A walk to Sharpness and a Ships' Graveyard

This walk started in little village of Purton, on the Gloucester - Sharpness Canal, where I encountered what must be the most unfriendly public footpath notice I've ever seen. Riled to the point of downright rebellion, I deliberately took my time, loitering as much as possible, and sat down beside the river bank to eat my apple. Angry farmer failed to appear.  Pity.

Oddly, the unfriendly notice only appears at the Purton end of the footpath. Walkers coming in the opposite direction are presumably free to loiter to their heart's content.

The loiter-inducing view over the River Severn is rather good...

A little further downstream is Purton Ships' Graveyard – a unique collection of decaying hulks, beached here from the early 1900s to help stabilise the river bank. It has the distinction of being the largest such 'graveyard' in the UK.  Those with better camera skills than mine would doubtless have hours of fun, but here are some of my modest efforts.

At the end of the graveyard the path rejoins the canal and before long I came upon the remains of the Severn Railway Bridge.  Opened in 1879, it provided a valuable outlet for Forest of Dean coal, as well as linking communities on either side of the River Severn.  On October 25th 1960 it was hit and badly damage by a couple of tanker barges, and soon after that the decision was made to demolish it.

Here's an old postcard view of the bridge...

From the bridge it's but a short walk to the end of the canal and Sharpness Dock. I'm rather pleased with this shot of the dock from the opposite side of the canal, with two figures making their way across the rail bridge.

This is the disused sea lock at the end of the canal. These days canal traffic has to go through the dock to get out on the Severn.

Finally, a view across the Severn to Lydney Harbour, near my home — about a mile away as the crow flies but 34 miles by road. It would have been a lot less if that rail bridge was still there!

Goodbye Bluebell... Hello Bluebird

Brand new Bluebell, July 2011

Bluebell, my much-loved Peugeot 107 motorcar, has been sold. She had travelled 67500 miles in her 5 year lifetime and should have had plenty of life left, but was actually showing her age – a sign that the build quality was perhaps not as good as many other modern cars.

She had needed a new clutch after only 47000 miles, which seemed rather poor, though my local garage did the job for £450 and we soon forgave her that unexpected lapse. Ominously, though, she had recently developed a thirst for oil, needing a quart top-up only 7000 miles after her last service.  That thirst wasn't going to improve without some major surgery. Clearly Bluebell's best years were behind her.

Much-loved she may have been, but Bluebell did have some infuriating shortcomings, leaving me to conclude that Peugeot-Citroen have not entirely thrown off their '2CV' image. For instance, the interior light only came on when the driver's door was opened, so if I was searching in the dark for things in the back of the car, I used to leave the driver's door ajar. Also, the reversing light was about as useful as a candle in a storm.

I realize that many of my friends happily drive cars much older than Bluebell, and with at least as many problems, but when a family loan was unexpectedly repaid, I started looking for a replacement.

I drew up a shortlist of so-called 'City' cars, all of which were big enough for my needs. My favourite to start with was the Vauxhall Viva, perhaps for no better reason than that the two Vauxhall Corsas I'd owned before Bluebell were excellent.  However, doubts began to creep in when I read the WhatCar? assessment:

Vauxhall’s new Viva is a car that has many strong points... The trouble is that the market is brimming with great small cars, and the Viva does little to stand out amongst them... Overall, the Viva is likeable and does the job of a small car perfectly well, but just be sure that one of the other more rounded alternatives doesn't suit your needs and finances better.

Top of the WhatCar? list was the Hyundai I10, followed by the Volkswagen Up.  Autocar had them the other way round, but the Viva was still well down the list.  There was only one way to settle the matter – spend a day in Newport and find out for ourselves. If neither the Viva nor the I10 appealed, it would be easy to check out the Volkswagen, Kia and several other makes.

First stop, the Vauxhall garage. Yes, the little Viva was very nice, though they would charge extra for anything other than a red or white one. How strange. If we didn't mind waiting until December, though, we could have it with an automatic gearbox. But the price offered for Bluebell was not great, even allowing for the fact that she had some bodywork damage. If it was to be the Viva, we would need to take out a small loan.

Brand new Bluebird.. but same old bird to drive it.

As the salesman chatted, I quietly searched on my mobile for directions to the Wessex Hyundai showroom and it was to there that we next set course.  I already knew that the I10 would be slightly cheaper than the Viva, but when they also quoted a better price for Bluebell and topped it by offering a 'pre-reg' I10-SE for £7543 (list price £10,075) the deal was done.

Only one important job remained; what to call our new acquisition. Yet again, she was blue. How about Bluebottle? But Bluebottle the Goon was always getting into scrapes, so perhaps not. Blue Streak? Remember that? The government wisely scrapped it before it entered full production, so not a good choice. Finally I came up with Bluebird and that's the name that's stuck. This Bluebird may not have the record-breaking performance of Malcolm Campbell's speed machine, but she's a lot more nippy than Bluebell and to me feels very speedy indeed. She also has a Bluebird-like 'high-tech' feel, with lots of new knobs, switches and buttons to prod. Consequently, I'm now trying to get my head around air conditioning, cruise control, fuel consumption displays and a radio that makes Bluebell's look like something designed to pick up 2LO.

Oh, and after a week of motoring, I've just found out how to open the fuel filler lid. Impressive, I'm sure you will agree.