Workman Park to Barton Lock

There was a very important conversation going on in the park last night, the lady was still chatting away until at least 3am (I know this because the bell tower keeps very good time!), but by 3.30am she’d run out of air and gone home to find some more. The geese were awake good and early doing their best to summon some white sliced for breakfast. By 8am some of the locals obliged and got swamped with expectant beaks.

We considered trying to find something for a barbeque but we’d not spotted many fresh food shops yesterday. So we decided to wait to see what Bidford on Avon might have to offer on a Sunday afternoon.

Boats had been coming past as we had breakfast, several now familiar, maybe local and out to make the most of the sunny weekend. We joined in and pushed off passing under Workman Bridge before turning to the left towards the lock. Evesham lock marks where the Upper and Lower Avon traditionally met, now all cared for by the Avon Navigation Trust, but this wasn’t always so.

Improvements to the river began in 1635 with a series of locks and weirs making it possible to reach Stratford from the River Severn, and to within 4 miles of Warwick. The Upper Avon was prone to flooding and was abandoned as a means of navigation by 1877. The Lower Avon struggled on only really navigable upto Pershore by 1945. Restoration of the lower reaches began in 1950 and were completed in 1962. The upper river was a far more daunting task as most of the locks and weirs had disappeared. Work began in 1965 on the construction of nine new locks and 17 miles of river using mainly volunteer labour, this was completed in 1974 to be opened by the Queen Mother. The Upper Avon locks now seem to have two names, original names and those of sponsors who funded the works.

Next to the lock at Evesham stands a triangular building, a lock keepers house. This was once manned, but no longer. The lock was waiting for us, I hopped off, closed the gates behind Oleanna, passed the ropes round the bollards and was just doing the very first click of the top gate paddle when the bow of a boat came round the bend below the lock. They were just in time to share, so I gave them a wave and opened up a bottom gate to let them in. Immediately there were comments as to our colour schemes, NB Keyston asked if Oleanna was an Aintree boat. Both boats with dark blue cabin sides, cream roofs and red grabrails sat next to each other in the lock, the blues a different shade, one hand painted the other sprayed, one far cleaner than the other (I wonder which was which?!).

Normally on broad canals it is much easier sharing locks, no ropes are required and paddles can be opened without too much bumping going on. But we followed the guide lines, both boats roped up and the gate paddles carefully opened up together. Oleanna behaved better than NB Keyston, maybe we wound the paddles up a bit too quickly and should have taken it steadier. We both commented on how it had been a smother ride with just one boat in the lock, but one advantage was not having to walk round to open both gates before leaving.

We led the way for the next three miles. When the river rose last week this was the second section to close up to Offenham Lock, it wouldn’t have been nice trying to get past the big weir here with an increased flow of water. As we got near to a sharp right hand bend we of course started to meet boats coming towards us. But after counting pairs go past I realised that we’d be fine as there would have to be another lock fill and empty before any more boats came round the bend. Now in the heart of the Vale of Evesham green houses come right up to the river, filled with growing fruit and veg.

Offenham Lock was waiting for us, gates open and a family stood waiting to watch by the small lighthouse. Once both boats were in I enlisted the help of a young girl who was ever so keen to help with the gates, she asked if she could help at the other end too whilst her family waited by their car for us to finish. At only 2ft 10 deep the lock didn’t take much time to fill, just as well as only one gate paddle was working.

Here we parted ways with NB Keyston, they were stopping for lunch having been on the go longer than us. The moorings here looked nice, a good place to sit and wait for the river to go down, the lock cut having most facilities and sheltered from the weir. The only downside being that a pub across the other side of the river (less than 300ft away) is inaccessible from the moorings, heading south to find a crossing would give you a one way trip of around 9 miles for a pint.

Now on our own again we made our way up Robert Aickman (Harvington) Lock, diagonally across the top of the weir and carried on surrounded by countryside. All the reeds were filled with electric blue damselflies, flitting about in the sunshine.

Swans were showing off their fluffy cygnets and we saw our first big goose creche of the year, there must have been at least six lots of chicks all being guarded by their nannies, heads low to the water seeing us off. Several damselflies stopped and rested a while attracted by our grabrail, another mass suicide of flies still covering it.

At Marcliff Lock a boat was just pulling out above and a cyclist sat in the shade having a breather from the rays of the sun. This was to be the last of our locks for the day and the thought of some shade ourselves and some lunch was attractive. Moored boats meant we’d reached Bidford. There are quite a few moorings here, plenty outside pubs and then a stretch along the recreation ground. It was chocka! Boats breasted up, the park filled with cars and camper vans all having bbqs. There was one boat that we could have breasted up to, but they had two large woofers and then there was space outside one of the pubs, but our guide warned that it was shallow here. Only one thing for it, carry on.

Under the bridge and another three quarters of a mile to Barton (Elsie and Hiram Billington) Lock. Above here there were moorings on both side of the lock cut and only one boat moored up. We chose the land side for Tilly. A steep bank overgrown next to the mooring levels out above with a mown plateau before thick lush friendly cover reaches for what must be miles for a cat.

The day was really rather hot and our options for tea were few, mostly involving the cooker being on for sometime. Running through the contents of our depleted freezer I realised we’d just be able to manage a barbeque. Turkey steaks and sausages were left out to defrost in the afternoon warmth whilst Tilly explored her new kingdom, we stayed indoors sheltering from the sun.

By 7pm everything was fully defrosted, a sweet and sour marinade made for the steaks, some potatoes steamed with some peas and edamame beans all cooled and coated in garlic mayonnaise, followed by bananas with chocolate. Not a bad spread. As we ate and watched the sunset Tilly entertained us as she sprang around the grassy plateau catching more Yo-yo flies. Just as the sun had vanished behind the horizon we felt drops of rain, time to retire indoors.

5 locks, 8.75 miles, 2 locks shared, 1 shade seeking cyclist, 2 names for locks, 24 hrs only now, 1 assistant, 0 space in Bidford, 1 noisy park, 1 quiet mooring, 1 hire boat too far from a pub, 4 showers equals 2 more hours engine, 1 grassy plateau, 1 tasty improvised bbq, 4 hours into 6! 8 Yo-yos, 2 hot air balloons, 1 lovely evening, 1st horsefly bite Grr! lucky swept away in time.

