Bridge dodging.

The sun was shining as we got under way ans straight into the lock, Weir Brake, Gordon Gray or Anonymous Lock, take your pick. A wide beam had gone down the lock about an hour earlier so we had to turn it round.

The Upper Avon is quite intimate and the banks aren't all as high as above. There are places that you would have to be careful if passing another boat, especially a wide beam. We stopped for water and dump the rubbish etc at Luddington Lock as two boat shared the lock travelling up stream.

Here we are at Binton Bridges. The river splits into several channels but only one is deep enough for navigation and it was best to follow the arrows!

There was plenty of room on this bridge in the end. It doesn't look so good from a distance though. It is actually 12'9" wide.

This is the weir at Welford, or W.A. Cadbury Lock.

Helen enjoying the sunshine at Bidford Grange or Pilgrim Lock

St Lawrence's Church at Bidford on Avon from the river.

The Bidford on Avon Bridge is Grade 1 listed and dates from the early 15th Century but has been rebuilt several times. In the 16th Century stone from Alcester Priory was used. In 1644 the bridge was demolished by Charles 1st troops to cover his retreat from Worcester to Oxford. On the approach you can see how it looks much narrower than it actually is. The river is very shallow to the right of the arch and also by the bank so you have to line up carefully.

Apparently this arch is 12'9" like the previous bridge but it still doesn't look like it.

Here you can see why you can only use the one arch. In actual fact later a narrow boat had tried to get on the moorings that you can see through the arch in the photo above. On the diagonal from there to the arch is very shallow. Less than 1' and they went aground. It took them the best part of an hour to get them off and included getting a rope ashore and pulling their bow round.

There was just enough room for us, the last spot, on the Trust moorings at Bidford on Avon. After a bite of lunch we did a few jobs including potting up the for'd tub with some petunias and fitting the new solar fan motor. After that we went for a walk over the bridge in to the town. The bridge is wider than a pack horse bridge but is only one car wide and with cut ins for pedestrians to get out of the way. Obviously the bridge is regulated by traffic lights. We went for a beer at the Frog which was okay but we didn't stop for a second as chicken pie was calling.