Did the Severn just turn into a Canal? The Severn Way Part 23 – Frampton on Severn to Sharpness

I head to the lovely Gloucestershire village of Frampton on Severn, and uncover some surprising secrets about it’s very distant history as well as having a look around the village before setting off on the next leg of The Severn Way to Sharpness.

Frampton-on-Severn:

Chocolate & Canals featuring Frampton’s Cadbury factory:

Vale of Berkeley Railway at Sharpness:

#gloucestershire #riversevern

Hello and welcome to West country wanderings welcome to part 23 of the seven way this here is the Gloucester and sharpness Canal ship canal used to be known as the Gloucester Barkley Canal will be revealed I’ll be telling more about this canal today because today for

Most of the walk on this leg between Frampton and on seven or Frampton on 7even should I say to the port of sharpness we’ll be actually walking along the toe path we’ll be catching up with Sabrina just a little bit but not very much and that’s why I’ve decided to

Do this walk in January we’ve had a heck of a lot of rain over the past few months and the banks of Sabrina are very very wet but today I’ll be walking on this which is a much firmer base of a toe path so no chance of slipping in to

The river or that but I think we should be okay for the walk today it it’s going to be a long one actually for me not so much for you because the walk to sharpness is about 9 miles but like I said before in the seven Veil there’s

Virtually no public transport in this area so I’m going to leave my car here at Frampton on 7 church is just over there and then I’ll need to walk to chest and then walk back again so I’m looking about an 18m walk today and obviously we’ve got restricted light but

I thought I’d get this one in this month here in January so we can actually get the sway complete by Spring which will be good and then I can go on to some newer projects but there’s lots to tell you about here Frampton on 7 is probably one of gloster’s most well-known and

Most beautiful Villages so what I’m going to be doing to start with I’m going to be walking along the tow path to where we finished sway 22 and then walking along that famous GR green rosman’s green I’ll tell you why it’s called rosman’s Green as we go on and

I’ll be looping back to here which is at Splat Bridge one of the many swing bridges over the Gloucester sharpness Canal so I hope you can enjoy me again here on West country wanderings for sway 23 now I’ve just come around to the church on the church here at Frampton on

7 Frampton on 7 has got Oodles of History far too much for me to go into detail about on this seven-way section today we may revisit the village on a later video here on West country wanderings in fact I did one video looking at the gardens here but the

Church here was built around or some of it was built around the 1300s although it does have a Norman font and it’s believed that’s been a buil building on this side here at Frampton not that far from the canal you saw at the start of the video for centuries many many

Centuries but the history of Frampton on 7 goes back much further than that our story starts here at fron on 7 in the Paleo lithic period which is defined as well from about 3.1 million years ago to around 100,000 million years ago give or take a few 10,000 years so a huge sway

The chunk of History so we’re looking back a long long time ago what we’re looking at as people called the drift men and they were thought to have settled in this area using the gravel banks of the river seven because axes have been found here and those axes have

Been dated going back to 200,000 years ago I know it’s quite a a concept to get to get your head around isn’t it really butth yeah 200,000 years ago and those people would have been homono so they wouldn’t have looked exactly like us they would have looked more with a stoop

Been a lot more hairier but they were definitely definitely human and they’d already formulated tools that they could use to basically hunt and keep themselves alive is a very chilly day in here in janary got my gloves to keep myself going at the moment butth yeah so

They found those and then they thought afterwards that they drifted away they probably drifted away to the higher CWS which aren’t that far from here probably lying about uh oh 6 10 miles further to the east cot SC which you’ll be familiar with if you watch my CH channel for any

Period of time but uh yeah so they were those we’re going to have a walk a bit further around I’ll tell you about what happened here next I’m just under the famous Avenue of trees here at Frampton on 7 if you see any photograph s around the village often this is the

Photographer’s favorite It’s a Wonderful Avenue of trees I’m not sure what type of trees they are they might possibly be lime trees I’ll find that out put in the usual way below if I can up there you can see our Canal that’s the glester sharpness or gler Barkley Canal if you

Prefer and our church is just around the corner there so what happens next well there was a fallow here not much happened at all but of course in Britain the Romans arrived and they arrived here Frampton on probably settling in gleam it’s a Roman Road here which is the current a38