River Levels at 9am (yesterday), today

Evesham, (0.819m), 0.648m

Stratford, (0.717m), 0.673m

Warwick, (1.168m), 1.14m

https://goo.gl/maps/HdDefcFo6V22

Craycombe Turn to Workman Park, Evesham

Tilly didn’t believe us when we said that there wouldn’t be any Yo-yo flies this morning, they only come out late afternoon, so she sulked for the morning on our bed.

Aim for the day was to reach Evesham, not far and to try a couple of chandlers for a fuse to get the bow thruster charging again.

The flow of the river had reduced a little this morning, so as we untied we weren’t swept out quite so fast from the mooring as had been expected but there was no need to push off.

Whilst on the train the other day I’d spotted a house on a hill with two large dishes. Today we passed it Wood Norton. A Victorian house once the home of Prince Philippe, Duke of Orleans, the last pretender to the throne of France. In early 1939 the BBC bought the site so that they could relocate operations away from London. Temporary buildings were added to the site to provide an emergency broadcasting centre. Specialised broadcasters were trained here to work with the resistance and special operations groups in Europe, sending encrypted secret messages in what appeared to be normal entertainment broadcasts. The BBC’s monitoring service was run from here until 1943. After the war it became a training school, but ready should a nuclear attack occur, in the 1960’s a new wing was built which houses a nuclear fallout bunker beneath it.  Now the house is run as a hotel and conference centre with the BBC still retaining it’s technical and operational training centre in the grounds.

Chadbury Lock our only one for the day showed us that the level was now in the green and hopefully will stay that way until we reach Stratford next week. Two chaps were out for a walk and helped with the off side gates. This lock was the first major task of the Avon Navigation Trust being totally rebuilt in 1952/3 helped by the Royal Engineers, the first civilian aid project carried out by the armed forces.

Half a mile on, Sanky Marine, our first thought for a fuse, we might have even filled up with diesel if their price was right. But they obviously weren’t interested in a narrowboat pulling in as only 10ft of service mooring was accessible by the diesel pump. So we carried on towards Evesham.

A mile further on we could see that Hampton Ferry was in use. Three long blasts of our horn to alert the Ferryman and we slowed down to wait for the wire to be lowered. Passengers got on the ferry which was then pulled across the river by hand to the Hampton side. The ferryman disappeared for a while, the wire dropped and then we got the thumbs up and could continue knowing that the cable was now on the river bed and not likely to fowl our prop.

The ferry has been in existence since the 13th Century, when the Benedictine Monks of Evesham Abbey wanted to be able to cross the Avon to tend a hillside of vineyards at Hampton. In 1929 the Huxleys moved to Hampton Ferry to operate both a smallholding market garden and the ferry the only link between Hampton and Evesham. They set up fishing contests, Eileen opened a cafe serving breakfasts to the increasing number of anglers which has now transformed itself into a restaurant. A campsite was added where asparagus was once grown, so Hampton Ferry is no longer just a ferry.

I’d studied Google maps last night to see which moorings would suit us best. The 48hr moorings nearer to Workman Bridge looked better than those nearer Abbey Bridge, the road being a little further away. As we passed the first moorings I’d been right to discount them, fixed pontoons with a narrow band of friendly cover up a steep bank, not ideal for a curious cat guaranteed to pounce. So we pulled in at Workman Gardens.

We walked up to Evesham Marina to visit the chandlers before they closed at 1pm for a fuse. Sadly, not mentioned on their website, the chandlers is only open by appointment on Saturdays and closed Sundays. We did manage to find a chap from the marina who said he could open the chandlers but would have no idea where they kept the fuses, so there was no point, a little like our walk! On the way back to the boat we tried at a garage, but had no luck there either. Mick had ordered one to be delivered to Pershore Post Office, but this had taken too long and still hadn’t been dispatched. We’ll try again in Stratford at the chandlers there. One good thing from our walk was coming across the Regal Cinema, art deco. Here you can go and see a film and have breakfast, the stalls are laid out with tables and the balcony has double seats. A big shame we didn’t fancy the film and it being the weekend the price was a bit dear.

This outside had potential, trees, big big trees, grass to run around on. But it just wasn’t any good at all! Yes there were ducks and geese to stalk but there were also far far too many people, some of them sitting right by the back of my boat! So I decided to keep an eye on them and sit as close to the outside as I could without actually being in it.

Abbeys seem to have been the vogue along the Avon although the one in Evesham faired the worst in the dissolution of the monasteries. The only buildings left of the second largest monastery in England is the bell tower and two parish churches, a small section of wall and an arch still stand too, but that is all. The bell tower marked the entrance and sturdily stands above Abbey Park ringing out its bells frequently. Two parish churches sit side by side with the grounds of the abbey.

St Lawrence was the first to be built originally in 1195, but the current building dating from the 15th Century being rebuilt in 18th Century. A calm light church, looked after by The Churches Conservation Trust, few services are held here anymore. With no heating it would be far too cold for anyone to endure during the winter. A solo choristers voice rang out around the building, the acoustics amazing as the singer was hidden in a wooden chest.

Across the way is All Saints, built 100 years later for a separate parish in Evesham. The atmosphere was so different, not helped by a chap sat having a very loud phone call about accommodation half in English half Polish. This felt very much like a normal parish church, carpeted nave, heating grills in the floor hardly surprising it was chosen to continue as the Parish church. We however preferred St Lawrences.

Back at Oleanna Tilly showed no interest in going outside again, preferring to sleep on the sofa. The warm weather meant that the parks on both banks were busy late into the evening, the bench nearest to us being fully occupied most of the time, we’ll move on in the morning.

1 lock, 4.28 miles, 2 chandlers closed, 3 beeps, 50p adults, 25p children, 1 park mooring, 1 deco picture house, 1 newspaper, 2 giant fenders, 1 clock tower, 2 parish churches, 1 field full of Christmas trees, 1 fed up cat, 0 Yo-yo flies!

https://goo.gl/maps/W8Sg26v44t72

Pershore Recreation Ground to Craycombe Turn

Time to move on. After chatting with NB Flying Pig and stocking up on a few items at Asda (just in case the river comes up again) we pushed off heading upstream again.

Not that far ahead  is Wyre Lock which sits close to Wyre Mill. The weir cut here is full of moorings and the Avon Navigation Trust’s Office is located here. Signs boast the lowest mooring fees on the Avon , all with hook up and water. Today in the sunshine it did look very pretty.

