Sleepless in Stourport

My first night in Stourport basin was totally sleepless!  Himself was happily snoring away while I lay and listened, initially, to the a particularly irritating high pitched drunken fellow entertaining has mates and then to the hourly bell ringing of the famous clocktower, on the hour, every hour.
My second night in Stourport basin I was comatose, Himself could have been kidnapped by Somali pirates and I would have been none the wiser..
Now what is it to be on night three?

Into Worcester and out again...

 Worcester City boundary marker on the canal towpath

We left our overnight mooring at Hanbury Wharf on Tuesday morning and set off of Worcester.  We wanted to spend a couple of days in the City and have a look around before heading up the Severn to Stourport and a date with a six month mooring.  (Of course it was on the way into Worcester that I encountered dog- walloper and general low life of previous posts.)

 Floyd patrols the lock and checks water levels - expert locker now..

 An interesting railway viaduct near Lowesmoor basin

 Caxton moored on the 48hr visitor mooring just north of Diglis basin

 Once we were moored up and the essential cup of tea made and enjoyed I went off to look around the refurbished basins.  Charges must be quite high here because there was not a tatty boat in sight.  I found good dog walking just beyond the basins so our stay in the City was also going to suit the two dogs as well as us.
On day two, dogs walked, we set off to see the Commandery Museum which is immediately adjacent to Sidbury lock.  (thanks Anita for the recommendation, it was excellent!)  A must see if you are in Worcester, it is based in a vastly extended Great Hall rebuilt in 1480 as a monastic hospital, later to become private Tudor home then the command centre for the Royalists at the Battle of Worcester in 1651. The building was originally immediately outside the City walls at the Sidbury gate but Worcester has grown around it over the centuries.  The Commandary became an elegant Georgian home, then a school for the blind and finally a print works before Worcester  City Council purchased it.  No photo's because some fool forgot their camera - that would be Me in case you are in any doubt..

The unpreposessing entrance to Diglis locks from the R. Severn

 A lazy start on Thursday.  We serviced Caxton before locking down on to the R. Severn and heading upstream to Stourport.

 Worcester Bridge ahead of us

 The Cathedral to the rear

 Lock cottages at Bevere Lock

 Bevere Lock, one down two to go

 Waiting to enter Lincomb lock, the last on the Severn going up stream

 Caxton moored up on the visitor moorings outside The Angel at Stourport.

After an overnight on the River we bring Caxton up through the narrow locks, which are open despite Waterscape saying they are still closed following  the death of a 12 year old boy on Fri 3rd June.  The lad fell into the bottom lock and tragically lost his life; there is a devastated family out there trying to cope, it rather puts thing into perspective I think.

We are now moored up in the basin, and enjoying the luxury of being plugged into a shore line for the foreseeble future.

Those non-emergency Police contact numbers

Bruce, of Nb. Sanity,  has very kindly sent me the following link for

POLICE NON-EMERGENCY TELEPHONE NO.s

and I am publishing it for any of you who might find it useful.
 Thank you Bruce.

I had a call

I had a call from Worcester Police this morning re the report of the incident at Gregory Mill Lock.  I was asked a couple more questions, and if I was alright, and told that they are going to pass the details on to the local policing team who may well know the individual concerned.  It may be that the dog abuser is on bail, or tagged, or on a curfew, or a suspended sentence and if that is the case I have handed the Police a reason to detain him - oh bliss if that was to happen!

Advice taken!

So many of you have commented on my previous post, advising me to report it to the police, that I have taken your advice and done just that.  I found the number for the local police on the internet and called and reported the incident with as much detail about the man as possible; their advice, if something like this were to happen again, I should call 999.    I must admit I was a bit surprised, I thought 999 was about life or death emergencies not a foul mouthed rant on the tow path.  However, should I find myself in a similar situation, 999 it will be.

When to call 999

If there is a crime in progress or an immediate threat to life or property or  immediate fear of violence.

What would you do?

What would you do if you saw someone punching their dog in the head , jerking the creature off of its feet by its lead and shouting at it?  I might add that the dog was a friendly young English Bull Terrier (I know it was friendly because ten minutes earlier I had met the dog on the towpath).  I was horrified and appalled by this brutality and shouted at the owner,  " Don't hit the dog, please don't hit the dog!"  He stopped hitting the dog.    He then proceeded to  march up to me as I closed lock gates, snarling and swearing as he came dragging the dog with him.  "What ju mean, you f**king bitch, it's a f**king Bull Terrier .......you f**king fat bitch, I should punch you ..."
And on and on it went, every other word began with F or C.   I was threatened with fists, an opportunity to test out my swimming in the canal, and the man's take on dog training.
He marched off eventually, swearing as he went.

I kept having to remind myself that this man was a human being, just like me and worthy of respect.  I was conflicted; my reaction to his gross aggression and particularly his cruelty towards a dumb animal was that I would dearly like to exterminate him, preferably as painfully as possibly.

I obviously need to lose a bit of weight as well... 

The Droitwich Canal, nearly open again..

The re-opening of the Droitwich Canal is only weeks away now.  As we were moored at Hanbury Wharf on the Worcester and Birmingham canal we crossed the road and had a look at progress on the Droitwich.canal which runs from Hanbury Wharf  to Droitwich and then onto the R. Severn at Ladywood Lock (between Stourport and Worcester).  Before the opening of the Droitwich canal in 1853, goods were off-loaded at Hanbury Wharf, a transhipment wharf, and transported the the Droitwich area by horse and cart.

The three Hanbury locks have been largely restored but a BW team were working  at Lock 1 when we arrived.

Hanbury lock 1

Repaired brickwork

Lock three, scaffolding still in place at the bottom gate and myriads of fish, mainly perch I think, were swimming around the structure.  NOTE - proper strapping posts, no wooden bollards!

New lock landings

Deep and de-watered

Looking towards Droitwich from lock three.

A heavily weeded pound teeming with fish.  Lots of work still to be done in the next few weeks but with modern day plant quite feasible.

Weed and margarete's - looking back towards Hanbury

Close up of the flower that lines the banks at Hanbury locks