High Orchard Bridge at Gloucester docks

I'm glad that we postponed today's planned visit to a friend in Surrey until Saturday, as there has been snow falling from the clouds and very cold northerly winds. Helena went on a local bus jaunt to Michinhampton, while I went to town to do errands.

After we had a bowl of veg soup for lunch, when I got home, I decided to go on a pleasant drive across country to buy some essentials. This entailed a trip to the farm shop near Bisley, mainly to stock up on some obviously very tasty suet pellets for the birds. From there I drove down and then across the Slad valley, which I then climbed to a ridge near its head, before dropping down again into the Painswick valley, which is perched high on the far side, above the springs which still flow down Tibblewell Lane.

From Painswick I took the ancient route up to Painswick Beacon, then over and down the steep Cotswold escarpment and on to Gloucester. The snow had cleared though the clouds remained and the whole landscape seemed worn out by winter with a dull patina, and washed out tones.

After shopping in several places, which included stocking up with fresh tofu, I headed to look for a blip at Gloucester docks. I parked in the car park of a big supermarket which was built on converted dockside land allowing easy pedestrian access to the waterfront. It was so cold and even windier, but the cloud cover was breaking enough for tantalising shafts of sunlight to penetrate to the ground.

The dock at this point is really the northern end of the Gloucester and Sharpness canal, just a few hundred yards from where the docks proper turn into purpose built basins around which are multiple old warehouses. Beyond that dock is a lock gate that provides onward access to the navigable River Severn, allowing access to the whole inland waterway system via Worcester and the canal leading to Birmingham and beyond.

I sheltered from the wind next to this large modern concrete wall which is supporting the road over the canal. The tower in the picture supports the control room for lifting High Orchard Bridge whenever large vessels need to head into the docks. The black post to the left of the twoer are the traffic lights for boats. I haven't yet seen the bridge lifted, but today I noticed the three masts of a wooden tall ship just visible above the roof of a warehouse. It wasn't there last time I visited.

The warehouse in the background of this picture is a wonderful piece of attractive industrial design falling steadily into disrepair. I love the colour of the section over hanging the canal wharf. Thankfully the whole water frontage on that eastern side seems to have mostly been protected from demolition, but I expect that means it will be hard to find developers keen to adapt these fine functional forms for new purposes.