The levels board below the lock was in the green, a thing we hoped to see more of today. The lock was in our favour which should mean we can just pull straight in and then for me to climb a ladder, but I don’t trust my grip to do lock ladders, so we had to pull over for me to hop off. Above a hire boat was just arriving, they tied up and then held back. No offers to close gates or work paddles, I thought this a little bit odd, but each to their own. Wyre Lock is lozenge shaped and not very deep, 3ft 6”. The shape of it means that with a 58ft 6” boat you can’t get right into the side, so it took quite a bit of nudging back and forth before I couldn’t reach over far enough to hook up the bow line from the roof. With Oleanna secured I lifted the paddles slowly, she stayed put rising gently as a couple of chaps from the hire boat watched on.

Eventually the penny dropped, they weren’t waiting for the lock, but had pulled in on a 24hr mooring for lunch on the lock island, it just looked like a lock landing. The young chap offered to open up the gate for me and eventually he went to find a windlass to close the paddle, saving me a journey around the lock. At least it was ready for one of the four hire boats heading that way that we soon passed.

Wyre Piddle sits at the next bend of the river. Large houses each with their own moorings sit high above the river. Several new houses are going up along this stretch, suspect they aren’t in the affordable housing bracket!As you complete the bend you weave between a couple of islands, not that you’d realise it. Osier Island and Tiddle Widdle Island, what a great address that would make! Tiddle Widdle Island, Wyre Piddle, someone had a laugh when they named it.

The land now is low around the river and the blue skies made for a beautiful days cruise. Damselflies were out in their masses a couple stopped for a short break on our roof before floating off again.

The downside to the sun being out was that the tablet with waterway routes running on it kept suffering from heat exhaustion! We’d found a temporary route for a power cable, but it was getting too hot so stopped charging. We ended up moving it from side to side as the river twisted and turned positioning it in what shade we could find. We my need to fabricate it a little parasol so that it feels happier.

NB Chuffed came through this way about ten days ago and as soon as I saw the long rolling lawns down to the river I knew I needed to keep an eye out. The grass is all short, recently mown, but with no stripes up and down the hills as you’d expect from a traditional lawn mower, instead it looks like the operator had had a bottle of Jack Daniels, tracks all over the shop! But then I spotted the culpret, moving steadily along until it got too close to the waters edge. Here it paused then back tracked a little before swinging round and heading off in a new direction. A robot lawn mower. In fact there were at least three of them working away on the huge lawn. Hope they can find their way back home easily to recharge.

Fladbury Mill came into view sitting next to it’s unprotected weir. There is a narrow section leading up to the lock that you are meant to check is free from boats before entering, but you can’t see very far so we chanced it. The water coming over the weir was masses, Mick had to crank Oleannas engine up to get us through as she leaned over with the force of the water hitting us side on.

Ten days ago when NB Chuffed had passed the river level board was sitting high above the river, not even in the green. Today however we were most certainly in the amber a narrow band of about three inches between pleasant boating and not going anywhere! The lock was against us, so we had to be following someone as we’d passed about five hire boats going the other way this morning. Once empty, Oleanna tied up, she slowly raised in the lock.

Here you are advised to tie up as far away from the top gate as you can, when you open the paddles a plume of water arcs out across the chamber, if your boat is there to catch the water you could be in trouble!

It was quite late and we were both hungry so once out of the lock we reversed back onto the other side of the lock landing where the poles are painted blue (indicating a mooring). This was easier said than done, the water wanting us to carry on towards the weir and us preferring not to. Eventually we were tied up and able to have some lunch. Just next to us the Fladbury Ferry wires visible across the river and the ferry sitting waiting on the far bank.

Setting off from here was quite easy, the bow wanting to pull straight out and turn towards the weir, but we had other ideas and quickly hopped onboard to correct our course upstream. Under the railway bridge I’d passed over yesterday and past a golf course which was on a steep incline. Then after a mile the blue poles of a mooring came into view. Craycombe Turn is close to a busy road but considerably more rural than we suspect we’d find in Evesham so we pulled in. Except this wasn’t as easy as it should have been. Oleanna didn’t want to stay in at the side, the force of the current was pushing her out, luckily I was still on board as the centre line wasn’t going to be enough to pull her in. I brought the bow in and then the stern, but we really needed a line to be tied up before both of us were ashore as she really didn’t want to stay near the bank. It took us quite a bit to secure her, only to find the high flood safe poles were far too close together for our length.

Once we were happy we could relax. A quick check for cat safety and we decided that Tilly would be fine, just so long as she didn’t fall in as she’d be whisked away downstream before we knew it. I gave her a long talking to about the busy road and river before letting her out. Yada Yada Yada! Same old same old, if she thinks I listen to any of it! I was off into the long grass before she’d even finished. A bit noisy round here but the amount of dense friendly cover made up for it. There was plenty of pouncing to do.

As the afternoon went on Oleanna started to fill up again with fairies, a quick hoover round before bed would be needed again. I don’t think we’ve experienced quite so much Willow fluff before day after day. Tilly was keeping herself very busy. No need to be in amongst the friendly cover here. Bouncing up and down a bit like yoyos were masses of Mayflies, well that’s what I think they were. Tilly laid in the grass her head bobbing up and down in time with them. Occasionally one would land only to be pounced upon and munched. Others gave her the opportunity to practice her star jumps. She’d launch herself high into the air all four paws outstretched her tail wavering to guide her. Then she’d clap her front paws together hoping to knock a bouncing friend out of the air. Sometimes this worked and another one became a victim. It was just a shame she’s discovered Mayflies, who are only adults for a matter of a couple of days if that. The adults have no mouths so live off their reserves, the only things left to do in life is to fly and mate. If you are male then that is it, if you are female then you lay your eggs before you die. Some of course today had shorter lives.

Apologies if you’ve left a comment in the last few days. Normally I get an email informing me but something has been up with blogger. Carol from Still Rocking mentioned it in her post today, I then checked my awaiting comments box to find several I had no idea about. I know I’ve made comments on a couple of blogs recently which haven’t appeared, so if you are on blogger just check you haven’t got loads of comments awaiting moderation.

2 locks, 6.41 miles, 2 pints milk, 6 hirers watching on, 1 nice looking picnic, 4 more hire boats, 1 forceful weir, 1 green board, 1 amber, 1 late lunch stop, 2 canoes, 1 mooring on a bend, 1 very strong current, 265 yoyo flies, 5 pointed star jumps, 0 photos to prove it, 7 very tasty ones for my tea.

River Levels at 9am today

Pershore, 3.349m

Evesham, 0.755m

Stratford, 0.762m

Warwick, 1.244m

https://goo.gl/maps/v9zmXFfzwPP2

Pershore

With storm clouds collecting over the country I hoped that I’d manage to get to the station and across London to my meeting without getting a soaking today. All day I only encountered a bit of gentle drizzle much to my relief.

