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Oh dear. I have got the name wrong again. Sorry about that. The fact is that as children we called it the River Stroud. Anyway it was good fun for us when it flooded. I haven't got a photo of us sailing on its water meadows, but here is one of sailing on the Stroudwater. I doubt it is a sight often seen these fifty years. In the days of trade however no doubt sails were used whenever convenient. And better set than in the photo. The rig was a sliding gunter and something has gone wrong. Reverting to my story and back to Gloucester. Here is a photo of the docks, looking towards the drydocks. I accept it is a poor shot but it may give some idea of the variety of commercial vessels in the 1950s. In the drydock, the white bows of the Shell Glassmaker. Clustered around the entrance, to the right, Regent King, an unpowered tankbarge, to the left Severn Trader, the first of a new batch of IWE traders of which it was the first and the last, then the diesel tug Severn Iris, and the steam tug Primrose. Plus some lighters the names of which I have forgotten. In the foreground, at left, the Glevum. Now I believe a residential barge in Bristol. Again, I accept it may be difficult to make them out. The quayside right in the foreground, had below it an outlet from one of the mills. From it one could catch good big roach with the aid of a stick with a line and breadpaste hook. Not good to eat but fun to catch. Now to the other end of the Ship Canal, and our alternative route. We could not moor in the Dock itself, so we used the Old Dock. Right under the bows of the Gravesend Sea School's Vindicatrix. Just to the left of her is the hull of the schooner Dispatch, built on Speyside and famous in her day. Inboard of her one of the war-built ferro-concrete barges, of which there were a number hanging about the Old and New Docks, all ending up beached on the banks of the Severn at Purton. Save one which was retrieved, towed up to the museum in Gloucester where it stayed for a while before being relegated again, this time to the timber ponds near Sharpness, where it is still, sunk beneath the waters. Our mooring in the Old Docks was quite dramatic.We overlooked the Severn Railway bridge, and the sight and sounds of the river as the tide roared in and out brought home just how dangerous the river could be and was. The weather could change in minutes to a thick mist which blanketed everything. However my father didn't much like being moored close to the tankers, nor did he appreciate the early morning activities of the cadets clumping about on the deck high above us. Here for good measure is a photo of the Regent Queen, fully laden, waiting to depart at 6 a.m. for Stourport. Under the old coal shute. Neither still exist. The Regent Queen was broken up on the foreshore by Sharpness Docks and the coal shute a remarkable building, was demolished. So we moved. Where we then stayed, off and on for three or four years, was at Purton. This was a wild and beautiful place. We could see behind us the railway bridge and watch the steam locomotives trundle across it. And on the other side of the towpath was the Purton Graveyard. In the 1950s it was the finest collection of wooden hulled vessels, both local and national, anywhere in the country. It was visited by the maritime historians of the day. And by me. Just two of my many photos. On the right the former schooner Sarah McDonald, built in Perth in 1867. To the right, the former trow Edith built at Bridgwater in 1901and a local trader, first in sail and then by motor. Both destroyed by arson in 1986. If you go there now, there is little to see. The same vessels from a little distance, but including in the foreground, the Kennet barge Harriett, and the Gloucester built towing barge Dursley. The Harriett remains, I think, sinking ever lower into the mud, with such protection from damage as a scheduled Ancient Monument can command. Right. That is enough. That is the end of my beginning.

Here ya go! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404764515276? £6.49 each.

I am going to have one last go. This is the Stroudwater Canal, looking along it towards the Goucester and Berkeley Ship Canal. It is 1957. It may have changed a bit since then. I haven't been there for a while. But this view is typical of that time. There were boats and vessels moored along the towpath from more of less the Junction, up to Walk Bridge, the fixed road bridge which effectively ended navigation. One or two were quite smart boats. The Tranquillo of London, closest to the Junction was a very smart motor yacht. But most were not. You may just be able to make out the shape of the Sunbury Belle, a former steam launch built in 1896, and operating from Worcester. But here in the Stroudwater she was a wreck, soon to be broken up at Sharpness. There was a cabin cruiser, the Coombe Royal, riddled with dry rot. Several Landing Craft Personnel in various stages of conversion or abandonment. Nelson, a narrow boat motor with its massive semi-diesel. Not a Bolinder, but something like. Open to the weather. A sharp-bowed wooden vessel described as an American WW1 sub chaser. An iron boat of indeterminate type which, every weekend while she was there, resounded to the tap tapping of rust removal, never completed. Towards the Walk Bridge end, two residential narrowboats, one said to have been owned by Sir Peter Scott, but then occupied by a lorry driver and his family. Right at the top, by the bridge, the one really well looked after boat, a landing craft conversion, occupied by an elderly Scottish couple who took great pride in their boat and their garden on the tow path. And there was us. There was Somerset. Very rarely did any boat leave the canal and return. They either arrived and stayed. Or departed for good. We were the exception. We did leave the canal and return and it was difficult. Because we were close to the top end, we had to back down the straight length, negotiate the bend, get past Davies Yard, with its moored barges and boats, back through the Junction swing bridge out into the Ship Canal, and turn. Unless there was no wind at all, which was rare, because either side of the canal was open field, we had to back down under power of our cavitating Hotchkiss Cones, with their lack of thrust and control, fending off from one derelict moored boat to the next. Sometimes we tried with two mooring lines to the non towpath side but this was fraught with difficulty as the lines got snagged on thorn scrub and old tree stumps. But worst of all was our eventual and usually ignominious arrival, stern first, at the Junction swing bridge under the impassive eye of the bridge keeper. Having first made a hash of getting past Tranquillo without scratching her expensive paintwork. So more often than not, after our lengthy journey from Devon in my father's pre- war Bentley, which in those days nobody wanted but in fact weren't too bad to run because petrol was cheap, we just stayed put on our mooring Right. Enough for now. I will try to get some photos put on tomorrow.

