Walk Leader: Martin Jones
Six walkers met at the Boars Head Inn, Berkeley, for today’s walk. Interestingly, there were three Julie’s and two Martin’s walking today!
Our walk took us past the Berkeley Power Station, into a field of alpacas and sheep onto the banks of the river Severn. We then headed up to Sharpness where benches were provided for our coffee stop.


The blue lights in the photo are for ships to know when to turn into Sharpness Dock.

After we prised ourselves off of the benches we walked to the start of the canal, where we stopped at the remains of the old Severn Railway Bridge. The bridge was built in 1870 to carry the railway across the river Severn between Sharpness and Lydney. On 25th October 1960, thick fog and a strong tide caused two barges to collide into one of the columns of the bridge. Two bridge spans collapsed into the river, hitting the barges causing fuel oil and petroleum to catch fire. Five people died in the incident. The bridge was too costly to repair so was demolished in 1967.
From here, we continued along the canal to the Purton Hulks. The Purton Hulks or Purton Ships’ Graveyard is an area along the river Severn where a number of abandoned boats and ships were deliberately beached during the 1950s. A riverbank collapse caused concerns that the barrier between the river and the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal would be breached. The old vessels run aground soon filled with water and silt which created a tidal erosion barrier. Since 2000, archaeological investigations have been undertaken to find out more about their vessels which are now in a state of considerable decay.

From Purton Ships’ Graveyard we headed uphill past the church for our lunch stop overlooking the canal, river and Wales. The last section took us through farmland, crossing the railway and past an area where flasks of radioactive waste were transferred from road to rail.
We were soon back in Berkeley, walking through a new housing estate, back to the Boars Head Inn to complete our walk.
A very interesting and enjoyable walk.
