Life on the millpond

I usually take Helena to her job near Brimscombe on Tuesday aftyernoons, when I am available, but today was different. She was taking her pupils on an outing to visit the Dr Bach centre in Oxfordshire, which meant leaving at midday from the main offices beside the river Frome near Brimscombe Port.

After dropping her and making sure their transport had arrived, I decided to park at the Port and go for a blipping wander. Brimscombe Port was originally built to transfer cargo from Severn Trows, which travelled from the River Severn down the Stroudwater Navigation, onto Thames barges which could carry the goods eastwards towards London on the much narrower Thames and Severn Canal. The original quaysides and the large bodies of water were all filled in when the canal ceased operating and became a small industrial site. But the original Mill remains, converted into a series of officesas do some of the other old storage buildings. I have blipped the Mill before, but couldn't resist taking more shots in the lovely bright light under the rare blue skies and puffy clouds.

I stood for a long time on the bridge over the River Frome, where the water still flows into the millpond, before running over weirs, through the mill race with the excess flowing on round the complex in the river bed. It is a small arched, or bow, bridge with a small stone parapet which lots of original metal hooks still embedded in it. I hung over the edge looking down and on hearing a loud splash realised the fish were biting. The river flowed quite fast and was probably three or four feet deep and about twenty feet wide at this point.

Peering down into the clear bur ruffled water, through reflected clouds, I noticed a lot of trout of varying sizes hovering right under the bridge. I this took me back to the many times I endlessly watched the river flow at my parents last house, which backed right onto the River Lambourn in Berkshire. There I studied the trout hierarchy for best feeding positions in the flowing waters. Kingfishers landed on the tree hanging over the water and would dive in to feed.

Today, it was much the same, though no Kingfishers appeared, although they are often seen hereabouts on the Frome. There were also coots around and in particular one floated under the bridge and then became frightened when it found me hanging over the parapet. It took off with running feet on the water got airborne and then immediately landed with a big bow wave which i caught on film, so to speak.

The river emerges from beneath the bridge and flows into the wide millpond which is now somewhat silted up and filled with a variety of weeds and reeds, with lots of invading shrubs now allowed to hang over the bankside or grow out of the Cotswold stone walls.

This Mallard drake had the pond to himself most of the time and when I wasn't filming trout (badly, which is why I haven't blipped any) I would look up to se where he was foraging. At one point he floated upstream towards me cautiously hogging the bank, carefully staying out of the stark sunlight by sliding under the overhanging bushes and low-lying branches of trees. Then he darted across to the other side of the river to investigate this stretch of weeds that must have looked as attractive to him as it does to me, particularly since his glorious colours contrast so well with the vivid greens.

I felt I could smell the clean water with its the sounds accompanied by bird calls and the occasional human passing by. It was all rather idyllic and so very satisfying to slow down there for more than an hour, just amusing myself.


A little bit of local history: (thanks to wiki)
Brimscombe Port was originally built to transfer cargo from Severn Trows, which travelled from the River Severn down the Stroudwater Navigation, to Thames barges which carried the goods eastwards towards London. This was necessary because the locks to the east of the port were too narrow to accommodate the larger sea-going trows. There were also several boat-building yards at the port, including Abdela & Mitchell, who exported boats, notably paddle steamers, all over the world. According to recent on-the-ground research the legendary riverboat 'Queen Of Africa' which gave a star performance in the John Huston movie The African Queen was built at the Abdela & Mitchell Brimscombe works between 1908 and 1911.

Many of the Abdela & Mitchell river-boats went to the Nile, the Niger and other African rivers, and especially to the Peruvian Amazon and other Amazonian tributaries. The Abdela river-boats were highly regarded for their elegance, shallow draft (often less than 40cm), and flexibility, viz the 'Adis Ababa' for Lt-Col John Harrington's White Nile/Ethiopia expedition of 1903 - 'boiler arranged to burn oil, coal or wood'. Lesley Abdela who lives in East Sussex is the last direct descendant bearing the name of the Victorian/Edwardian shipbuilding family which owned yards on the Manchester Ship Canal, Queen's Ferry, and at Brimscombe. Her marine architect grandfather Isaac Abdela was the proprietor of the Abdela & Mitchell shipyards when the 'Queen Of Africa' was built at Brimscombe. The shipyards announced themselves as 'Contractors To The Admiralty, War Office, India Office and Allied Governments'.

Until the construction of what is now the adjacent A419 road along the bottom of the valley in 1815, Thrupp Lane was the main thoroughfare between Stroud and Chalford. The condition of this road was such that it required a whole day for a team of horses to draw a loaded waggon and return, a distance of only four miles each way.