Heading from GLE South in the direction of Bristol running parallel to the river river 7 of course something very interesting happened when the Romans settled in Frampton on 7 now what happened in around trampton on 7 with the Romans was down to one of the Roman generals one aess plot but the spelling

All that is quite a mouthful isn’t it and he assembled some 15,000 men we assume it’s men not women they didn’t have many women centurions not that I’m aware of anyway but they assembled here and the reason they assembled here is he had a plan to go across to Forest Dean

Somewhere where we have been on the channel before that was occupied by the saluan tribes and the reason they wanted to get into The Forest of Dean was because of of the iror minerals which have been mined over in the forest and coal later on for hundreds and hundreds

Of years but of course there was no Bridge no seven Railway Bridge which we’ll be coming on to later in the video certainly no Motorway Bridges and they didn’t decide to cross for around Gloucester for for whatever reason I’m not sure why that was the case so they

Decided to Wade across a very dangerous thing to do many hundreds of men died in the process of Crossing from arlingham passage which is where we were in the last episode of The Seven way right into where nunum is now was wouldn’t have been there of course Into the Heart of

The Forest of Dean 15,000 men were assembled here at Frampton on 7 several men died well hundreds of men died trying to get across the treacherous Waters of Sabrina as we’ve seen on the seven way we know how dangerous a river it can be but what they decided to do

They actually used elephants which they got across because of the Roman Empire from places further south in Asia bringing them across here to Britain and then they Camp here at Frampton on 7 they use them to waade across the river at arlingham passage somewhere we were

In the previous episode here on the 7 Y and they found elephant bones I think that were some were found in the 19th century some were found in the 20th century in the bed of the river some of them made it into the forest Adine and there’s lots of evidence of Roman

Excavation of iron or in the forest but yeah amazing to think that Frampton on 7 was an encampment for the Romans that were wanting to wait across good old Sabrina now the building behind me here is Frampton Manor one of the oldest surviving buildings in Frampton although they’re rather lot of them this

Particular one dates from well probably around the 15th century the parts of it are older and joining the Mana here is Mana farm and there’s a royal connection to Mana Farm it also explains why the Village Green is called rosman’s green and the reason for that is when rosan

Clifford was born nearby here and she was a mistress of King Henry II loads of stories that have been intertwined throughout the middle and Che her ages around that concept of her being the Mistress of King Henry the second but she definitely was a real person born right here in Frampton on 7

As I say with royal connections that’s one of the oldest buildings now that surname Clifford comes up again because the Clifford family have huge connections to the Village here at Frampton on 7 they’re also connected with nearby Frampton Court which is on the other side of the huge Village Green

Here and that was built around 1710 to 1730 it’s a little bit too far for me to walk over to there but it has a magnificent Lake in front of it didn’t originally was a gravel pit but on S some couple of photos of that there it’s

Been used in loads and loads of uh costume dramas over the years so you probably recognize the building particularly the summerhouse at the end of that well it looks like a a Dutch Canal straightened bit of wonderful landscape Garden will include all the shots of that now so you know what I’m

Talking about but the Clifford family still live here in Tron 7 and they still own a lot of the properties hereabouts in the village The Village Green itself as I said it’s called rosman’s green after one Rosman Clifford and it is reputed to be one of the biggest English

Greens in the country um there’s always some debate about which is the exact biggest I think it’s certainly the biggest one in glosser and it’s certainly in probably in the top five of all the ones there’s always a bit of dispute about which bit you measure here

And there so but it’s yeah it’s it’s certainly over half a mile long it used to be a marsh it was actually drained in 1710 and I forgot the gentleman’s name did write it in my notes but I forgotten his name I’ll put his name in below now

So it was a Mary area he put in the the road the which was in effect of Causeway drained it and what you’re left with now is three large lakes or Village ponds which which is what the water that was drained off the March went into and

That’s what we’re left with today lots of gravel pits in the air here as we’ve seen as we’ve been going down we certainly saw some when we were at Upton on 7 in nearby wers of course and lots of dredging but that that’s all stopped now and they’re wonderful for for nature

So if you’re wandering around fron 7 highly recommend you go away from the greens and explore the other areas as well cuz there’s so much to see here in Frampton on 7 a few other things off the top of my head is the the cabri factory

I did a video about that it’s called chocolate and canals Cab’s as I said we know that they built up from bournville three sites of bourneville site one at blackpole in Worcester and the one here at Frampton all connected by canals I’ll insert a link to that video at the end