Big thanks to the Hatton Vlockies for their assistance today as we climbed the flight in the rain .Good start to our 8month summer cruise. It's summer for a real Yorkshire man lol

I really haven't got the hang of this site, have I? I seem to have duplicated things. Here, anyway, is one photo I wanted to include. It was taken from the railway leading to the coal shute.

I’m on the blacklist for Hatton….ever since I told them how their paddle gear actually worked….went off in a huff.

Or one of these so you can enjoy the canal as well as the towpath

My new key arrived today, It is perfect, Cost £2.75 plus 75p postage. Bar**s can take a jump. £21 quid ffs . Avin a larf eh. Thanks for all your help again. Where would I be without you lovely lot? David.

So we can avoid them? I didn’t think they’d be about til Easter.

FYI ... Chris Jones moved to the Nottingham area about three/four years ago and is based around the Redhill area. He is still doing mobile servicing (07887565531).

As you can see everyone is just going to theorise and guess and give their opinion but the only thing you can do that has any bearing whatsoever is to take the agreement you have for your mooring to a solicitor and pay them to read and confirm your position. Not clear what you’ve done already as you say you’ve had loads of legal advice but no solicitor will touch it???? So who have you had the legal advice from? If it’s a load of opinions on a forum then it’s worthless I’m afraid. If you have an agreement and it has a notice period from the marina owner, and I’d be amazed if it didn’t, then likely you need to start packing and not spend your money fighting a case you won’t win. But the first step is a visit and payment to a solicitor to ask them to advise.

The Stroudwater in those days was a joy for children. Not only could we sail our dinghy on it, we could paddle around the moored boats and explore the non-towpath side. But better than that, we could squeeze under Walk Bridge, which had a clearance of about one foot. By pushing up against the concrete underside of the bridge we could press our dinghy down enough to pass under it. We then had the canal all to ourselves to the lock. Round that we had to carry the boat and go on up the canal, past the River Stroud, the water getting shallower and shallower until we reached a brick dam. Beyond that even we could not go. In the other direction, the Junction side, we were not allowed to go. But that was full of interest also. Every time a vessel came up or down the ship canal a surge of water would enter the Stroudwater, and move Somerset against its moorings. So we had warning of every large vessel. Down we would go to see what was happening. Sometimes a steam tug, the Speedwell, its engine quietly hissing, steam from its whistle, listing over through the Ship Canal swing bridge, towing a single wooden barge. Sometimes a diesel tug with five or six lighters laden with timber for Gloucester and Moorlands. Or one of the big Voith Schneider propelled Shell-BP tankers, the biggest of the estuary tankers on the canal, or a Harker Dale barge, light from Worcester, bound for Avonmouth. There were the Healings grain barges. Smaller barges converted from the DIWE fleet and discarded by Harkers, and occasionally the one and only commercial barge operating on the River Avon from Tewkesbury, the Pisgah, which ended up, I think, in France. Lots of interesting and different types of vessel earning their livings. On one day in April 1959, I counted eight Harker tankers, three Shell-BP tankers, two Regent tank barges, three grain barges, two tugs, one towing 5 laden lighters, and a couple of BW narrowboats. Charlie Ballinger did not pass that day, but he frequently did. They passed so close that you could touch them as they went through the swing bridge. Magic, it was. If we did manage to get out of the Stroudwater with Somerset, we had the two destinations, equal in distance: Gloucester and Sharpness. I will see if I can stick a couple of photos. if I can find a couple of Sharpness, I will add them later.

Here are a couple. The first one shows our boat just above Davies drydock. We have either just come out or are about to enter it. A not infrequent occurrence. This will be about 1960, because alongside is our new and very light dinghy, useful for getting lines across the cut when we got stuck. In the other photo, just to the right of the folding chair, you may be able to see another dinghy on the bank. This was Leaky Peg. I used to sail this up and down the Stroudwater, and across the fields when there was flooding of the River Stroud. I will take the story on a bit later.

We checked the engine over and it has a chain driven camshaft (thankfully) it turns over so it isn't seized, we are waiting until the weather gets better to work on it, rest of the boat comes first.

I have a vague memory of reading that when these regs came in for caravan sites, they did not apply to those living in marinas, but were specific to the sites.

Don't know if this can be read by non-members, but I think it shows things very accurately:: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/returning-to-work-after-a-fatality.263414/

The roses look a tad naïve to my eye.

You appear to have a pretty good grasp of what needs looking at and how to do it. Why not do all the servicing yourself and look for a mechanic only when you are unsure that something is right or have a snag you can't handle? Some reference photographs of how it all looks when in good order would form a starting point . N

Don't tell C&RT, they will charge you extra for the protein!

The Southern Tame passed under the Gower Branch and the Sheepwash Embankment near Dunkirk Mill. Then there was a little known Aqueduct on the basin that joined with the Haines Branch which served Denbigh Hall Colliery which is seen on the Tipton Tithe Survey. Further north the Tame passed under the Haines Branch at Sheepwash Aqueduct and then another basin branch to a coal pit near Great Bridge.