It was time to leave the lovely River Avon and head back to
the canals, but not before a night in Bancroft Basin.
There was plenty of room in the basin and with no wind today it was a doddle for Richard to reverse into a berth.
I could see a market and couldn’t wait to go and investigate. While we were having lunch, we could hear two buskers playing, one to our left with a classical guitar and the other to our right playing a violin – it really wasn’t very pleasant ☹
We walked over to the market after lunch. To be perfectly honest I felt very uncomfortable with so many people around with no masks on and no social distancing whatsoever. The only things we bought were cards and fudge. There were masses of food stalls, but everyone was queuing like they did in the “old” days. We bought an ice-cream and sat down and listened to a guy playing a single steel drum with just a background of drums. We sat for ages as he really was excellent.
After dinner of fish and chips – last meal out, honestly, well a take-away, we walked over the Tramway Bridge and round the park – we needed to walk off our dinner.
I was wondering about the history of Bancroft Basin but couldn’t find much on the internet other than a huge variety of goods used to come up the River Avon from all over the world via the seaport of Bristol. To do that, boats must have gone up the tidal Severn, along the Sharpness Canal to Gloucester, back onto the Severn then onto the Avon at Tewkesbury. The banks of the Avon at Stratford were lined with wharfs and there were originally two canal basins. The original canal basin remains to this day, the other was filled in to form Bancroft Gardens.
Today’s photos were taken on our walk round Stratford town
this afternoon as the last time we were here I forgot to take any.
0.293 miles
1 lock
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