Down by the River Severn north of Gloucester

Helena spotted that the travelling exhibition of the British Wildlife Photography Awards 2024 was finishing at the end of the month at the ’Nature in Art’ museum in Twigworth. We decided to visit with a view to continuing on to have a drink at a pub nearby on the banks of the River Severn near Wainlode Hill.

We both found the exhibition very impressive and I was interested by the technical details of the images, particularly comparing the results of both traditional DSLR cameras as well as more recent mirrorless cameras and related lenses.

When we reached the river, the pub we expected to visit was very crowded so we decided to drive on further up the valley road parallel to the River Severn, as I remembered seeing a map showed a bridge over the river. When we found the bridge there was a very quiet pub on the bank of the river where we alighted to have a drink with our picnic lunch. Just as we were leaving to drive back south, but now on the west side of the river, a large Dutch style barge appeared sailing downstream towards Gloucester. I did manage a snap but wasn’t really prepared.

We drove on south and turned off onto a back road towards a hamlet we’d visited many years ago where another pub existed on the river bank at Ashleworth, as well as an undeveloped tithe barn owned by the National Trust. I drove on about two hundred yards past the buildings of the hamlet to where the road ended at the river, which was an old ferry point. This turned out to be Ashleworth Quay, an ancient mooring point for boats since the medieval times, where the pub had been established probably in early Victorian times, although that may have replaced earlier establishments.

Sadly the pub closed about ten years ago, probably because of the damage caused by regular flooding of the valley  which has become an increasing problem to this day. We perched on the flood protection bank, which now isn’t always effective, to watch the river flow with swallows flying around us constantly and a delightful sense of the noise of the quiet countryside.

After some time I saw the Dutch barge we’d watched earlier a few miles upstream come round the bend in the river. Instead of passing on downstream, it slowed and very gingerly the ‘captain’ brought her in to the somewhat decrepit mooring we were sitting beside. Once secure we had a chat with the ‘captain/owner’ who spends his days wandering the rivers, canals and even the sea when necessary. He didn’t chat for long as he said he was hungry and disappeared inside the boat to cook up a meal.

We drove back to the tithe barn, built about 1500, and parked to wander about and look inside, it being open to the four winds and the public. I’ve added an ‘Extra’ of the hamlet showing the manor house, Ashleworth Court, as well as the church of St Andrew and Bartholome and the importance of the tithe barn to the estate.