We are often driving past Gloucester on our way back from Auction,and it is always too late to stop and visit. However, yesterday our business was done early and we decided to park up in Sainsbury's car park, and walk along the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal approach to the city. I think it is actually the River Severn incorporated into this canal here, but I may be wrong . . . . I have been awake since 2.15 a.m. this morning and just had to crash out on the bed as my eyes went googly from tiredness!!! Anyway, this wonderful old lightship is for sale - I don't think our cats would be impressed if we set up home on it! Price: £450,000.
Part of Llanthony Secunda Priory. This was established in Gloucester in 1135 after the many raids on Llantony Priory above Crickhowell in the Black Mountains. Humphrey de Bohun and his daughter Eleanor de Braose (she was a daughter of the Marcher lord William de Braose and his wife Eva Marshall, co-heiress of the Earls of Pembroke.) Check HERE for further information on the Priory.
Wherever you look in the countryside (or here beside the river basin) Elder is blooming at the moment. My hands are itching to make something of it, so some Elderflower handcream is on the books for this week.
Above and below: the huge warehouses which remain from Gloucester's nautical and trading past. Grain was bought here in huge quantities and timber too. See HERE for history.
Above and below: some of the old cranes have been preserved.
The canal is still used by narrow boat homes, and this one took my eye.
I presume this was the Lock Keeper's cottage.
There was still plenty of interest to see, as we walked back to the car. There were a couple of old boats being restored and this one was by a lovely old building that looked so comfortable in its setting.
Looking across to the Cathedral.
Another restoration job, up on chocks in the dry dock.
You can just about read the old canal links to the Midlands reached from this building above.
Finally this old building intrigues and scares me. The end view of it is the scary bit (forgot to take a photo of that) - where part of it is open to the air and you can see the vastness of the rooms inside, where once grain was stored. With "Maltsters" on the front, the grain must have been used in brewing. I love the metal colonades.
I hope you enjoyed our walk. There would have been more words but I am drooping (an understatement) and I have my patchwork class shortly, so I had better go and chuck a bucket of cold water over myself!!
