Ryeford canal bridge

A colleague emailed early this morning to say he was very ill, so I offered to cover for him at the shop this afternoon from 1pm.  I was rather tired this morning after getting far too excited by a detective story when I went to bed.  I didn't stop reading until 2am and then had only five hours sleep.

I had an appointment in the middle of the morning to meet a doctor from the new GP practice I've had to join because my last one had to close down.  I was very impressed and am glad I took advice from Camilla about which practice to join.  

I knew the sunshine was forecast to end by lunchtime, so I drove about two mils west of the town centre to Ryeford where I knew I could walk along a tree lined section of the canal.  I only had thirty minutes so walked along the towpath to the east initially so that the sun was just behind me when I looked back at Ryeford Bridge. I was sorry that there was a van parked on the bridge but the rest of the view is very satisfying.

I want to bring Helena here soon so we can explore a bit further westwards to the area called Ocean, near Stonehouse, which marks the western end of the regenerated section of the Stroudwater canal.  A large bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund is being prepared to fund the work need to reconnect Ocean to the Gloucester to Sharpness canal, and will be submitted this autumn.

Last week the current canal regeneration project won a prestigious national award as reported here in our local newspaper:

'The restored waterway between Stonehouse and Bowbridge came top of the Restoration and Historic Environment Category of the 2015 Living Waterways Awards.
The awards, organised by the Canal & River Trust, were set up to recognise the most inspiring and exciting waterway-based improvement projects across the UK.

The judges, who come from the environmental, engineering, architecture and regeneration sectors, said: “This £20 million restoration project has transformed a massive swathe of derelict and contaminated land back into a pleasant waterway environment which supports diverse flora and fauna. 


"And it has embraced the involvement of the local community in all aspects of investigation, planning and physical restoration.”


The award was presented at a special ceremony in London, which was attended by representatives of Stroud District Council’s canal team, the Cotswold Canals Trust, Stroud Valleys Canal Company and the project’s volunteers.'

YAY to them all. They have done wonderful work.