But yeah the factory was right by the canal here it’s no longer a cab Factory there but uh got local connections and myself and family members that worked uh in and around that factory here and lots of people that live in Frampton now will have memories of cabry factory here just

A wonderful place and wonderful memory in the state was served by the canal a couple of other things to tell you about Frampton on 7 has two pubs the Bell hotel which was actually originally the Bellin the Bell Hotel was built probably 19th century but it was built on the

Site of a much much older Bell in which was a coaching in and stage coaches left from here towards London and and there’s also the Three Horseshoes which is kind of in the Direction behind there’s also a cafe here as well Frampton lights to celebrate once a year the the Frampton

Feast it must be one of the oldest regular Feast type annual fate type events for a village anywhere in England cuz it dates back by raw Charter all the way to 1310 probably when Rosman Clifford was alive but uh yeah wonderful that continues each year so that’s a a

Wonderful spectacle well anyway I’m going to continue on now walking back to the end of the green towards the church again and then we’ll join up with the canal the toe path and More startel Walk proper to the port of Sharpness Oh So we’re now leaving both Frampton on seven and splat Bridge which is that swing Bridge there behind and we’re on the toe path again just got a shot of Sabrina it’s about 3/4 a mile over that way but you’re not allowed to walk around that side and I’ll explain more

When we get there um because there there is a very specific reason for that and uh so this is the seven way we’re on the seven way this is now the toe path for our journey to Sharp Nest now our first Port of Call will actually be near a village called

Cambridge again which has got connections to the family and when we get there I’ll also tell you a little bit more about this canal the gluster shant M Canal as well as what is known as the Cambridge arm now some people think it’s called cambrid arms and there

Used to be a pub there no it’s arm as in Canal if you’re familiar with my Canal series videos you know exactly what I mean it’s just a branch a branch line if you like in Railway terms off the main canal and we’ll have a look at that

Before we continue our journey on to sharpness but uh nice morning actually we had a terrible storm another storm was it uh not Juliet something like that we’ve had so many I get confused it was Jay we had we had Isa and then 24 hours later we had another storm but uh

That’s all calmed down now a little bit Breezy but uh it’s dry and the sun’s coming out it’s great interesting sign back there it said uh I think it’s one of those yellow bcn uh the national cycle Network done by raw Bank of Scotland some time ago

Recently painted I think and it said 12 1/2 miles to Gloucester cathedral which of course we covered when I did that special sway video just looking at gluster itself and uh Bristol Cathedral I think it said was it 32 or 34 and 1/2 miles to Bristol cathedral which I’ve also covered

Recently on a trip I did to Bristol and we had a look at the Cathedral there but be in mind we will actually be going into Bristol City Center when I finish the 7 y officially it ends s Beach but then we have the Bristol link the final

15 miles into the city The Heart of the City and floating Harbor and all of that and I’ll certainly be doing that that’ll be our final stage cuz seven Beach I don’t want to be unkind about seven Beach but it’s it’s not a bath or a chipping Camden which were the start and

End points of uh the cotal way which I did a couple of years ago now it’s not it’s not it’s not as exciting as that so uh we will have a look around 7 Beach used to be holiday Resort at one time but uh that’s all gone now with people

Flying abroad started off with the package Oles in the 60s and then was kind of seven Beach’s decline but uh we’ll have a look around there we’re going to continue on here I think it said on there’s a post back there I forgot to get a shot of it and it’s one

Of the canal mile posts and it said S6 s presumably Shen S6 miles that just seems a little bit under what my map is telling me at the moment it also says on the official Canal River trust’s finger post that it takes 2 hours to walk to

Sharpness I think that’s going a bit of a cracking speed and it’s not allowing for any photography or doing bits to camera either so uh it’s going to take me longer than 2 hours to get to sh rest but uh of course I need to to walk back

To my car which I’ve actually parked near Splat Bridge so I don’t need to walk all the way back through the Village Green but uh delightful here somebody’s got a bird feeder on the side here that’s always uh always good to see so why aren’t we allow to walk by the

River 7 in this section of the seven way then where there’s a couple of reasons one it’s like a flood prevention scheme over that side there’s lots of what are called rhines in gluster they SP spelled I think I got this the right way around

