Old mooring rings at Sharpness Dock

We went for a guided walk around sharpness Docks early this evening, which Helena arranged some months ago. It was organised by a Gloucestershire Local History Association as one of their Industrial Heritage Walks. I've been to these docks several times, notably when I watched some Tall Ships leaving the canal after a special gathering in Gloucester to head out to sea, but it was new to Helena.

Luckily the evening light was reasonably bright at first despite the sense of imminent rain coming from the dark clouds in the south.  The docks are the entry/exit point for the Gloucester to Sharpness canal as well as allowing boats of up to 8000 tons to moor at the docks to load cargo. The canal has a more limited access.

We walked around the original dock basin, which is now sealed off from the River Severn, and saw the early buildings that remain one of which is the listed 'Old Dock Master's House', built in the 19th century. It is a rather lovely classic late Georgian style house sitting looking out down the Severn Estuary, now with the two Severn bridges in sight in the distance.

The second part of the walk was at the new dock basin where we saw the current entry point and the massive dock gates. The rain was just beginning when we reached there and the light was rather poor.  But we strolled inland to the actual dock basin where two large vessels were moored apparently waiting to leave on the next high tide at 3am tomorrow morning.

The are quite few interesting old boats and some small related businesses close to the quaysides. A few old grain stores and an original brick warehouse still stand elegantly, although now looking a little dilapidated. At the last place we listened to our guide by the dock I spotted these massive mooring rings. The white ring is probably at least eighteen inches in diameter.

The rain then fell progressively harder and by the time we had driven out of the dockland area a huge rainbow arced across the Cotswold escarpment under a lovely yellowing light from the setting sun.

Here are a couple of links to my earlier pictures of Tall Ships going down the canal and out to sea at Sharpness Dock. They give a variety of views of the various dockland scenes and on a sunny day!

My blip of that day.

Tall ships going back to the sea evening 24th August 2014