Tuesday, 13 July 2010

Welford to Harvington.

IMG_0009 Heron and Canada GeeseWe spent a very peaceful night here with just the sound of the water rushing over the weir nearby. The Heron was out paddling with the Canada geese, but wasn’t looking for fish, so he had presumably caught his fill. As another boat passed by into the lock this morning we joined them to go down. The water level is quite low and judging by the muddy watermark and rubbish on the bushes it has been some six feet higher. We stopped for a lunch break at Bidford and wombled about the village for about an hour. There are a good range of small shops, Post Office, and eateries here.

IMG_0002 Bidford Bridge,ChurchLeaving behind the irregularly arched bridge built in 1482 by the monks of Alcester we meandered on our way. We  have crossed from Warwickshire into Worcestershire and are now moored above Robert Aickman Lock near Harvington.

IMG_0003 HarvingtonYou can see how low the Avon is, as we have to step up to get out of the boat! On my evening wanderings I discovered that Harvington Mill is still standing, although partly hidden by ivy. The iron under shot waterwheel still clings to the exterior wall on the right, although the wooden buckets have rotted away.

IMG_0006IMG_0009 Mill gearing intact

One advantage of having a digital camera is that you can poke it through a hole and get a good shot of what is inside. Here you can see that the gearing for working the mill is still intact.

3 comments:

John said...

Love your posts you are all around where my house is.
When you get to Tewkesbury there is the best Fish and Chip shop in the world I think it was Kingfisher. The fish was fantastic you must have passed it.

John said...

lol for some reason my "you must have passed it" seems to be in the wrong place should have been when talking about my house....not the fish and chip shop!!

bottle said...

Hi John.

Thanks for your comments, looking forward to meeting when we get down that way.