Day 36: Walking record tumbles while Bluebird stays at home

Monday is traditionally the day on which, weather permitting, we tackle a long ramble, often in the Brecon Beacons or the Cotswolds. Tired but happy, we then seek out some wayside inn for a leisurely meal before returning home late in the evening.

Old habits die hard, so for yesterday's ramble I planned to drive to Newnham for an 8-miler along the banks of the Severn, then up to the Blaize Bailey viewpoint.  Despite the current restrictions, I'm certainly not against using my car to drive a few miles before starting a ramble. However, I awoke on Monday morning to a change of heart and proposed that we would be public-spirited, leave Bluebell (our blue Hyundai motor car) on her driveway, pack a picnic in our rucksacks and set out on this one...

A footpath over a couple of fields and a walk along quiet country lanes soon brought us to Viney Hill, from where there are lovely views down to Blakeney, with the River Severn in the distance.

Perhaps it's just as well that we left Bluebird at home. They've stopped selling petrol in Blakeney.  Thinks... when was the last time I bought petrol in gallons?

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Leaving Blakeney, the footpath runs beside a pleasant stream and a tumbled-down old orchard. It also runs beside a sewage works, but I didn't feel inspired to photograph it.

About 4½ miles into our walk, we arrived at Gatcombe. The red building in the background used to be an inn named The Gatcombe Boat, then later The Sloop, both names reflecting Gatcombe's former role as a centre for river trading, fishing and ship building.  The inn closed in the early 1800s and is now called Drake's House, on account of Sir Francis Drake having possibly stayed there.

Of more interest to me was Gatcombe being our chosen place to stop for a picnic. With the present lock-down regulations, I'm never quite sure whether one is permitted to exercise so much as to need a picnic. Well I'm sure that our wonderful police have far better things to do than track me down to this little spot, under a low and muddy...

... very low (and very muddy) railway arch...

and out onto a pleasant grassy bank of the River Severn.

Half an hour later, well filled with Ryvita, crisps and rather too much cheese, we set out for Purton, where there are more signs of former river trading... and more mud too.  That's Lane's Brook on the right.

Now here's something with a story to tell – Purton Viaduct. It's all that remains of a scheme conceived in the early 1830s (about the same time as the famous Stockton & Darlington Railway) to transport coal from the Forest of Dean to the Bristol side of the Severn, via a moveable bridge. It failed to gain parliamentary approval and was never completed.

Using this 1901 OS map, I was able to trace the proposed route beside Lane's Brook as far as a quarry near the present-day A48, but could find nothing beyond that.

Much more successful was the Severn & Wye railway. In 1879 they completed the Severn Railway Bridge, which was destined to carry regular traffic until 1960, when it was badly damaged by a couple of fuel barges. Sadly, the magnificent structure was never repaired and was finally dismantled in the late 1960s.

Coincidentally, while I was writing this post, one Ian Thomas posted a 1951 BBC film on the Old Industry and History of the FoD Facebook group, about salmon fishing on the River Severn. And there, behind the fisherman, was the old bridge with a train crossing it. Thank you, Ian!

Here's a well-known photograph of the bridge and the tiny Severn Bridge Station.

The train from Lydney is crossing this bridge...

Shortly after passing under it I deviated from the footpath to see another relic of the Severn & Wye Railway – Severn Bridge Tunnel.

On my map it looked possible to walk the old trackbed for over a mile in the Lydney direction, but sensing that I'd already trespassed far enough, I returned to the footpath, and to this rather nice view, with Sharpness clearly visible on the opposite bank of the Severn.

I don't enjoy walking through herds of cows, not least because stories of them attacking walkers seem all too real to me.  Read this if you don't believe me.  Thankfully, though, these cows turned out to be very docile and obliging as we pushed our way past them.

Finally, continuing the 'railway' theme, here's a west-bound freight train on the main line, just west of Purton. Several of its containers were marked Tesco, so hopefully he's delivering fresh supplies of flour, which I haven't been able to buy for weeks.  Where's it all going?

I waved, then wondered whether the driver might be thinking "What on earth does that mad woman think she's doing?"  But he didn't; instead he waved back and tooted his horn three times for me. Lovely!  I am, you understand, a woman of simple pleasures.

At the end of the walk I was pleasantly surprised to receive a "25,000 step" accolade from FitBit...

In truth, I've walked at least 25,000 steps on many other occasions, but not since being gifted my FitBit smartwatch.  According to FitBit, I've also won an award for walking 250 miles – the length of the London Underground network... but I reckon I've already said enough in this post about railways.