Another look at Tewkesbury

I wanted to have a look at the Severn Way and the Severn Ham.  The former is a path which roughly follows the River Severn whilst the Severn Ham is an island of meadowland located at Tewkesbury between the rivers Avon and Severn.

My route took me down the Avon where there were some attractive views of the Abbey.

Then I turned away from Tewkesbury crossing the Severn Ham to reach the River Severn.  The Ham is about 180 acres and owned by Tewkesbury Council who sell the grass at auction each year.  The highest bidder has to cut and remove the hay by July 12.

On the far side of the Ham is Upper Lode Lock with the adjacent weir.

The tides are quite high at the moment and the lock keeper informed us it was flowing over the top of the next weir at Gloucester Lock bringing a significant amount of floating debris with it.  Something to look out for when we move.

Back on the Tewkesbury side of the Ham I reached Mill Avon (the site of Abbey Mill) and the end of the navigable River Avon.  There has been a mill here since 1190.  The first mill was operated by Benedictine Monks and supplied by local farmers.

The mill was rebuilt and enlarged in 1793.  The “new” mill had four water powered grinding stones.

A second ‘'”new” mill was built in 1865 further upstream near the current Avon Lock.  It was enlarged in 1895 and this apparently caused the demise of the Abbey Mill.

I walked away from the river going up Mill Street (of course) towards the Abbey.

Looking back

Then I went exploring more of those narrow alleyways attempting to imagine what it must have been like to walk this way over the centuries. 

No doubt they could tell a few stories!

Now friend and blog reader Bill has emailed asking why I haven’t posted any recent photos of my painting efforts.  Being a boat painter I’m sure he would like to criticize pass on some useful advice.

I’ve been rubbing back to bare metal all the chips and rust spots on the handrails.  They have then been given a coat of primer using a small brush.  The handrails now look slightly spotty.

There’s an example for you Bill!

The next part of the paint repairs is very annoying.  I repainted the Boatman’s Beam last year and when I removed the cheap masking tape it took some of the light grey topcoat which has resulted in tiny rust spots appearing.  So all that has also been rubbed back and a coat of primer applied.

 

All this primer is going to be rubbed back and two coats of undercoat applied before I start on the top coats.