Thank you very much for watching and welcome to Sharpness. This is right at the very end
of the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal and you can, if you were brave enough, go out
onto the River Severn here and travel all the way down to Bristol. Instead, I will be
returning back up the Gloucester and Sharpness to the city of Gloucester.
Sharpness is one of Britain’s most inland ports, and the tidal range can be up to 10
metres in the Spring. Originally there were no port facilities here, and boats would travel
up the canal to the city of Gloucester.
I’ll hopefully make a single turn at the end of the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal in
front of the entrance to Sharpness Marina.
Passing through the giant columns that once supported the Severn Railway Bridge, I’ll
head north towards Purton. This short stretch is the closest the canal and river get to
each other and on the banks of the river is Purton Ships Graveyard.
At Sheperd’s Patch on the western side, is WWT Slimbridge. This is home to several
wetlands and decades of conservation have occurred here. You’ll often find the resident
swing bridge operator at Cambridge Arms Bridge out with his binoculars spotting wildlife
that has strayed from the wetlands.
Heading nearly north again I’ll moor up just past Splatt Lane which is on the southern
side of the village of Frampton on Severn. I featured this village in my first Gloucester
vlog over two years ago. [Music]
So, I've turned around right at the end of the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal at Sharpness
itself. There's a big wide area expanse of water there, so you can turn around really
easily. Lovely days cruising ahead of me today.
In 1909 the riverbank between the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal and the River Severn partially
collapsed. There were serious concerns that there would be a breach.
As the canal has no locks or even stop locks due to its width, if there were a breach,
the entire canal would drain out, making it completely unnavigable.
A whole range of boats throughout the British Isles was brought in to be deliberately beached.
This would create a makeshift tidal erosion barrier and reinforce the damaged bank.
Eventually, 96 vessels ended their life here, and it’s the most extensive collection of
maritime artefacts on the foreshore of mainland Britain today.
The boat graveyard is free to visit and is accessed via Purton Lower Bridge and a short
walk along the towpath. [Music]
It makes me laugh. It's just like on the roads, I'm going quite fast - a lot faster than I
could do on a canal and of course two cruises come along and they overtake me.
There's no point really because just around the corner here, we all have to wait for the
bridge to open. Just like you have to wait at traffic lights or at a roundabout or something.
But still.
Here at Purton Bridge there are two swing bridges very, very close to each other and
they're both operated at the same time by the same Canal & River Trust staff. There's
no mooring allowed in between so it just means that you've got to make a quick hop between
the two because obviously, the roads are closed and people can't walk across.
With regards to speed on the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal, because it's a very, very,
deep canal and very wide, there's a huge expanse of water and you hear the engines of, especially
sort of the older narrowboats, 'mmm' and think, oh gosh, the boats going to rock all over the
place, because hearing that sort of sound on a canal, you would have things falling
out of cupboards. Gloucester and Sharpness doesn't matter, people bomb up and down, especially
the huge two, three, four-tier large cruiser boats. They can go really quite fast. It doesn't
really matter. It doesn't really affect the boat, it's purely because of the expanse of
water and it just dissipates in expanse.
[Music]
I don't know if you can remember but the first year of having Alice I bought her down onto
the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal. Now I use Google Maps and the satellite view to
remind myself of where to park, where I can moor up and things and the really strange
thing, I was looking, I was zooming in on Google Maps and I thought, hang on a minute, that
looks like my boat and yes it was. Just literally where this other boat is, is where I first
moored up and Google satellite, up in the sky has taken a screenshot of Gloucestershire
with me moored there. Now yes you often see your car sitting on your drive at home
or even at work.
But if you take your work and your home and move it around the country every two weeks
it was quite surprising to actually see my boat moored somewhere.
So this is Splatt Bridge.
just down the road from Frampton on Severn. Personally, I think this is absolutely fantastic
mooring spot. You've got lovely views across the River Severn. There's a car park at Splatt
Bridge itself and a lovely village to walk down and through. There's a cafe there, there's
a pub there and a really well-stocked shop as well. The guy that operates the swing bridge
here is really nice, it's just a fantastic place to moor up for a good couple of weeks.
I want to thank viewer Stuart Eaker from Charleston in South Carolina in the United States for
his Journey with Jono support.
Also, I’d like to thank Andrew Risso, who has chosen the top tier on Patreon. He
is from two states north of Stuart in Virginia. Thank you both of you.
In the next vlog, I continue to travel north on the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal to the
City of Gloucester and I discover a stone that is said to have magical powers. Until next
time, see you later.