RH i n s and uh in Somerset they’re spelled with a Y that might be the other way around RH y NES but Rines some said glosser and they are drainage channels so we can see those now I can just see some over here and you can see that the

Fields still very very wet so I wouldn’t want to be walking over there cuz normally last year when I restarted the sway after the Christmas New Year winter break I restarted I think it wasn’t until March when we restarted at Ironbridge but this year because I’m doing this section along this hardcore

Tow path here it’s easy walking I and uh dry and sunny I thought well let’s got that section in today the other reason why is because it’s also a nature reserve and that’s all thanks to one this isn’t a criticism of once Peter Scott who set up the wildlife and

Wetlands trust at slimbridge somewhere World be going not right close up to but nearby and it’s a place called new grounds and the reason it’s called new grounds is because they were land that kind of the seven brought back where it was depositing sand hence why it’s

Called new grounds and it’s that area there which is the Nature Reserve at slimbridge a uh certainly nationally famous perhaps internationally famous now nature reserve and there’s lots of other wildlife and Wetland trusts around the country there’s one in London I think near stains on one of the reservoirs

There and I’ve certainly visited another one in the United Kingdom that’s at Castle ESB which is in Northern Ireland at strangford log there that’s a highly recommended place as well but of course that’s well out of my area that on the area that I cover here on West country wandering So I feel like I’m relaxing into the walk now I was a little bit anxious at the start with cuz I needed to do some filming around the village now although it’s a beautiful village with lots of History it’s actually a surprisingly busy Village and there was quite few

People around but uh hopefully you got a flavor of what Frampton on 7 is like and now here we’re on the toe path the official line of the seven way at the section between Frampton and sharpness I’ve only seen one other person just uh a gentleman walking his dog along the

Toe path we greeted each other good morning but uh as you can see out there there’s uh nothing just the flat lands and uh the river seven just there Over Yonder now I can see our first calling Point here on the seven way coming up since we’ve left Frampton and there is a

A newish house and I know that is where the Cambridge Iron is so I’ll see you there in a bit so behind me here is the Cambridge arm of the Glouster and sharpness Canal unfortunately I don’t know the date that it was actually opened if I can find

That out I I’ll put it in the usual way I was hoping to do a video on this Cambridge on but uh there’s very very few old photographs showing you why was it built well it was to carry coal like we’ve come across many times on our Canal series here on West country

Wanderings and it took the coal into a village called Cambridge there were plans to extend it on to cam and dersley Cam and dersley were the main requirements for the coal they were the people that needed the coal because of the factories and the mills in the area

Particularly places like listers and MSL and loads number of factories and I have covered a few of those on a separate video I did looking at the tone of dersley but yeah that’s the Cambridge it’s only probably about 3 miles long into maybe a bit less than that into the

Heart of the village of camridge where it joined there was a war there right next to the a38 yes the Roman Road and then it was moved by horse and card into both Cam and derley I think the main um coal Merchant in that area was one Mr

Chuda who was the co Merchant based at Coley next to KY Junction railway station now of course C and dersley raway station on the main Gloucester to Bristol Railway line but yeah there we go that is the Cambridge arm and just up from the Cambridge arm is the Cambridge

Arm swing Bridge got something to tell you about that as well now the Cambridge arm round about here was once the location that a narrow boat blew up it wasn’t actually by accident it was done deliberately all in the making of a children’s television cereal the writer of that cereal was a

Gentleman called Peter Dickinson who I once met when I was at primary school he lived in the Forester Dean and he wrote three books one of those books was called the changes the other one was called heart seas and the name of the narrow booat was heart Seas now the

Changes the TV series children’s TV which was commissioned by one Anna Hol who commissioned all of the children’s television dramas for the BBC at the time it was all set around here some of it was filmed in Bristol around Clifton and uh it was a lot filmed in The Forest

Of D without giving too much of the story away and here on the Gloucester sharpness Canal here in gloucestershire what was it about well it was an apocalyptic story really it was about how people reacted against technology they started smashing up Machinery smashing up cars there was a storm everything electrical stopped working

And civilization collapsed really heavy stuff for a children’s television drama I thought it was absolutely brilliant it was spectacularly done considering the constraints of the budget that they had but it was a it’s a really really brilliant drama I think a company called Network have released it on DVD and BFI

