Down River to Worcester

Caxton moored on the floating pontoon on the R.Severn at Stourport

Thursday morning we waved farewell to Stourport and headed down river towards our next stop, Worcester.  The previous day we had crossed the basin and descended to two staircase locks (four locks in total) on to the River Severn where we moored up on the floating pontoon. Wednesday afternoon I had walked the dogs south along the towpath and 'discovered' that the locks on the River Severn were manned! Forgive my ignorance but this is all new territory and I had assumed that the locks would be like those of the R.Avon, large, deep and powered by ME...  Greatly relieved at this unexpected bonus I was eager to get started on Thursday morning.

We passed a variety of craft, some rather elegant and some....

less so...

We skirt our first weir, Lincomb weir, and head for the lock.  These locks are controlled by traffic lights and at each of the three locks we were met by the gates gently opening as the lock keepers spotted our approach - what a pleasure.

Himself has got the camera so here am I clutching the wire hawser that keeps us from bashing about.  In this instance though it was to ensure that we kept Caxton 'away' from the side wall as it slopes in an narrowboats can be tipped over - according to the Lockie anyway.

Farewell Lincombe Lock

We travelled down river through wooded countryside until we reached Worcester.  As we were not familiar with the City we moored on the town moorings along by the racecourse - the first we came to.  Not to be recommended  if you have a narrowboat unless you are equipped with a plethora of giant plastic buoys to keep the boat away from the concrete.  We paid our £3.50 to the park keeper and headed off to look for Diglis basin, the entrance to the Worcester and Birmingham Canal.  Having found the basin and sussed out that there were plenty of places to moor safely we scuttled back to Caxton and continued south to Diglis lock.

The first of the barge locks into the basin at Diglis

Caxton approaching the 1st Diglis lock from the river.

Caxton on the visitor moorings in Worcester

We moored up on visitor moorings only a matter of yards from the main basins and awaited the arrival of Stuart Harper (Caxton's boat fitter) and Anita his partner - we were off out for dinner together.  Caxton got the once over and a nod of approval before we headed for the Kings Head and a pleasant evening together.