all the signs, most go to the Far East where they are considered a delicacy.
There is another eel like fish called a lamprey which inhabits the Severn but so as not to overload you with information I will save them until tomorrow.
Below is Frampton village green, I am staying in the pub which is the building on the right of the picture.