So it’s a restored copy now you can get your hands on one but they are quite highly Sal after I can say it’s a bit of a cult classic but yeah the changes filmed here on the glester sharpness Canal where the Naro heart Seas was blown up highly recommended for

It’s actually a real pleasure to walk on this section of the sway although it’s not beside Sabrina the quality of the toe path is really really good and it’s probably the easiest section I’ve actually had to travel though we’ll be clocking the miles up today because of

The return trip back to my car it’s very flat of course being the toe path and uh it’s hardcore so it’s I think theyve used the gravel here to build up the side of the toe path here by the glester sharess canal and it’s really really good terrain there’s no bumps dips or

Sliding around the mud that we’ve had on lots of the other sections of the S way so I managed to stop at the black shed I’ve managed to get myself a coffee here we go which is great very rarely on the seven wave I’ve been able to get a

Coffee or hot drink I’ve usually have a ther with me but one I actually can go and buy so it’s great on this section of the sway delightful easygo section down to the port of sharpness to to get something to eat so they they do ranges

Of uh hot food they can get breakfasts here all day breakfast they do cakes here and cofes as well so that’s really good and also as to say you’ve got the Tudor Arms just on the opposite side of the road there both places have car parking so you can visit those though

They are both restricted as well here you have to register your your car registration number and I think you just get three ARS but here that’s the um the bridge here next to the black shed and the glossy sharpness Canal was one time the largest longest and deepest canal in

The entire world which is incredible really and uh yeah so it it now sees very very little shipping it’s just a a Leisure Canal used by narrow boas and looked after by the canal and River trust so it runs between Gloucester and sharpness I can’t remember the exact

Dimensions of that is it 16 mil long in terms of the exact number I can’t remember but I I’ll put it in below I’m sure it’s around from about 25k that kind of an order it started off as an act of parliament uh in 1793 to improve shipping and trade up from the

Port of Bristol uh they uses the Bristol channel to get to Shar n and then sharp Nest to Gloucester because that’s the really tricky bit as we’ve seen with all those Sands going around the arlingham Horseshoe into the docks at Gloucester which were purpose built ready for the

Ship Canal so it started off then they raised 113 um ,000 for it but there was a few problems and it was some time before it opened I’ll tell you more about that in a bit so the road behind me down there over the bridge over Shepherd’s patch

Bridge takes you to the slimbridge wildlife and wetlands trust well worth going to don’t have time un fortunately to to walk down there and walk back as well as walking back to my car from charness Back to Frampton today but if you ever in gler well worth taking note

Of that but it does get very very busy in the summertime so it’s probably best visiting it out of season wildlight Wetlands at slimbridge is actually the world’s largest collection of captive wild file anywhere in the entire world they have various different habitats including Marsh areas muddy areas and

Various enclosures they also have two very large bird hides one of them you can actually Overlook the sanctuary itself and the other one looking out to the mud flats of the river seven as I say it’s absolutely fantastic place the other thing I forgot to mention a the black

Shed where I had my coffee is that if you have a boat narrow boat here on the canal they offer pump facilities they also have a chander and a good shop so really good place now after the act of parliament had been passed here well not here in Parliament

Over 100 miles away from where I currently am they um got the services of one Robert mil to continue on with the project so we have that act passing around about 1794 1795 1796 Robert mil took it on and then you had that money the £200,000 the costs would already gone up to

£13,000 by 19 sorry 1798 1978 1798 which was a lot of money in 1798 and so and they were nowhere near with not even halfway Le own finishing it so the trustees that wanted to complete the project took on the services of dadford dadford who we’ve come across previously on our Canal

Series and he took the project on on but that wasn’t the end of the story it was still no plain sailing on the canal just stepped away off the canal top path Canal toath is just up there and you have this Aqueduct which is coming off of a r which I mentioned

Earlier a drainage channel here the land in front of me belongs to the Barkley Castle estate it’s also Le by the wildlife and wetlands trust and there’s no access across it to protect the wildlife in the wildlife Haven Sanctuary the wwt here at slimbridge we’re not far

Off per now but that is a wonderful Arch and I think that dates to the original construction of the glester and sharpness Canal which I’m going to tell you a little bit more about now so Robert mil was trying to get the project completed we got our costs of 110 or 115,000

