24th June
After exploring Worcester and it's beautiful cathedral we continued on to Upton, a really pretty old town on the verge of giving its annual jazz festival.
Because of the festival all the (very few) public moorings were taken, mostly 2 abreast, so that we were forced to moor at the end of the town on a steep wall below the Swan Hotel. The sign said moorings for hotel, non residents welcome . It was tricky to come in as there was another boat moored and a scruffy pontoon either end of the space we were aiming for. Once into the wall, (the owner of the boat behind kindly offering to move back to accommodate us) it was apparent there was not a lot to tie to. A battered old cleat above me at the bow, a shared ring at the stern, neither in a good position for the length of our boat. Still we had a mooring, there being none in the wilds of the Severn before this. We explored the delightful town, bought some supplies, a drink in the Swan so as to declare our mooring site and we were set for the night, or so we thought. We spotted Peter and Kate on their boat (whom we had encountered in Stourport Basin) cruising by, surveying the bank for a mooring, as we had done a little while before, and we offered them a mooring alongside which they gratefully accepted.
We had a lovely dinner in the bow and all of 5 strawberries each from our pots on the roof and were sitting back to enjoy the sunset when a face appeared over the wall above asking if we were only staying for one night. He told us it was his mooring, but that it was no problem. I couldn't help but say you should have a sign then as it appears to belong to the hotel. We then realised there is a white line marking where the Hotel moorings end, we were not advised of this beforehand. All this somewhat spoiled our evening for a while. This was not an especially nice mooring anyway, being a narrow strip of weed infested concrete backed by a tall wall, our only access off a limbo exercise beneath next doors' ropes with no view of the river because of our needy neighbours and a large trip boat on the scruffy pontoon. It got us to discussing how few moorings there are along the Severn and how remiss a popular place like Upton was in not making more of its river frontage in this way. The Swan publican told us that the council had argued with him that there was no point in improving his frontage to further his trade, so he has started a visitors book which we were required to sign so that he can prove that plenty of boaters would frequent his pub if only they could moor comfortably.
This is all 'boat talk' and probably boring, but I started this blog as a diary for us and therefore think it worth noting these odd stories that affect all boaters and cause problems all around. We presume the 'owner' of the mooring we were actually on was having a disagreement with the landlord, but we can't be sure. It is extremely difficult to identify moorings when you are coming up to a town, signage is important.
All that said, we DID have a mooring in this popular place and we did enjoy the sunset!
Worcester Cathedral
Worcester evening on mooring
Upton
Upton mooring - hemmed in!
After exploring Worcester and it's beautiful cathedral we continued on to Upton, a really pretty old town on the verge of giving its annual jazz festival.
Because of the festival all the (very few) public moorings were taken, mostly 2 abreast, so that we were forced to moor at the end of the town on a steep wall below the Swan Hotel. The sign said moorings for hotel, non residents welcome . It was tricky to come in as there was another boat moored and a scruffy pontoon either end of the space we were aiming for. Once into the wall, (the owner of the boat behind kindly offering to move back to accommodate us) it was apparent there was not a lot to tie to. A battered old cleat above me at the bow, a shared ring at the stern, neither in a good position for the length of our boat. Still we had a mooring, there being none in the wilds of the Severn before this. We explored the delightful town, bought some supplies, a drink in the Swan so as to declare our mooring site and we were set for the night, or so we thought. We spotted Peter and Kate on their boat (whom we had encountered in Stourport Basin) cruising by, surveying the bank for a mooring, as we had done a little while before, and we offered them a mooring alongside which they gratefully accepted.
We had a lovely dinner in the bow and all of 5 strawberries each from our pots on the roof and were sitting back to enjoy the sunset when a face appeared over the wall above asking if we were only staying for one night. He told us it was his mooring, but that it was no problem. I couldn't help but say you should have a sign then as it appears to belong to the hotel. We then realised there is a white line marking where the Hotel moorings end, we were not advised of this beforehand. All this somewhat spoiled our evening for a while. This was not an especially nice mooring anyway, being a narrow strip of weed infested concrete backed by a tall wall, our only access off a limbo exercise beneath next doors' ropes with no view of the river because of our needy neighbours and a large trip boat on the scruffy pontoon. It got us to discussing how few moorings there are along the Severn and how remiss a popular place like Upton was in not making more of its river frontage in this way. The Swan publican told us that the council had argued with him that there was no point in improving his frontage to further his trade, so he has started a visitors book which we were required to sign so that he can prove that plenty of boaters would frequent his pub if only they could moor comfortably.
This is all 'boat talk' and probably boring, but I started this blog as a diary for us and therefore think it worth noting these odd stories that affect all boaters and cause problems all around. We presume the 'owner' of the mooring we were actually on was having a disagreement with the landlord, but we can't be sure. It is extremely difficult to identify moorings when you are coming up to a town, signage is important.
All that said, we DID have a mooring in this popular place and we did enjoy the sunset!
Worcester Cathedral
Upton
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