I’d decided on an early train to give myself some leeway rather than just having enough time to reach Fulham Broadway. The new trains on the GWR route into London were immaculate and quite comfy. The line though has single tracked sections so on a couple of occasions we had to wait for the track to be free, good job I had a couple of hours to spare, not five minutes. I kept myself busy on the train knitting up a few poppy petals for some friends in Scarborough, glancing out of the windows as meanders in the Avon came into view. Through Oxford the canal was in view at times and at Reading I could see a few boats on the Tesco moorings, thought these had been stopped.

At Paddington I looked round the station and discovered that there is now a Paddington Shop, solely for the sale of Paddington Bear merchandise. As a child I was lucky to have one of the original bears waiting under the Christmas tree when I was five, he couldn’t be wrapped up otherwise he’d have suffocated. Today the shop is filled with, in my opinion inferior PBs, only a few of the original sort which now sell for £65. A few years later Aunt Lucy knocked on the door on Christmas Eve, she’d come to check on Paddington and stayed. Only one Aunt Lucy in the shop today, she was smaller than mine, so obviously I have the original. My Paddington and Aunt Lucy have been guarding our possessions in Scarborough now for almost four years, they are doing a very good job.

I had a walk out to the basin. Outside the tube entrance there are now two large cafe/bar boats attached together by a staircase up to their roofs. That’s two more moorings in London lost, nice place for a drink though once the building site calms down behind it.

From here on to the end of the basin moorings boats were breasted up, widebeams two deep. Not many looked like they were visiting boats, most London boaters. The GoBoats have expanded on the pontoons, last year they had just started, today there were 11. All of them now protected with numerous fenders, or are they there to protect other boats! So another mooring gone to them too. The floating garden at the end of the basin has mooring for a cafe boat, but is empty.

Some of the mooring and information signs around the basin had been changed to the new blue ones, but I did spot an old one, so there hasn’t been a total clean sweep.

Across London to Fulham Broadway where quite a bit has changed in the last year. The old Underground station has been opened up as a bar and numerous food outlets with a large seating area in the middle, they also have free toilets. A nice use of an old station.

My meeting seemed to go well, a Director and Producer had wanted to meet with me face to face to check that they couldn’t put me off a show later in the year. They didn’t, I’ll hopefully hear next week, so fingers crossed.

Meanwhile back in Pershore. Mick did some washing, winded Oleanna and took her to fill with water. There seemed to have been a mass suicide of flies on our roof, it was covered, so this got a rinse down. With more boats moving today, quite a few arriving wanting water just as our tank was starting to fill. Once full he then brought Oleanna back and moored up. The whirligig was put on the tiller and he was hanging out the washing as a hire boat came in to moor in front of us.

Mick leant down for the next t-shirt to hang, looked up and could see a woman and her dog from the hire boat in the river! The boat had pulled in, son managed to pull the dog out that then ran off, followed by the son. But what about Mum?! When son had been told to leave the dog and to hold onto the boat, Mick and Dad managed to hoik Mum out of the river. It’s quite a long way down from the bank here and there are no ladders too help in such situations. After half an hour and a shower she seemed fine and later on they carried on down stream.

My journey back was a little delayed, but that did mean I managed to catch an earlier train. As I walked back to the boat the skies were looking darker and darker, but luckily the down pour waited until later in the evening with spectacular thunder and lightening. During the afternoon we’d received a notice informing us that the river upstream was now in the Amber, just hope the rain doesn’t push it back up!

Why the title of the post? Whilst in London I hunted down a pot of yoghurt, my preferred sort not available in Pershore. So if I don’t get the show then that pot of yoghurt cost me over £70 in train fares!

0 locks, 1100ft, 2 winds, 2 trains, 2 tubes, £65 for an original (wonder how much my Aunt Lucy would be worth? she’s priceless to me), 1 reused station, 2nd meeting, 1 of 2, 30 minutes, 1 cup of tea, 1 Lord on the tube, 16 petals, 1 empty wee tank, 1 full water tank, 1 drenched Mum, 1 river rescue, 1 cat enjoying being on the pram hood too much! 1 amber notice, 1 hour of torrential rain.

(Yesterdays) River Levels at 9am and todays

Pershore, (3.419m), 3.38m

Evesham, (0.9m), 0.836m

Stratford, (0.768m), 0.72m

Warwick, (1.467m), 1.283m

Pershore

Our spies up river on NB Grace informed us that the river was still in the red today. An Avon Navigation Trust chap, whom they’d seen yesterday, had arrived this morning with some milk for them. Well they do boast that they are ‘Your Friendly Local Navigation’. Even though we could get to Evesham we wouldn’t be guaranteed to be able to find a mooring as boats were likely to be waiting there for the levels to drop. So we decided to stay put in Pershore for another day.

It being a Wednesday the Market would be open today. All manor of stalls fill this indoor market. A vast tool shop, pet shop, clothes, wool, fruit and veg, haberdashery, a butchers with some of the longest joints of pork I’ve ever seen, furniture, sweets, books, all housed under fake roofs as if you were in an old street. I suspect not many people bother looking upwards!

We spotted various bundles of asparagus and made sure we bought some to have with our Kiwi Pie this evening. A couple of other bits and bobs were bought including a cheap rivet gun. We then had a wander up into town to buy some money.

There were still signs of the carnival all over the place, most of it a little deflated now. The Thai Restaurant was still displaying it’s second place window which was very good, sadly we couldn’t find the one that came first.

If you ever need any hardware whilst in Pershore Browns is the place to head. All sorts and at the rear of the shop a huge garden section that stretches almost down to the river.

Number 8 is a cinema, gallery and theatre. Due to it being half term they were only showing Peter Rabbit in the mornings and we’d already missed the showing today. Instead we headed back to Oleanna with the intention of watching some more Dr Blake and maybe a couple of episodes of Breaking Bad. But my inbox contained an email that needed some attention. I’d had a request to be in London tomorrow to chat about some possible work.

Pershore has a station and is on the direct line into London Paddington. So much of the afternoon was taken up with sorting out times, trying to buy a ticket to pick up at a station without a ticket machine, aborting this, checking which card I’ve registered to use on TFL and then being staggered at how far the station is from the centre of Pershore, 1.6 miles. We did however manage to find time for just one episode of Dr Blake.

