The Stourport-on-Severn Paradox.

Friday 22nd and Saturday 23rd August, 2014 from Worcester to Stourport.
We had planned to leave Worcester today but R needed a memory stick from Peter and we had to wait for the courier to deliver it from Liphook. So we had a very enjoyable and relaxing day wandering around the city - with trips to Costa for R and M&S for M where she bought as many large bags of fresh peas as she could carry, on the grounds that the season will soon come to an end! The courier arrived in the early evening at the pre-agreed point of the local tearoom and R was able to download the data on to the computer on MM.
Saturday morning dawned bright and clear but as we had breakfast it became clear that we were not alone. The river outside the window began to fill up with literally hundreds of canoes.

At first we thought that it was just a local event but we soon found out that it was the British National Open Marathon Racing Individual and Team Championships hosted by the Worcester Canoe Club.
There were 60 different races, starting at 10:00am and setting off in waves every five minutes, according to class. This made departing on MM a bit tricky!

However, we eventually managed to get off without colliding with any of the little craft and then started off up the Severn.

The canoes, of course, go a great deal faster than us so we were soon overtaken by the next race to leave and had to keep well out of their way.

Soon after, we passed the lock up to the Droitwich Barge Canal that we had come down through on Wednesday afternoon.

Three big river locks took us up to Stourport. M declared that she was not sorry to see the last of these massive locks particularly as, while we were in the last one holding on to the ropes to keep MM still, a hailstorm came out of nowhere and thoroughly soaked us in freezing little pellets of ice!

So we finally turned off the mighty Severn into the rather bizarre paradox that is the town of Stourport-on-Severn. There are two sets of locks side by side - two very deep wide locks and, next to them, a flight of four narrow locks in two staircases of two locks each. We turned into the narrow locks.

The narrow staircase locks are quite intimidating but, with the help of two Canal & River Trust volunteers, we were soon through them and up to the Upper Basin.

In 1771, the Staffs & Worcs canal opened, connecting to the River Severn at a small hamlet called Lower Mitton. James Brindley designed a series of basins at the junction to allow goods to be trans-shipped from the narrowboats used on the canal to wide Severn River trows. The town of Stourport grew up around the basins over the years. In the 19th century, the canal company promoted Stourport as an "inland seaside resort", building a splendid hotel, called the "Tontine".

Hard to believe but they also opened a funfair! The funfair is still there after over 100 years although the "Tontine" has now been converted to private homes.

So the town is a strange mixture with the historic canal basins alongside the "kiss-me-quick" funfair and (numerous) fish and chip shops!
There are many permanent moorings in the basin but strangely very few visitors' moorings. At first, we couldn't see a space for us at all but another boater kindly pointed out a space in the corner that could just about accomodate MM. We were a little concerned, as we appeared to be blocking a channel through to another basin but, on examination, we found that the channel was permanently blocked off. We discovered that the developers had included a beautiful marina in the centre of their new development there - but the new residents' association refused to have "boating riff-raff" mooring outside their nice new houses so the place is sadly empty and devoid of life or colour.

What a contrast to the main basin that is full of life and colour (see below). Such a waste of what could have been a wonderful amenity and centre of regeneration.

We wandered round the town, which is a strange mix of old buildings and rather tacky shops - including three fish and chip shops in a row! However, we did find a very good Tea Room called "Blossoms" just next to the lock out of the Upper Basin and retired there for afternoon tea and an excellent slice of cake.

If you look very carefully, you can just see MM at her mooring through the window.
Today: 12 miles, 7 locks and 5.0 hours.
Trip: 241 miles, 149 locks and 175.5 hours.