It was just a short trip into Stratford-upon-Avon from our overnight mooring. We found a good spot by the Red Lion pub, just outside the basin, a good place to explore from. We tried to get tickets for the RSC (pictured above) but they were fully booked for the two nights we were to be in town.
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After a wander around the very busy town, we hopped on an open topped bus for the tour, mainly centred around Shakespeare, naturally. We alighted at Anne Hathaway's cottage and stopped at the pretty tea rooms opposite for refreshments in the sunshine.
The following day Tony played Golf at The Warwickshire Golf Course with Richard (who drove over to pick him up), while I went shopping and stopped at Hooray’s for Gellato. Very nice!
The next morning we walked round to the basin & bought our license for the River Avon before setting off. The first lock out of the basin is very awkward with nowhere to moor up & very dodgy gates. Not a good start! It was plain sailing to the next lock, Trinity, then disaster struck! As we were gliding into the lock the throttle cable snapped, leaving us with no reverse to stop. Tony just managed to throw a rope over a bollard on the lock side, and get a couple of turns on it, two of the three strands braking with the strain, before the boat stopped about 2” from the lock gates. Phwew!
Having had to pull the boat backwards out of the lock manually we moored up on the lock landing to await an engineer. Three hours later we set off again all sorted.
The river reminded me of the River Stort, wild and winding, although it did widen out in places like at Barton, a very pretty little village with a butchers & a bakers (didn’t find the candlestick maker though
).
After a disappointing stop over at Evesham - despite its wealth of history with it’s many medieval and Tudor buildings, a town in desperate need of a makeover - we set off along the Lower Avon with it's mainly high wooded banks but Fladbury Locks produced an ideal picture with it’s tumultuous weir and grand Mill House.
The village of Wyre Piddle caused a smile and I just couldn’t resist this sign for the local B&B ‘PIESSE of PIDDLE’ !
On to Pershore, a much more pleasing town. A vibrant little town with lovely parkside moorings, good services, ASDA 100 yard away, an indoor market and a ’Plum Festival’! I never knew there were so many varieties of plum.
Orchards in this area produce tons of popular plums every year – Varieties such as Victoria, Majorie Seedling, Heron, Monarch, Pershore Purple, Pershore Yellow Egg Plum and Pershore Emblem are some of the most well known and sought after plums the Vale produces. Pershore and its association with the plum is not a new thing, the area has been famous for its fruit growing since medieval times. Early in the 19th century the Pershore Yellow Egg Plum was found growing wild in Tiddesley Wood and by 1870 records show that over 900 tons of the fruit were being sent to market during harvest time. - See more at: http://www.pershoreplumfestival.org.uk/index.php/about/#sthash.QPkxjLsV.dpuf
I just love to include a bit of local info now & then :)
7th August 2015
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