Upstream the river was still in the red , a few boats had come and gone near NB Grace during the day, including a few hire boats who’d turned round to head downstream. Hope they made it alright. My trip to London tomorrow will hopefully give the river enough time to sort itself out and then we can be on our way again.

0 locks, 0 miles, 2 red warnings still in operation, 1 boat going nowhere, £6.99 rivet gun, £1.80 asparagus bunch, 1 lucky money machine, 0 ways to the river, 2 many gardens in the way, 1am Peter Rabbit showing! 20 hours notice, 0 tickets booked, 2 boaters with smelly wee, 7am alarm.

Pershore

Mick’s cold seemed to have resurfaced this morning, so a fresh supply of drugs was called for. Over breakfast we decided to stay put for another day hoping that he’d feel better tomorrow. Instead of cruising we’d restock with supplies from the handy Asda across the field. As the morning progressed most boats around us went on their way, NB Pilgrim waved as they pushed off and headed upstream.

After a restock we pottered away the rest of the day. I busied myself with listing my new items on Etsy and contacting a few people regarding some possible work later in the year.

Mick decided to have a look at the bow thruster. Since using it at Nafford Lock the other day it hasn’t sounded like the battery has been charging, the engine tone usually changes when you press the numpty button and this hasn’t been happening. To get to the bow thruster at the moment it means removing the anchor and chain that sit on top of the locker in the floor of the well deck. He then checked the voltage on the bow thruster batteries whilst the engine was running, this should have read 27.something, but was only 25.something. He then delved into the engine bay where the charging fuse for the bow thruster is located and tested that, it was blown as was thought. This is the second time this fuse has blown, the first time being very early days as we picked her up in Sheffield.

At the moment the bow thruster works, but gradually the charge in the batteries will fall. Mick hunted round for new fuses on the internet, the original one hadn’t needed to be a Vetus fuse as it is only used to charge the batteries via a split charge relay. Hopefully they will arrive in the next day or so.

Just after lunch our inbox had an Avon Navigation Notice appear in it.

WARNING NOTICE
WATERWAY –  AVON NAVIGATION

DATE OF ISSUE                29/05/2018 13:28
LOCATION                         Marlcliff to Barton Reach
DESCRIPTION & TYPE OF WARNING :
Due to adverse weather conditions the Navigation between Marlcliff and Barton is currently in a state of RED. Moor up at a flood safe mooring until levels return to normal. The moorings at Marlcliff lock are full. Further updates will be issued, or call the incident number below.
DURATION: Until further notice

Then an hour later another one arrived. This time it was affecting a reach down stream of the previous one. The river was now closed at Evesham about 4 hours upstream from us.

We checked gaugemaps and waited for the levels to rise here in Pershore. Posts on various facebook groups started to appear with boats backing up at one lock, stuck because of the river going into the red. NB Grace who had headed off yesterday morning was also stuck, moored up, within sight of a pub, it was just inaccessible due to no bridge over the weir. Wonder how far NB Pilgrim managed to get? Glad we’d stayed put.

With fewer people in the park Tilly was happier about going out. There was a lot of stalking to do, not just ducks but also pigeons today. A good vantage point high up in the tree next to us was found, the only downside was it didn’t have the quickest of routes down.

All afternoon we kept an eye on the levels by the boat. This reach is strange, the level has fluctuated by 4 inches since we’ve been here. By the end of the afternoon it appeared to have dropped, not gone up, but the flow was considerably quicker with ducks positively zooming past.

0 locks, 0 miles, 0.5 box of tissues used, 2 more bought, 1 shopping trip, 0 wine but 2 boxes of cold remedy, 1 excellent vantage point, 7 ducks, 2 pigeons, 1 screaming child, 25.something, 1 blown fuse, 2 reaches in the red, 3 new items in the shop, 6 more inches of crochet, 1 turned down, 1 still waiting.

River Levels at 9am today on the rise, levels higher upstream

Pershore, 3.345m, 5am last reading

Evesham, 0.886m

Stratford, 0.844m

Warwick, 1.567m

Pershore

I woke to a couple of messages from people who’d seen the amount of water that had fallen in Birmingham last night, they were concerned for us, I suspect not having posted my usual daily Facebook photo hadn’t helped. Checking the levels along the Avon suggested that the months rain Birmingham had in an hour was heading another way and not , as yet, towards us.

After breakfast we all walked up into Pershore to have a look round. Along Bridge Street and Broad Street there are numerous Georgian houses, high and handsome lining the main streets through town. Many wonderful doorways, alleyways, and balconies. We walked almost to the bridge where a toll house still stands with a long list of tolls.

It was now time to say goodbye to Siobhan and Rachael, their next destination Oxford. It was so lovely having them to stay, we’ve already booked Siobhan in same time next year, although she doesn’t know this yet!

Today was Pershore Carnival, it’s 50th anniversary.

Proceedings had kicked off at 10am up in Abbey Park. We were surprised at how much there was. A Farmers market, asparagus, bread, cakes, jams, pickles, sausages, pies and a fantastic cheese stall. All looked very yummy so we made sure we walked round all the stalls before returning to make purchases. If there had been samples on the cheese stall we’d have been tempted, but only one was familiar ‘The Best Cheese in the World’. This has very thin veins of black truffle through it. We can vouch that it is lovely having had a very small piece from the deli in Yelvertoft a couple of years ago. As much as the smell was wonderful, we resisted.

However next door was a pie stall. Mick jumped at a Pork Pie and we also got a Kiwi Pie to have later in the week, mince and cheddar, so we kind of got some cheese anyway. The asparagus looked good, but as we were eating out tonight we held back from this also, hopefully we’ll find some in the next couple of days.

As the Park sits round the Abbey we went inside to have a look. Another building with quite a lot missing. Built between 1090 and 1130 the heart of the building is Norman, only the south transept and tower piers remain. The original choir was victim to fires and in 1540 during the reformation the Ladys Chapel, Norman Nave  along with other monastic buildings were destroyed and the materials sold off. In the 1860’s Gilbert Scott was consulted and much work to the building was done including much of the present stained glass. Plans on a board suggest that they are hoping to install an organ in the future, although nothing confirmed this in writing.

Back outside a fun fair sat at the far end with the usual travelling rides. A Rock Choir sang their hearts out and show dogs wore boots to keep their front paws clean before the judging. Steam engines and Motorbikes.

Numerous Tombolas on charity stalls, home made ball games and a group of Oakley’s friends. Food stands with curries, pancakes, hog roasts allsorts. The whole thing was far bigger than we’d imagined and reminded me of fetes from my childhood, just the marquees with fruit and veg on display missing.