That have been run up by 1798 Robert mil had employed the services of one James dadford as an engineer and he took over the scheme James dford took over the scheme because Robert mil bailed out at the end of 1798 and with costs spiraling the entire Canal project was abandoned in 1800 with

Only some 5 1/2 miles of the canal completed less than half of the entire length between Gloucester and sharpness I’ll tell you more about what happened next later we’re now just coming into Peron which has two swing Bridges another decide to swing off at one of the

Bridges and walk through the village to break up the toe path section and then meet up with the toe path again in the seven way the second swing Bridge haven’t decided yet I needed to make my mind up in the next few minutes I don’t

Know what that is there so you got a sorry a concrete block over the toe path there it looks like something was filled in did there used to be a Warf there just south of the village of Peron I wonder I’m not sure cuz you’ve got those slots where the concrete section meets

The canal to put in usually that’s for stop locks when you’re locking off a section of the canal to maintain a lock that sort of thing but uh I don’t know I’ll have to dive into my history books of the Glouster and sharpness Canal when

Doing the edit and I’ll put that in the usual way below but here we go looks like some buildings up ahead Pon beckons we got another Milestone marker there it says 2 miles to Shar S2 and there’s another marker next to it just says 56 I

Have no idea what that means either so if you do know the answer to that one please drop a comment in the usual way below cheers so I decided to come off the bridge here person Upper Bridge Bridge number four which is I think is counted from the other way we got to

Open the the gate here it’s one of those rope aair so so sorry for the wobbly footage here we go it’s not too bad some of them are quite difficult to open but uh yeah so here’s our swing Bridge we’re going to go across that and then meet up

With the canal the other bridge in fact is just over that way and my great uncle was a lock keeper here on the Gloucester Shar Nest Canal towards I think the turn of the uh well R back the 1900s what the other interesting things that Pon has is a church which is is

Just opposite me so we’re going over the road here and have a look at that now Good just a chill out here in the churchard this church is St John the Evangelist I don’t know the year he was built so I can’t find a guide book to that but I’ll should be able to find out put that in the usual way below it’s a

Very very beautiful Church very quaint very traditional this of course here was a port as well the port of Peron where just to say Just 2 miles to the north of the much bigger much more well-known Port of sharpness but it’s wonderful place and I was delighted to be able to

Say so I got all my gear there on the seat there so I’ve just uh managed to get my hearts in cuz I’m actually feeling quite warm now for the first time on the adventure of the walk here but uh really enjoying the seven way here today anyway we’re going to

Continue we’re going to walk over Peron Bridge number two or Peron lower make a way back to the foot path and then we’ll be meeting up with Sabrina [Applause] Yeah [Applause] So this boat behind me here at perton was called Envoy and it was was built by one Joseph Barnard in Gloucester in 1890 but it was beached here as early as 1909 so it only had a 19-year lifespan and now it’s been here for over well

Best part of 120 years amazing to think that and all of these barges here and Boats were put here to support the bank of the Gloucester sharpness Canal to stop and prevent Sabrina washing the bank of the canal away Envoy back there was one of the very first back in approximately I think

It said December 1909 and they continued abandoning craft alongside the river 7 to prevent any of that eroding of the canal right up until 1965 and it Remains the largest collection of Inland craft anywhere in Great Britain as we make our final approaches to the port of sharpness it seems an appropriate moment

To tell you the last little bit of our history about this wonderful Canal behind me the Gloucester sharp Nest Canal there are various attempts to raise funds between 1800 and 1810 to enable the canal to be completed but they all sadly came to nothing in 1817 two things happened one was that

The authorities appointed one Thomas tford yes key of the road building and bridges right across Great Britain the A5 Etc he came on board and there was another thing that happened and that was the poor employment law which enabled the Canal builders to raise funds or

Loans to take out loans to build this to provide employment opportunities which is precisely what they did and the entire Canal opened in 1827 and it cost £440,000 in money then I’ll put what that is in today’s money now it sounds an extraordinary amount of money for a

Canal at the turn of the 19th century but it remains a magnificent spectacle here in gleria now we’re coming up to the remains of the original Seven Bridge not a road bridge but a Railway Bridge I’m sure a lot of you who watch my channel will be familiar with this this was

Opened in October of 1879 by the 7 Andy Railway company to link the port of sharaness to the 7 Andy Railway Network in the forest Adine some of which we started to explore here on my lost Railway walks and I’ll continue to do that as we go through the

