DG24001 River Severn Gloucester V01 180224

Gloucester Docks, often signposted the Gloucester Quays, has been an important part of my life since I owned a modern flat within the docks for 17 years (2005-2022) which gave me an ideal opportunity to study and explore both Gloucester’s history and geography. Gloucester has both an incredible history starting with many artefacts from Roman Times (AD 43-577) through to having an exceptional geography both physical and economic closely linked to the River Severn and the building of Gloucester Docks. But in this blog post I am going to briefly focus upon the River Severn hopefully introducing you to some surprising geographical facts whilst sharing with you a small booklet created by Chris Witts covering the One Hundred Bridges (at the time of its publication in 1996 ) spanning the River Severn from its source in Wales to becoming the Bristol Channel. Chris Witts I know nothing about but I have treasured his booklet for many years and reading his biography on the back of his booklet (linked below) appreciated his strong links to Gloucester Docks. Through my DMB Publishing hobby one of my activities is sharing freely digitised copies of these types of Home Published Booklets that would otherwise be lost forever. The Copyright of the author must ways legally be acknowledged and they are shared here on behalf of the author based upon a Creative Commons 4.0 Licence defined by a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Deed.

Firstly I am not going to just copy type here much of the geographical history surrounding Gloucester Docks because my blog https://adigitalgeography.blogspot.com is intended to add historical value not repeat what is already digitally published on the internet. Although providing you with links to some of these digital resources is part of digitally sharing indicated by the title “A Digital Geography” where ideally all resources need to be digital. So it might be worth you reading this link first.

https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/glos/vol4/pp251-258

So what is the first of my own surprising geographical facts. The modern flats, one of which I owned, shown in the photograph below are built upon what was an island in the middle of the River Severn branch that breaks off from the main River Severn at the Upper Parting at Maisemore before rejoining at the Lower Parting creating the Alney Island. In fact the geographical term for this is a “distributary” and in this case it joins back up with the main river just south of Over Bridge. Both are called the River Severn. The Alney Island acts as a flood plain and recently I have witnessed it being subject to more floods. I have walked across the Alney Island to the Lower Parting and viewed this wide expanse of water where the distributary that passes near to the centre of the Gloucester City rejoins the main river.

When I first visited this site they were building these flats (2004) special drilling rigs had to be used by a specialist foundation drilling (piling) company because they were drilling into essentially a narrow sandbank. In fact this original River Severn island existed before the docks were constructed. With the one side of the river turned into the docks the other side remained the River Severn at the back of these flats. Originally boats were docked on either side of this island before the one side was turned into the docks basin linked to the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal. The one end of the island provided for a lock to the River Severn which had a huge rise and fall particularly in floods and the other end allowed for two Dry Docks to be constructed off the main dock basin before the basin linked to the canal. Look at this Google aerial photo to appreciate this layout.

To me one of the mysteries that I didn’t learn about until I had lived in Gloucester for over 10 years was the existence on the Alney Island of an old derelict lock that existed to allow the navigation of boats around a particularly shallow part of the River Severn distributary which now has a weir. In fact with its closure boats are no longer able to use this part of the River Severn to join the main River Severn south of Over Bridge. See an aerial Google photo of this Old Derelict Lock. But be warned although public access is allowed the owners of the nearby house which would have been the Lock Keepers Cottage site don’t seem too keen on visitors judging by the barbed wire and warning notices.

 

Another surprising geographical fact is that at the back of these flats the River Severn Distributary can flow in two different directions. Normally it flows east but it can flow west. This is because particularly in the high Spring and Autumn Bristol Channel tides the water is forced up the River Severn funnel shaped estuary forming the Severn Bore. So the Severn Bore forces the river to flow in the opposite direction by Gloucester Docks. It is not a dramatic experience to witness here in Gloucester but the best location is down at Minsterworth on the A48 by Minsterworth Church. I once took an American Work Colleague at 5.30 am in the morning to witness it at Minsterworth knowing there was a Spring High Tide. We stood there in the freezing cold having missed out on a hotel breakfast with the river so still with no flow and a mirrored surface. He became increasingly frustrated in an American way. When 5.30 am passed with no show he thought it was just another English exaggerated tourist attraction. Then the roar when the 7 foot bore wave rushed by but what catches people out is the river then continues to rise up to 20 feet over time flooding the banks forcing us to retreat. To say he was impressed is a bit of an understatement. It is the one geographical event that everybody should witness at least once in their lifetime. It is surreal watching a force of nature created by the magnetic force of the Moon on our seas display its power through tidal movements leading to the Severn Bore.

Use the link below to read more about the Severn Bore

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severn_bore

 So finally a walk across Alney Island taking care when it is flooded to seek out a dry route over to Over Bridge. It is a splendid Nature Reserve. Once at Over Bridge you can explore the Telford built Over Bridge (Number 97) in the Century of Bridges Booklet and from the top of it view the Over Railway Bridge (Number 98).

Thomas Telford's Over Bridge 

Railway Bridge viewed from Over Bridge

To see the location of the hundred bridges over the River Severn use the Link below to see the Century of Bridges Booklet by Chris Witts hopefully being as impressed as I have always been with its contents.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gv_dxz1utBYcK9UOXr9CipWfpwSOaein/view?usp=sharing