Mud, Chocolate & Ruddy Ducks!

The tow paths are muddy puddles and upstream the rain has swollen the River Severn to the point it has surrounded the Abbey at Tewkesbury! I’m relieved that we are on the canal and not at the mercy of the flood waters. Some of the images on social media have been quite scary. When there have been gaps in the rain, we’ve managed to get off the boat and explore a little more of the local area.

Frampton-on-Severn is a gorgeous village that has a green jewel at its heart. The village green is reputed to be the longest in the country. It is bordered by beautiful examples of 15th century buildings and magnificent Georgian mansions. Several of the oldest houses were rebuilt after a severe storm in 1560 at the start of the “Little Ice Age” which lasted for seventy years. The Frampton Estate has provided the backdrop for historical TV dramas such as Persuasion 1971 and Sanditon in 2019.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The village borders the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal. Near to Fretherne Swing Bridge is a mill that was built during World War I by the famous Cadbury family. It helped to meet the growing demand for a new, milkier chocolate bar that had been created towards the end of the 19th Century. This area of rural Gloucestershire was renowned for its dairy farming, but moving vast quantities of fresh milk was expensive and difficult. In 1904, when George Cadbury introduced the new formula that needed more milk, they decided to build the factory closer to the Gloucestershire dairies and this led to the brand name of Dairy Milk Chocolate.

Where the Staffordshire potteries used the Trent & Mersey Canal to transport clay and bone china, Cadburys used lighters and barges to bring sugar cane and cocoa beans from ports along the Bristol Channel upriver to Sharpness and along the canal to the factory at Frampton. There it was blended and pressed with local milk to make chocolate crumb. It was then loaded onto narrowboats to head north along the River Severn and onto the Worcester and Birmingham Canal to reach Cadbury’s Bournville factory in Birmingham roughly 70 miles (113km) away.

Another blast from the past, but on a personal level, was our visit to the wetland nature reserve at Slimbridge. It’s been fifty years (yes that is a ridiculous amount of time) since we both visited there from a summer scout camp at Tetbury. Ian was a brand new knobbly kneed Scout and I was the ten year old nightmare daughter of the Scout Leader. This time it was a short walk from Patch Bridge to the visitors centre, The only part that we could both recognise was the high viewing tower at the entrance. To say that this wetland reserve has changed is an understatement, it’s now a fabulous maze of walkways and hides overlooking a patchwork of pools and lakes.

We saw deceits of Lapwings, coils of wigeon, rafts of ruddy ducks, lamentations of swans and gaggles of geese! There were no murmurations of starlings but strangely there was a flamboyance of flamingos. They were bit smelly though as they were all hiding together in their heated accommodation. At teatime we went to see Tilly, the resident otter, chasing after her food, sadly she was on her own as she waits for a new companion to arrive at her holt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Talking of “wetland”, there’s currently 100 flood warnings in place across the UK due to the current blocked weather pattern causing endless rain. The River Severn is graded as dangerous and the lock at Tewkesbury, that we need to use to get on to the River Avon in April, is currently under water. For all those people who were praying for rain to keep the waterways navigation open last year, I think your prayers are being answered! I’m currently happy if I can find a stretch of towpath that isn’t a muddy swamp!