Jane’s Walk 2024 – Day 11
Today, we are joined by a good friend and his golden Labrador Tattie-Bogle, after the Scots name for a scarecrow.
Instead of walking down the river’s edge, the path takes us down the Gloucester and Sharpness canal. The canal here is much wider than the average, built to navigate large freight around the tidal Severn with its dangerous mud flats. We pass no locks on this stretch, and all the bridges are on a swing system that is either operated manually or electronically to allow tall boats through.
The rain has started and we are a pretty bedraggled group when we stop for lunch at a pub in Slimbridge, including 2 dripping dogs. This was not helped by Tatty jumping into the canal and then having to be dragged out by her collar up the concrete sides.
We are joined for some of the afternoon by our host tonight.
I had hoped we might see some interesting waterfowl around here so close to the wildfowl sanctuary of Slimbridge, but I am told that it is too early for the migratory season when large numbers of birds come in.
The rain eases up in the afternoon and we have a pleasant walk along the canal to Purton. The river and the canal are by now only a few hundred yards away from each other. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were concerns that the river erosion would affect the sides of the canal, and from 1909 until 1963, it was decided to stop this erosion by stranding old redundant boats along the side of the canal, known as the Purton’s Ship’s Graveyard. There are now around 50 of them, all silted up together, forming an effective barrier against the tidal river. All their names and tonnage are on a sign by the canal as a record of who and what they were.
A little further on, we pass under two huge stone pillars, all that is left of the 1879 railway bridge that spanned the 3/4 mile across the river, bringing coal to Sharpness. In 1960, on a foggy night, two ships, carrying 395 tons of black oil and 354 tons of petroleum, collided with the bridge, respectively, causing an enormous explosion, bringing down two spans of the bridge and killing five crew members. The bridge was never rebuilt due to cost.
We arrive in Sharpness, which is the termination of the canal where the ships can re-join the river through a series of locks. At that moment, there is a violent thunderstorm, and we get soaked to the skin walking through the docks to the car which is prevented from getting closer to us due to traffic bollards. Our poor host has to contend with our soaking clothes when we arrive back in her home in Slimbridge