Year the bit that you can see in front of us was actually a swing Bridge the round section housed a pump and a tower with all the mean mechanism with that to enable the swing bridge to operate open and close above the Gloucester and sharpness Canal to allow tall ships to

Go up to the port of Gloucester glester docks Great Bridge lots of coal was transferred from the forestan ceries to Sharp Nest docks to make their way both up to Gloucester in the Midlands down to Bristol and further down into the furthest parts of the Southwest all well and good until less

Than 80 years later we get to 1960 and a terrible accident happened here or there just over there in the river 7 as you can see from this model placed at the base of the tower which provided power to the swing bridge that swung there and the entire

Bridge had 21 spans an incredible structure very very striking however on the 25th of October 1960 the bridge suffered a tragic accident thick fog and a strong tide made the boats entering sharp Nest docks were having extra difficulty two tanker barges the arandale H and the Wasdale H Laden with

Oil and petrol I think one contains something like 321 tons of petroleum and the other one was about 100 tons of oil they were carried Upstream on the tide towards the bridge out of control wasel h collided with column 17 her pensel tracks ruptured and the force of the tide

Pushed arandale h on top of her the Collision caused two Bridge spans to collapse rupturing a gas main which crossed the bridge and an electric cable as well there was a mighty explosion and both barges burst into flames and five men on on the barge crew lost their

Lives tragically fire spread across the river as oil and petrol spilled onto the water of the eight crew only three survived having swam to the safety of the shore the bridge would have been over there to making its way across to the Forest of Dean sadly it was not

Economically viable to rebuild a bridge which was later demolished occasionally at low tide it’s still possible to see the remains of the tanker barges lying in the river mud that terrible tragedy of October 1960 goes once again to prove how dangerous a river the river 7

Sabrina can be never ever take it for granted when the bridge was demolished this part of glester share lost a vital communication link people from lney wanting to get to Sharp nest because they were used to traveling between the two because of the convenience of this Railway Bridge once

Connected two sides of the river 7 had to make a huge detour via Gloucester some 40 mil and the scho trains that connected sharpness to Litney and vice versa to the various different primary and secondary schools also had to make a big detour via gler wasn’t until a couple of years

Later that another Bridge was built and that of course wasn’t carrying rails but a road bridge motor what was then the M4 Motorway which was opened by the queen and put the exact date of that below which was impressive engineering Feit in itself but sadly no Railway Bridge

Connects these two sides of Sabrina here today well we’re nearly at jour’s end just coming into sharpest docks I’m not going to do a full tour sharpness docks today I’m going to do that at the start of the next s Way series I’m going to continue along around heading towards

Where the marina is here at sharp Nest dos and then I’ll close the video off and then tell you by what’s happening next here on the seven way Just before I go I’m actually added this clip in on the way back to my car I’ve already recorded the close of today’s video but when I got to perter at the church there I realized oh no I’ve I’ve lost my scarf well anyway I’m walking the section currently between perton and

Back to Shepherd’s patch bridge and I kept been looking at all the hedges just gone past this seat in fact the only seat on the section between per and Shepherd’s pass and have a look at this yay it’s my scarf every to that so someone it must have been on the toe

Path somewhere someone saw it on the ground didn’t decide to take it and has tied it to the seat so it wouldn’t blow away again thinking that maybe somebody would return like I have today so it was just as well I didn’t catch a bust from sharpness and I’ve walked back and I

Found my scarf again so I’m reunited with my blue scarf so I’m really pleased with that anyway I’m going to close the video off now back in Sharpness Now I’m going to end the video here the oldest part of sharp Nest docks and when we restart next time I tell you more about the history of this amazing docks here on both the river 7 and the glester sharpness Canal hope you enjoyed the wander today today here on this section

Of the S way from Frampton on 7 to sharpness we only have three more sections to go they are from sharpness to Old Bon 7 old Bon 7 to 7 Beach where the official seven way ends and the section from Seven Beach that takes you into the City of Bristol right into the

House of Bristol it’s actually quite a long section that final one some 15 miles long but it’s well served by public transport there though hope you enjoyed it today until next time on West country wanderings take care of yourself with with the Magnificent River s behind me look after yourselves all the best

For now cheers Goodbye [Applause]