October 2019
Overview
The Gloucester and Sharpness Canal is an impressive canal, just over 16 miles long and once the deepest and broadest in the world. It opened in 1827 and at 86ft 6 in wide and 18ft deep it allowed ships of up to 600 tons to avoid the treacherous stretch of the River Severn between Sharpness and Gloucester. Even now, boats 64m long, 9.6 m wide, with a 3.5m draught and 32m headroom can pass through Sharpness and travel to Gloucester. There is, however, very little commercial traffic, so for three of us in our sea kayaks, on a wet October day, we had LOTS of space!
The journey
| Points of interest (POI) | Distance from start (miles) | Distance from last POI (Miles) |
| Put in Purton OS 162 SO692 042 | 0 | 0 |
| Lagoons on left bank | 1 mile | 1 mile |
| Severn Railway Bridge Piers | 1.18 | 0.18 |
| Sharpness Docks | 1.64 | 0.46 |
| Purton to: | ||
| Water treatment works | 0.5 mile | 0.5 mile |
| Shepherd’s Patch Swing Bridge | 2.43 | 1.93 |
Getting started
It was one of those days when it was, oh so tempting to stay indoors. However, the great thing about making an arrangement with a new kayaking friend is that there is a determination to carry on. Oh, and of course there is always the knowledge that once dried off in the pub, the ‘Smug Factor’ will be 10/10.
So, we met in the little car park just by the church and by the more southerly of the two swing bridges at Purton. There is a little jetty there, parallel with the bank; it was a bit high, but we all got in without incident – the biggest challenge was getting in before the boats filled with rain.
Paddling on….
We headed under the bridges (about 1.5m headroom) and into the most astonishing headwind – 15mph. Doesn’t sound too much when you read it off the BBC weather forecast, but the waves would have done justice to the start of a sea trip. It wasn’t quite what I’d expected for a trip on the canal.
Anyway, there was plenty to see. The canal runs very close (and parallel) to the river. A little way on to the right is a weir which is near to the Purton Hulks (ship’s graveyard). Here there are a number of barges and trows that were grounded to help support the bank. We didn’t get out to have a look this time, but it would be an easy move to go and explore from the bank. On the left bank of the canal, a little further on, we saw two sunken barges which were proving a perfect roost for a cormorant. Continuing the battle with wind, rain and waves we next spotted two bridge piers – the only remains of the original ‘Severn Bridge’. The large circular one (on the right bank, between the river and the canal) had formed the base of the swinging section and housed the steam engine which powered it. On the other, landward, side stands a stone arch – the original abutment to the swinging section.
A bit of history
One of the great things about paddling on canals is that they all have great stories to tell of engineering, economy and trade.
In 1793 Industrialists of the Midlands obtained an act to construct a ship canal that would avoid the stretch of the Severn between Gloucester and Berkeley. Like many other big engineering projects to build canals it hit problems – landowners, finance, confidence in the lead engineers (this one was Robert Mylne), weather and so on. Eventually, in 1816, matters improved and agreement was made to build a slightly shorter canal, closer to the river; Thomas Telford acted as consulting engineer. Hope that Gloucester would become a rival to the great port of Bristol was revived.
The Severn Bridge was built in the 1870s by Hamilston’s Windsor Ironworks Company of Garston, Liverpool. It spanned the river between Sharpness and Lydney to transport coal from the Forest of Dean over to the docks at Sharpness. The bridge had 22 spans, one of which crossed the canal and was built as a swing bridge. The bridge was 1.3 km long and 21m above high water. It was never used to its expected capacity as coal mining hit problems and then in 1893 the bridge was taken over by Great Western Railway and Midland Railways with freight and passengers carried until 1960. A series of accidents in which barges hit the piers lead to the demolition of the bridge in 1967-70.
Sharpness Docks and back up to Shepherd’s Patch
It took us 40 minutes to travel from Purton to the docks at Sharpness, (against that stiff wind!) Sharpness docks are still active and access needs to be granted by the Canal and River Trust, so we stopped at the Swing bridges. We were pretty wet and on the way back to Purton Sam decided that testing his rolls should be on the cards.
.
We were lucky to get a break in the weather, so our paddle back up past Purton and to the Patch was calmer and provided some respite. We headed under the low swing bridge (only 0.6m headroom here) and took out at a low bank on the left (river side). Watch out for the gaps in the bank covered in weeds, I think we all found them accidentally. We traipsed soggily over the bridge to the Black Shed Café where we had very welcome hot drinks – luckily they must be used to wet visitors! Slimbridge wetlands are just nearby, sited between the canal and the river.
Wildlife
We saw lots of mute swans and some smaller migratory visitors. I’m not sure if they were Whooper or Bewicks but as they were littler and lacked the bump on the top of the beak, I’m hazarding a guess that they were some of our Winter visitors. We saw cormorants, divers (but they were too far away to identify, grebes maybe?), possibly a kingfisher in the distance, a few mallards and moorhens. On a recent trip Sam had seen a deer (!) and an otter. Oh, and a grass snake. So plenty to see and probably far more if we were quieter and more attentive!
Smug factor?
By the time we’d got back to Purton, changed and loaded the kayaks, it was definitely time to eat. A good meal at The White Hart in Little-on-Severn sealed the smug factor. Yes, it had been terrible weather at first but we even saw a glimpse of the sun and got no wetter on our return trip. Yes, I’d say it was a 10 out of 10.
Links
OS maps Landranger SO 162
https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/about-us/where-we-work/wales-and-south-west/sharpness-port
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severn_Railway_Bridge
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloucester_and_Sharpness_Canal
AC Canoe Adventures 