Back to the park

Friday 10^th October; the Commandery to Perdiswell park

We uncharacteristically slept in this morning, so were all behind like a cow’s tail for a bit.  We had a think about how far we wanted to get today (not very) and what else we needed to do (bits and pieces).  Dave wanted to get on with refreshing the paintwork now the starboard side is accessible, so first I got the milk from the handy garage above the canal on the way to Diglis Basin.

Take care!  The canal is down behind the wall

Then Jess and I went for a walk to Fort Royal, not far away.  These days it is a pretty municipal park on a steep hill overlooking the Severn and the city, but on 3^rd September 1651 the Battle of Worcester, the last major battle of the Civil War, raged all around.  Worcester was in the possession of the Royalists, and Charles Stuart, then only 21, watched the battle’s progress from the tower of the Cathedral before spotting an unguarded flank and leading an attack in person.  But eventually the Royalists were forced back into the city, and Fort Royal was stormed and captured by the Parliamentarians.  Its cannon were then turned on the city.  The battle raged until the Parliamentarians triumphed late in the evening.  Charles escaped to France but many thousands of Royalists were not so lucky.

Nowadays there is a peaceful view across the Severn valley to the Malvern Hills

The main attraction for Jess though was the squirrels, which are hard at work hiding acorns and other goodies for the winter, and she got far more exercise running back and forth staring up into the trees as she did from walking.  We slipped our moorings at 11, going up one lock to the bollards at bridge 5 where Dave set off to find Screwfix for a replacement galley tap – the leak in ours is getting worse and it will be easier to replace than repair.  

There is some excellent artwork under bridges, part of the Worcester Paint street art festival last year.

Then we went a little further on, past the ABC hire base to a small park ideal for a lunch stop.

Slightly blurred action photo

After a quick lunch we set off again, now in sunshine.  The remaining four locks were quickly dealt with.  At Gregory’s Mill top lock was the last of the floating pennywort we saw on this trip – a little pile on the lockside, to which I added the floating bits I could reach.

Floating no more

We arrived back at Perdiswell Park by 4.  I gave Dave a hand for a while polishing off some of the paint restorer until my arm got too tired (I blame the wretchedly stiff paddle gear on some of these locks).  He did the lion’s share though.  By evening the clear skies meant the temperature was dropping, but the sun had warmed the boat and we only needed to run the Eber for an hour – it did need testing before the winter, after all.

2½ miles, 5 locks