We had forgotten that
rowers are out on the river early on weekend mornings so were woken by trainer’s
cycling along the riverside with loud hailers.
It’s good they go out first thing really as once the mechanised boats
get out and about it would be quite precarious for them.
On Sunday morning we had a
look round Stratford’s craft market and then popped into the Avon Navigation
Trust’s office to get a licence to travel on the river. We’re not sure how long we’re going to be on
the river so forked out £60 for two weeks.
When we got back to the
boat, Nigel and Julie were waiting for us.
They were setting off but wanted to say goodbye and apologise once again
for getting “squiffy” (their words) when they came round to us on Saturday
night.
The trouble with rivers
when Karen is working is that mooring spots are few and far between and quite
often out in the countryside nowhere near a road. Looking at the map it seemed that Luddington looked a likely
village to moor with a nearby lane to park on so we decided to set off downstream to see what it looked
like.
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Setting off on Sunday
morning from our mooring opposite the RSC theatre
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Soon after casting off we
passed the church where Jo and I had a picnic last week and, unrelated, William
Shakespeare is buried.
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Cruising past the church
at Stratford
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Not much further on we came to
our first lock of the day, named after a major benefactor when the Avon Navigation was
restored to navigation in the 1960s and 1970s.
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Colin P Witter lock
|
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Information/dedication
sign
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The locks on the River
Avon are all wide locks and tend to be unmanned apart from summer
weekends. Each lock is named after a main
benefactor or volunteer and were restored with the help of groups such as boy scouts
and prison inmates etc.
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Waiting for Karen to open the gates
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Once through Colin P
Whitter lock we were out in the open countryside. Unlike many rivers, the banks weren’t too
high so we had good views for most of our journey.
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Disused Stratford to
Gloucester railway line
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Our second lock was Weir
Brake lock and fortunately for us a river cruiser was just leaving as we arrived so we
drove straight in.
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Weir Brake lock
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Dedication/information
plaque at the lock
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Buddy waiting on the lock
bridge
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Buddy doesn’t like the
lock gate walkways as they are metal gratings which can’t be easy for him to walk
on.
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Buddy and Karen avoiding
the metal gratings on the lock gates
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We arrived at Luddington
and moored just above the lock. There is
room for two or three narrowboats at the moorings and we had the place to
ourselves.
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Our view from our mooring
to the weir and Luddington lock
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After mooring up Karen did
a bit more repotting and then we went for a walk round the village. To get to the village we had to walk through
the churchyard from the river. It’s a
really nice place but has no shop or pub. Several houses are new and the sort
of houses you would see on an architectural design TV programme.
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| Most of the houses in Luddington have views across the river and to the hills byond |
The moorings are at the
bottom of the garden of a house which has just been sold for over £1m – it’s
rather a grotty looking place as it has a lot of 1980s style extensions. Looking at the estate agent’s details it has
been sold with planning permission to demolish it and build a house of 8,000+
square feet plus a separate swimming pool and gymnasium complex - not a small
house by any means.
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Our mooring at Luddington
for Sundaynight
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