Stanton's bridge over the canal at Thrupp, Stroud

It was damp, dank and gloomy when I headed off to find a picture for the day. When I got in the car, I decided to go to Stanton's bridge to see how the canal's renovation was progressing. The Stroudwater canal is being transformed in stages and the last section to Brimscombe from the eastern side of Stroud is in progress.

The canal was built for sea going barges to come up via the Severn to Brimscombe port where cargo could be transferred to smaller, narrower boats for the journey over the Cotswold hills via Sapperton tunnel on the Thames and Severn canal which joined the Thames at Lechlade. The bridge was built to allow movement of animals and carts and people over the canal to access the old footpath leading straight up the hillside to Rodborough and Minchinhampton Common. When the railway was built, they had to build a bridge for the same path to go under the railway, which is only yards from the canal.

The whole canal was disused for more than fifty years and had become overgrown and often infilled. I have referred to this project many times. Today I could see that the towpath has now been rebuilt by volunteers and that the canal has been dredged as far as this bridge.

I stood in the drizzle and took a variety of pictures interspersed with chats to passing cyclists, dog owners and walkers, some of whom I knew. Several enquiries were about why I was taking pictures of this scene, probably because the light was so poor and the weather not much better. I explained that I wanted to blip it and add a link to a picture of how the bridge used to look before the restoration began which my old Blip friend, DailyKeith, had filmed some years ago. It was through his pictures of the bridge that I made contact with him on Flickr, which lead to our meeting and then him introducing me to Blipfoto more than three years ago.

Keith stopped blipping some time ago, although you never know, he might return one day. He has moved back to the neighbourhood recently, so I hope to see more of him.

Before I started blipping, I filmed a video scene from the other side of the railway line, just above and beyond the bridge. It is of a steam engine, Tornado, steaming out of Stroud
and then up the Golden Valley passing this particular bridge. It is worth a look if you like steam trains!

I have added a few more pictures of Stanton bridge and its location, which are on this Flickr gallery.