Bartimaeus

Severn diversion

15 Oct 2025

by Heather

In which we travel north up there where this water has come from, but by some different water and not by this water.

I joined Clare and Shane on Bartimaeus on Saturday evening and I'm sure they will tell all but here is my little report / score card !

Very excellent service (as usual), AKA 10/10 and several Kingfishers !

We have travelled from the Severn at a point just South of its junction with the Worcester and Birmingham canal, along a canal route north and west to the Severn at its junction with the Droitwich Barge Canal, and then back as far as Droitwich Netherwich Basin.

The weather has been calm and pleasant for October though not exactly warm and only exceptionally briefly vaguely sunny.

We have cruised on very narrow sections on the Droitwich canals between reed beds as tall as ourselves, and on very wide expanses of water on the Severn, and on a variety of water widths in between.

We have had a mainly very peaceful time as there are very few craft on the water, certainly on the Droitwich canals. My scariest point was going under the M5. You have the roar of the traffic, and the bridge unbelievably low approaching, and then shockingly suddenly there is literally about 3 inches of clearance between the top of the boat (at its tallest point) and the underside of the bridge, so you have to just gingerly lift up your head and peep forwards along the roof and sight along, with your hand up on the tiller, while you are squawking and thinking to yourself and possibly also squawking "I'm sure this can't be legal!". No photo taken as I was otherwise distracted. Another rather shocking point was the shockingly close very fast train while I was walking on the towpath Saturday round about dusk, I'd watched a level crossing operating, and seen the track bend away from the towpath and then assumed / thought the towpath hadn't curved around to meet it again .. and there was the train I'd heard approaching, hurtling by, only about 4 feet from me.

Ooooooo Shane took a picture of me in the tunnel under the M5 :

Heather with white knuckles and the stance that seems to have felt appropriate at the time

On our walk at the far end of the Droitwich canal, going South along the Severn, we came to Bevere island and a notice mentioning its historical role for Worcester people as a refuge in the invasion of Hardicanute in 1051, and mentioning the somewhat more recent work there to establish a fish pass, particularly successfully for the twaite shad fish. It also mentioned the derivation of the word Bevere being "beaver," well that is another species that may be enjoying improved fortunes these days in the UK.