Time was getting on and people were starting to line the streets waiting for the Parade. We made our way back towards the river and found where the floats were waiting and then found a good vantage point to watch from.

Once confirmation had been given that the road blocks were in place the thumbs up was given to the Town Crier who hoped we all had deep pockets so that we could give generously. The Fire Brigade led the parade out followed by a pipe band.

Several floats created on the back of wagons represented local schools and groups. A gardening themed one had Monty Don on board, but my favourite was the golden bow clad Pershore Youth Centre, they’d even persuaded the tractor driver to wear a gold sequinned top.

A very good drumming group upstaged most of the music from the floats and under the fabric canopy of a carriage sat the Princesses and a Price of the carnival.

We returned to the boat, missing out on much music, dog shows, etc up in Abbey Park.

Late afternoon we were joined by our friends Christine and her husband Mick. A guided tour of Oleanna was given to Mick before we climbed in their car and were driven the half hour to their house in Malvern. Our route took us along parts of the Avon, then across the Severn at Upton. One boat was moored on the steps but due to the high walls of the bridge the pontoons were out of view. We gradually got closer to the Malvern Hills that have been in our periphery vision for months now.

Christine and Mick have a lovely house and garden (Camera mended, the shutter needed holding for longer to get the timer and flash to work!). We enjoyed a lovely evening in their company eating and drinking before they very kindly gave us a lift back to Pershore where the end of the Carnival was being celebrated with a 15 minute firework display.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 long Georgian street, 2 goodbyes til next year, 1 fair filled park, 50 years, 2 long bat the rats, 2 pies, 0 asparagus, 0 cheese, 2 bands, 1 fire engine, 1 asparagus, 1 carrot, 6 floats, 1 town crier, 2 car journeys, 3 glasses of wine, 1 yummy meal (Thank you Christine), 1 lovely evening, 15 minutes fireworks, 0 duck guests today.

River Levels at 9am today on the rise, but not sharpley

Pershore, 3.421m

Evesham, 0.914m

Stratford, 0.727m

Warwick, 1.294m

Comberton Quays to Pershore Recreation Ground

Long rumbles of thunder had woken us several times through the night and the amount of rain falling on the roof over our heads made such a din. The masses of fairies outside were now drowned and pushed into the weave of our cratch cover. What a mess, the roof wasn’t much better.

A mooring like this should be savoured and fully explored, a couple of days and I would have found the best vantage points in the trees to find friends. But this morning they decided otherwise. Why is it that outsides like Chester stay put for ages and ages, yet here I only got a few hours? They didn’t even let me outside to say my goodbyes!

Mick had managed to get Waterways Routes loaded onto his old tablet and with it fully charged up we had it sat out the back as we cruised our way up to Pershore. If we can somehow bring a cable from the 12volt socket on the Nicholson’s shelf at the stern without it fowling in the rear doors we will have a solution to keeping the tablet going on a long days cruise. Today it only had to last an hour and a half, which the battery coped with.

It was another grey start to the day and thunder didn’t feel far away as we curved our way along. Passing the next two moorings we were very glad we’d stopped where we had last night, both had roads alongside them. Houses peeked their roofs at us from high above, each with vast gardens coming down to the waters edge. A small £1,275,000 will get you one of these houses with great views, just not  much character.

As we neared the two bridges of Pershore  we could see a group of Paddleboarders heading down stream towards us. Slowing right down we waited for them all to positon themselves out of the way between the bridges. As we engaged gear again two more appeared around the bend, luckily the last two.

Pershore Lock was open and waiting for us, a cruiser having just arrived above. At 9ft deep I couldn’t reach the bow rope so Mick had to pass it up for me to secure to a bollard. The cruiser had a crew of nine, they all stood around and watched as I shifted the first of the heavy bottom gates before they offered to help. All roped up I could now open the ground paddle. This is situated well to the side of the lock and not knowing how powerful the water would be I wound it a bit then went to check. All was okay, paddle wound more, another check, fine, more, it went on forever! The crew of the cruiser helped wind up the gate paddles once they were covered just as rumbles of thunder reverberated around us. Thank goodness we wouldn’t be going much further today.

We stopped to fill with water, emptied the yellow water tank and rinsed the roof off before pulling forward onto the Recreation Park Moorings. There was plenty of space, so we picked a length without too many overhanging trees, hoping for a quieter night than last night.

A tidy up and a de-fairy was needed, we had thousands of them under the dinette, before our guests arrived.

This outside had potential, trees, plenty of grass to run around on. A shame it had too many people! The strange thing was some of them knew my name and they weren’t even close enough to read my cat tag. I kept my distance as Tom and she talked to them. They sounded interesting so I stayed close taking advantage of the pram cover to earwig the conversation. But little of it made any sense to me, Benefactor, Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round.

NB Pilgrim  was moored behind us, Barbara and Malcolm happen to read the blog so they just had to come to meet with Tilly. As we chatted Malcolm said that he had once appeared on stage at the SJT back in the 60’s, the early days of the Theatre in the Round in Scarborough under the helm of Stephen Joseph and in a room above the library. Amateur in the Round theatre festivals were held from 1960 until the 80’s. In 1965 Stephen Joseph felt he had no backing from the Library or Council so at the end of the summer he closed the doors believing that was the end. Ken Boden a local amateur proposed an amateur season for 1966 ending with the In The Round Festival. The season went ahead and may well have saved the theatre from being closed for ever. Was Malcolm part of the festival that kept the doors open in the summer of 1966 and meant that some thirty years later there was a position as Design Assistant available for me? Here’s a link to The Theatre In The Round site with all the history of the company.

Late afternoon our guests arrived. Siobhan and Rachael her daughter. A year ago Siobhan was one of our first visitors on Oleanna when we were in Paddington Basin. This is now her third visit to us which is impressive as her home address is Newcastle, Australia. Siobhan is an old friend of Mick’s and spends a few weeks each year visiting the UK. This time she and Rachel were staying the night, they were very excited about this.

More chatting going on inside. I had far more important things to do outside. DUCKS!!!

They couldn’t see me crouching at the back of the boat. With my short legged walk I rounded the corner onto the catwalk, slow as slow could be, my bell muffled. They sat there waiting for white bread. I got closer and closer ever so slowy. Then grasped my moment and POUNCED!!

