Very few boats are on the move at the moment. We saw Laplander and a few others queuing for the Barge Lock as BW had locked it and they had to phone up to be let through. Apparently the last lock up onto the Birmingham and Worcs Canal is also locked because BW don’t want anyone to get onto the Severn which is running high, with a flood alert around Gloucester. 
The weather is so changeable and it was only a few days ago that we were sitting in the sunshine enjoying coffee outside the Muffin Break Cafe. Incidentally if you come across one, we can recommend their delicious food. Now we are constantly being buffeted about in the cold wind and rain. Thank goodness we still have some coal to stoke the Squirrel up with!
This is Droitwich Spa Signal Box (zoomed in) which is near the busy railway junction above the canal. On our walkabout we could see that the little River Salwarpe had risen about a foot since we arrived, this is a tributary of the Severn which joins the canal between the Barge Lock and the next one up. As I haven’t taken any more photos in the driving rain, here are a few I took earlier.
In Gurneys Lane, the lamppost is vertical, and the Brine Pumping Station of c1880.
Down Friar Street the Cock Inn was first licensed to sell alcohol in the reign of Queen Anne in 1712 and is the oldest public house in town. The fancy window was recycled from a medieval church which once stood in the same street apparently. I spent many happy hours in there, at the end of the 1960s, at the folk evenings upstairs. Us poor students could make a pint of cider last all evening and have a jolly good singsong!
At the end of Friar Street is Priory House, a finely restored Elizabethan House c1650 with a Queen Anne Chimney. Not quite sure which end this chimney is, so I took it from both sides leaving you to decide! I like the way the widows hang out over the walls as if they are stuck on as an afterthought. Some thieving little toe- rag has nicked the lead from the drip- mould which runs all along the frontage above the doorstep.
This is the fine old rear end of one of the shops in the High Street.
1 comment:
I am glad there is someone thinking of your poor boats being washed out to sea but it is a shame you are stuck right now. I wonder if, after all this rain, we can all stop panicking about the lack of water in the UK?
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