Only another 13 …
Pershore – Evesham – Stratford-upon-Avon
It was Plum Festival weekend in Pershore: there was a long peal of bells rung on the Saturday morning in celebration and signs of marquees and structures being set up in Abbey Park for the Sunday Family Fun Day.
Specially crocheted bonnets in recognition of the Plum Fest had been created for the street bollards.
As remembered from a previous visit Pershore is a good-looking town,
with a glorious Abbey
and a community-led arts and cinema centre at Number 8.
In the Commemorative Garden near the Abbey is a striking sculpture, War Horse.
It was made from recycled horseshoes by a local blacksmith to honour the memory of servicemen, women and animals, who died during war time. The sculpture was unveiled in November 2019. What an impressive piece it is.
Forgoing the Family Fun Day Cleddau and crew set off on the Sunday morning (once all the paddle boarders had passed!)
to head upstream for Evesham.
About a mile upstream is Wyre Lock, one which concentrates the mind. It’s a diamond shape chamber with no wall long enough to line up alongside… A single hander on a cruiser was preparing the lock to drop down.
He had the advantage of height whereas Boatwif found the the paddle gear so high she could barely turn the windlass…
The boat left the lock; the Captain brought Cleddau in and securing ropes were arranged. Just as Boatwif had got the bottom gates closed another cruiser appeared, motoring upstream towards the lock.
Gate open.
Gate closed.
With minimal fuss the two boats were raised in the lock, the cruiser owner thankfully unperturbed about the steel boat sharing the space…
Onward, the river winding past charming houses,
extended houses,
new houses,
and finely mown lawns.
There are stretches where it is difficult to establish a map position, although the Coventry Water Main provided a fix…
Fladbury Lock next: a picturesque spot with flood markings on the wall of a lock side building being a chastening reminder of how this river can behave.
Chadbury Lock – Tick.
Then comes a long loop of river towards Evesham: plenty of moored craft, more holiday cabins,
front legs raised to level the structures on sloping land, and then lengthy stretches of anglers in a fishing match.
– and rain. “Grab the first mooring we can see,” had been the decision – but the first and the second mooring on a narrow pontoon was overhung by twig-dropping trees.
In the distance was the park, Workman Gardens – and mooring space. Boots and life jackets were donned again – and here was the thrill, a mooring right opposite the Abbey Gardens and a bandstand concert…!
Boat tied up, Boatwif hared across the Workman Bridge to reach the Abbey Gardens – where members of the Cubbington Silver Band were taking a long ice cream break…
It was worth hanging about for the second half, a varied programme of favourite musicals and some Star Wars tunes.
Then ‘Sweet Caroline’ persuaded a pair of fine lithe dancers to take to the floor grass and show their rhythmic stuff. Genuine applause.
In a final flourish audience members were urged to their feet (“if you can”) for the playing and singing of the National Anthem. It was a moving way to end a delightful afternoon’s concert, the last one, it would seem, of the Evesham Bands in the Park season.
Camera in hand – and permission gladly given – a bride and groom were photographed beside the ornamental pond.
Further up the hill is the Abbey Garden, restored in 2023.
(It deserved more exploration time than was available…)
Up through Evesham Lock next day.
The A framed lock house is memorable, a sadder looking building than in its former years, badly affected by the 2007 floods.
(Picture of the lock house in normal times and during the floods here; ). The wooden frame has been replaced now by a steel frame and the interior converted from residential accommodation to a training centre.
Beyond Evesham Lock is a long mooring pontoon overlooking the broad weir.
Then there is Evesham Marina,
(looking different from when Cleddau, previously Sir William Pennyman, first took a mooring here way back in April 1994.
) A second mooring basin was dug out some years ago, a new office built and a housing estate seems to have sprouted behind the marina buildings.
Just after the marina is a railway bridge – and beyond that a very long stretch of new mooring pontoons not yet in use. There was no signage to give a clue as to its ownership…
Onward, past large spreads of glasshouses,
to arrive at the extraordinary structure at the George Billington Lock. It looks like a misplaced lighthouse but is described in a 1989 Pearson’s Avon Ring Companion as the lock keeper’s tower.
A small day boat from Bidford was met there, descending in the lock, its crew of six strapping young men sharing just the one windlass…
Many of the Avon locks have more than one name (the George Billington, for example, is now known as Offenham Lock).
Next on the lock list, not far on at all, was the Robert Aickman Lock (now known as Harvington Lock). Cleddau pulled in at a short landing stage just as the left hand gate was opening and two small plastic boats with outboard motors emerged. The first was being steered by a woman in whose arms was a sleeping toddler. She pulled in on the landing stage to pick up a crew member before speeding off; had she any idea how hard it can be to hold a 17 ton steel boat still in front of a more vulnerable vessel…?
The lock was negotiated safely – but four days later there was an email alert from the Avon Navigation Trust: Harvington Lock had been the scene of a narrowboat sinking, the crew being rescued but the lock was closed while the boat was recovered overnight and lock damage was assessed…
At Marlcliffe Lock (the IWA Lock) Cleddau’s gentle rise was watched by two sets of picnickers. One group comprised local wild swimmers, passionate about finding secret places on the Avon to swim.
Onward, to reach Bidford-on-Avon. This is a popular village for boats and water sports. There’s a large park, crowded on a bank holiday Monday
– and Boatwif remembered that it was here that she took an unplanned plunge into the river on a late May bank holiday Monday – and swam ashore to be hauled out beside Bidford Boats… (Senior Sis and Salty will verify that tale!)
Dogs, the narrow arch of Bidford Bridge, paddleboarders and kayakers – and then a good mooring above Pilgrim Lock.
It was a quiet night, the neighbours in the field above being caravanners and motor homers.
Onward – is this Warwickshire now? Here was a remote lock (the W.A. Cadbury or Welford Lock) where flower troughs adorned the lower gates.
It was another deep lock where it took time to secure the ropes.
The river became narrower. Smart houses are positioned high above the river channel.
Moored in a backwater behind Luddington Lock was this boat
– and later there was a face to face meeting with its owner (a Broad Haven north fan).
Two more locks to do, both shared with nb Barachiel. Out of Weir Brake Lock, past the (fairly new) Shakespeare Marina
and on towards Stratford Trinity Lock which the restaurant boat Countess of Evesham was just leaving.
And then there it was, Stratford’s Holy Trinity Church on the left hand bank and the distinctive viewing tower of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre ahead.
What better place to moor than right opposite the theatres, centre stage it seems, amid the canoeists, rowers, trip boats, swans, Canada geese, white geese and thousands of day trippers.
Then, boat safely secured, life jackets off, it was time to search Stratford’s streets for a (non-matching) pair of haircuts…
Pershore – Stratford-upon-Avon: 28½ miles, 13 locks, 0 swing bridges
2024 Totals: 441½ miles, 12 tunnel passages, 216 locks, 31 swing bridges
*2024 Monkton Moments* (Monkton Moment*- a reference to / recognition of Cleddau’s Pembrokeshire connections) – now 21 (a) Recognised by the owner of an Avon based boat called ‘Pembroke’. (b) Location recognised by a Cwmbran resident who often crosses the Cleddau Bridge. (c) Towpath walker who has a house in Marloes)
Tudor Rose enquiries: 2
Footballs floating in the cut: 9
Supermarket trolleys visible in the cut: 4
Rescued: 1 garden gnome
Car in the river – 1
Brides – 2