The result of a cat pouncing at a group of Mallards is that the Mallards take the nearest, quickest route of escape. One such route was in through our side hatch! Siobhan and Rachael had a face full of Mallard. He hadn’t been invited to tea! Mick and I did our best to usher him towards a door, none of our windows being able to open enough for him to escape quickly. After a full guided tour he decided that he’d prefer to exit by the stern doors and got himself back to the safety of the river. He actually seemed quite cool about it as he drifted off downstream.

We decided to risk having a barbeque commandeering the bench next to Oleanna. A lovely evening which could have been a touch brighter, but at least the thunder storms stayed away as we ate, drank and chatted the evening away. We retired inside after the chocolate bananas had been eaten and as convection fog was gathering on the fields downstream.

1 lock, 4.2 miles, 9 on a cruiser, 3 paddles, 2 admirers, 1 boat fairy free, 15 mins to shop, 2 Antipodean/Irish visitors, 1 pounce, 1 fowl visitor, 2 much food, 4 bananas, 2 bottles of wine, 1 dry evening.

River Levels at 9am today

Pershore, 3.294m

Evesham, 0.76m

Stratford, 0.756m

Warwick, 1.304m

https://goo.gl/maps/vLZ7cyirX4m

Tewkesbury, I do like a good… to Comberton Quays

Some shopping was needed first thing and with the Saturday market in the car park behind Tescos we headed there first. Lots of fruit, veg and plants on offer. Sadly all the asparagus was from Portugal, we used to be spoilt with picked that day asparagus from the Balloon Tree near York back in the day when we had a car, you can really tell the difference. Only a couple of things picked up from the market, one being a new tape measure as our retractable one gave up when the chaps from Finesse were with us. Some more supplies from Tescos including this weeks newspaper and we headed back to the boat.

This morning we’d checked the river levels and yesterdays rise at Warwick was making it’s way downstream towards us, our side hatch was very easy to open as the river here had just reached amber. We decided that maybe we should try to cover as much ground as we could as we are meeting friends on Sunday and Monday and if the river came up any more our progress upstream would be affected. With more rain forecast we need to be on the cautious side.

We stowed our shopping and made ready. The lock was busy, a constant flow of narrowboats and cruisers wanting to come or go down. As we started to pull our ropes out from the rings on the flood safe poles the people from the boat behind appeared. They were wanting to jump into our space as they preferred it there. Just as we pulled off I realised why I recognised the boat, we’d headed into Liverpool with them (NB Tranquillity) last summer. So many boats now seem familiar to us, are there really 30,000 on the network?

A beep on the horn and we were clear to go under King John’s Bridge, popping out to the view of large pontoons and the marina.

The wind was in our faces, grey mist covered the landscape, such a shame as the river banks are low so there were views out there somewhere.

The moorings at The Fleet were full, space for a couple of cruisers on the paid for moorings. A boat following us pulled in at the Ferry mooring leaving us to continue up stream on our own. On past The Severn Sailing club. Here yachts were taking advantage of the wind and zooming down stream, one set off and zipped right across the river then tacked making it’s way upstream. Under a giant pig arc a full blown hog roast was turning on a spit gradually cooking over large logs, it looked like it would be very tasty.

Soon the sight of the frothy waters from the weirs at Strensham came into view, the second one doing it’s best to push us off to the side, but with extra umph we pushed on towards the lock. We’ve bought a River Avon guide which has lock landings amongst other things marked. The first landing was short and hard to get into because of the flow from a sluice close by, the second more sheltered from the fast flowing water, but quite short for us. A cruiser was just finishing going up and a narrowboat came into view, so we tied up. I sorted my bow rope for ease of access onto the roof, from here I should be able to pick it up with the handle of my windlass as long as the locks aren’t too deep.

The narrowboat coming down was 70ft, getting on for another 3ft with all their fenders down. They were travelling with another similar length boat and had had to descend the last few locks backwards, reversing in. This gives you that bit more space with the curve of the bow sitting over the cil. When we first had Lillian we came down the Salter Hebble locks and had to do the top two backwards as we couldn’t open the bottom gates to get out. The currents and wind today were such that they were going to try to go forwards first. Short locks mean one boat at a time to be able to use the diagonal, fenders lifted and then slowly does it. No lifting the gate paddles straight up, instead easy does it keeping an eye on the stern at all times, should anything happen you need to be able to close the paddle quickly to stop the boat from getting cilled. They hoped that with the river being high this would afford them a few more inches above the cil. Gradually the water was let out and gradually the boat dropped still afloat when the levels equalled out. It took quite a bit to get their bow past the bottom gate but in the end it worked.

Our turn next. In we came and tied fore and aft. The crew on the other boat said the paddles were so fierce that even with two boats in a lock they were biffed around when they had headed upstream. So we lifted the paddle on the opposite side a bit first and then maybe a bit too much. Our bow line by now needed tightening and I’d turned it three times round the bollard so the lady holding it couldn’t pull it in. With assistance we got Oleanna back to the lock side and under control again. Our first River Avon Lock  done, plenty more to come.

By now the sun had burnt it’s way through the mist and cloud and we could start to remove our outer layers. At Elkington Bridge we held back as a cruiser was coming downstream.  On a river you have more control going upstream, being able to stop where as they would just keep coming. The red sandstone bridge hole was quite small and the force of the water meant keeping a central line, but the height gauges informed us that we’d have plenty of space.

The river now winds and curls round the landscape, the banks filled with cow parsley and rape seed yellow. Earlier we’d wished for sun and now we had it and the views that came with it. What a pretty river.

Nafford Lock was soon with us and the open bottom gates welcomed us in (unlike on canals here you leave the gates open when you leave). I hopped off to work the lock, the bow rope on the roof working well, so far. Gates closed, three turns around the bollard with the bow line and I gradually opened up the paddles on the top gate, only lifting them fully when the turbulence abated.

The exit to this lock is very steep, a 90 degree turn straight away with weirs to the left and right pulling the water around you. We paused so that I could close the swing bridge, then I hopped on. Our perfect positioning now gone array as we ended up too far to port to get the bow over, even using the bow thruster didn’t work. Only one thing for it, back into the lock as far as we could on the starboard side and then give it some wellie to get the stern round and the bow clear of the weir boom. It worked, but obviously hadn’t for someone in the past.

Our Avon guide showed three lots of moorings in the next reach, so did Waterways Routes, so we decided to stop at the first one that was free. The Avon guide maps are not to scale so what looked like a short journey to Comberton Quay turned out to be more like 2 miles. This of course would have been evident on Waterways Routes, but at the moment we don’t have the means to view it at the helm. We are working on this and hope to be able to use Mick’s old tablet, now redundant, solely for this once we’ve worked out how to get power to it as the battery life isn’t so good.

The flood safe mooring marked with blue poles was empty and looked perfect in the afternoon sunshine, a greener version of Bramble Cuttings on the Trent and Mersey.

Perfect! Too bloomin’ right!!! Trees, friendly cover, sideways trees, gates and signs, and if you looked hard enough holes to put your arms down. Three hours was not going to be anywhere near long enough.

Here was a good location in the sun to take some photos of my latest makes for my Etsy shop, I just need some time to list them now.

As the evening progressed the air filled with seeds from the willows, fairies floating by on the gentle breeze. The surface of the river was covered, our food fluffy and where ever you looked inside the boat there was a layer of them that would waft up to drift back down again. It’s going to take quite a bit to get rid of them all.

2 locks, 10.16 miles, 0 asparagus, 1st class stamps, 1 straight, 2 tight bridges, 70ft boat squeeze, 2 ropes, 2 swing bridges, 2nd attempt at exit, 1 bad baaber, 1 fantastic super doper mooring, 1 stamp of approval, 4 woofers though, 3 more wooly makes for the shop, 6443738252335378362432325672 fairies, 554747838622325 in the boat.

River Levels at 9am today

Tewkesbury, Avon 2.38m

Pershore, 3.444m

Evesham, 0.905m

Stratford, 0.731m

Warwick, 1.295m

https://goo.gl/maps/6Dwa1s3rvR12

Tewkesbury

Rain pouring on our roof is what we woke to this morning. The forecast last night had suggested showers, but they all looked like they would skirt happily past us, but no they were falling on us. This was eating into our day of exploring Tewkesbury (I do like a good…). By late morning it was easing a bit so we ventured out.

The building of the Abbey started in 1102, built to house Benedictine monks and was near completion when it was consecrated in 1121. As always with such buildings additions were made through the centuries Embellishments to the nave roof were added in the first half of the 14th century in the Decorated style. It has “probably the largest and finest Romanesque tower in England” (Pevsner), which can be seen for miles. Each building faze is quite easy to pick out from the others as you wander around. After the dissolution of the monasteries in 1540 the Lady Chapel and other sections were demolished leaving the Abbey Church which was sold to the parishioners for £453. Changes have continued through the years to this great solid building.

The first thing that struck us was how fantastically the interior was lit. Normally a bit of thought is put into such things and details of pillars are picked out. Occasionally you notice that the focus of some lights has been knocked and nothing of any importance has been highlighted. But here a lot of thought has been put into the lighting, illuminating everything and accentuating the beauty of the building.

Wonderful ceilings everywhere, some painted in red and blue, with embellishments picked out from the stonework with a border of red. There are so many faces up there looking down.

Many tombs surround the nave and small chapels sit everywhere. Everything and everyone labelled. It felt as though there should be so much more to the building, which at one time there was. Scars on the exterior show where the cloisters had once been and the foundations of the Lady Chapel are still marked out with flag stones.

A wonderful huge copper beech tree spreads it’s arms across the manicured grounds showing off it’s colour in the rain.

The organ has been undergoing a major refurbishment, large wooden boxes holding the pipes sat behind barriers waiting for them to be refitted. Two men were working at tuning those pipes already fitted, strange alien reverberations shivering through the air with the occasional note blown through. We did hope that they would be stopping for a wedding that was gathering, nothing worse than trying to say your vows as a G# is brought into tune.

The other thing I had to do whilst here was visit the battlefield where the penultimate battle of the War of the Roses took place. We’d noticed on one of the notice boards that the battle had taken place in the Bloody Meadow, how forward thinking people had been to name it so! Positioned just to the side of Lower Lode Lane we went to find it. At the junction with Gloucester Road is a topiary. At first Mick wondered why they were celebrating the number you dial to find out who had last called you  and I wondered why 47% was so important. Then the penny dropped 1471 was the year the battle took place!

There is a Battlefield walk that you can do, which we only discovered on our search for the meadow. Along side a narrow brook I stood where the Lancastrians, under Queen Margaret’s commanders Somerset, Wenlock and Devonshire were defeated by Edward IV’s Yorkists under Edward, Gloucester and Hastings. Walking to a far more manicured area we could look out as Queen Margaret’s party had just before all was lost, from here they retreated over the River Severn at Lower Lode on horse back.

Every year since 1984 the battle has been re-enacted here as part of the Tewkesbury Medieval Festival which takes place in July. It is regarded as the biggest Medieval gathering in Europe with over 2000 people taking part, many re-live the whole experience and knights can often be seen around the town. No wonder Peter Laird’s character in Knights in Plastic Armour said the immortal line from the play ‘I do like a good Tewkesbury’.

A toasted sandwich back in town was needed and where else could we go but to Tilly’s Tea Room.

We then spent the afternoon wandering up and down some of the many alleyways. Here is where most of the buildings give away their age and construction.

One such alleyway has been covered and is now part of Cornell Books . Shelves line either side with colour co-ordinated Penguin paperbacks and boxes of maps and in a rear room the owner jigs along to music as he sorts through the masses of volumes.

We walked back over the stone bridge and went to chat to the Lockie. The rain overnight was making us wonder how the Avon reacts. When we were stuck at Stourport a couple of months ago people were saying that at Tewkesbury the water was right over the fields, was this likely to happen, would we have difficulty moving, should we find flood safe moorings over the weekend.

The friendly chap couldn’t give us an opinion as to what would actually happen, but as we were heading upstream we should be okay as it would be easy to stop should we need to. On every bridge there are level gauges so we wouldn’t just need to rely on those at locks. He came to see us later as he’d had a call from the Environment Agency saying that the Avon had gone into flood at Warwick, this is likely to make it’s way down to us, but he wasn’t saying to stay put.

We’ll keep a close eye on the levels, especially as there are thunder storms forecast in the general area and flash flooding may occur! We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 very wet night and morning, 1 side hatch now easier to open, 1 long breakfast, 1 amazing abbey, 2 tuners, 643479 headless statues, 0 lady chapel, 2 feet, 1 bloody meadow, 1 view, 2 toasted sandwiches, 1 cafe Tewkesbury, 1 cafe 5th avenue NY, 1 river on the rise, 2 ropes on tall poles.

River Levels at 9am today

Tewkesbury, Severn 0.473m

Tewkesbury, Avon 2.216m

Pershore, 3.257m

Evesham, 0.558m

Stratford, 0.595m

Warwick, 1.124m