CYCLING IN WESTERN ENGLAND: GLOUCESTER TO BRISTOL

            CONTINUED FROM PART I           CLICK TO SEE MAP OF THE ROUTE

PART II – ONWARD TO BRISTOL

THE GLOUCESTER & SHARPNESS CANAL
        Among the alleys and parking lots of the Gloucester Docks and National Waterways Museum National Route 41 weaves a crooked path looking for its place next to the Gloucester & Sharpness canal it follows south on the first leg of our ride to Bristol. On the first bridge south of the museum, cross the canal from east to west. Route 41 follows the canal’s unpaved towpath southbound along the west bank.
        The path is flat, of dirt and grass, and barely wide enough for two bikes to pass. Along the canal fishermen sit on upturned buckets, talk with their fellows, some smoking lazily, and stare at the slow moving, muddy watercourse. Their dogs doze beside them, sometimes sprawling onto the towpath. Some of these fishermen have arrived by car—now parked by the nearest bridge crossing—and walked down the path to their fishing spots. Some have arrived by canal boat, now tied up beside their fishing spots. The colorful, long canal boats might be permanent homes for a few British drop-outs, but for most canal travelers the narrow boats provide a rented escaped from the routines of workplace, house and garden, and automobile and traffic. In turn they provide a glimpse of the alternative life of the waterborne vagabond, who moves at the speed of the late 18th century on a network of inland waterways that have survived largely intact while much of the rest of Britain has been paved over. Canal boating, I reckon, is an accepted British form of hoboing and vacationing on the cheap in which travelers and tramps romanticize the countryside of Constable and Turner when Nature was benignly invaded by this first revolutionary transport of the Industrial Age. The tramping and down-market holidaymaking are obvious. The romance of semi-stagnant water, cramped quarters, minimal bathroom facilities and tedious hours hiding from a cold drizzle or fighting off mosquitoes and flies is less apparent. By comparison, cycling along these same waterways at thrice the speed of any canal boat provides some of the best of British scenery with the possibility of escape from the slow miseries of the Age of Romance.

CROSS COUNTRY
        Our canal idyll ends in a mile. The British Waterways folks have closed this part of the towpath of the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal. For the next half-mile-plus National Route 41 must detour to the bike-only shoulder of heavily traveled A38, the Gloucester to Bristol Road. This bit is, flatly, ugly: fast food joints, building supply houses, industrial parks—the miscellaneous flotsam found skirting any English (or American) city, even here in the Cotswolds. Just as quickly, this, too, changes.
        A road signed for Elmore leads west (right) to the next bridge crossing of the canal, between the hamlets of Rea and Lower Rea. Route 41 does not turn south on the towpath, however, which is narrow and unsuitable for bikes. Instead, the cycle route enters the rich, bottom farmland between the canal and the River Severn, the first of several sections of pretty, minor roads we shall encounter today. Quite quickly now, we reach the edge of the Severn, and we briefly trace its ox-bow bend just east of Elmore before veering off to the southwest while the river turns north into a big counterclockwise loop. Route 41 takes the short cut cross-country on a series of rural roads between Elmore and Epney, where we catch up to the Severn again.
        Our tangent route brushes another chord of the snaking river at Upper Framilode, the first of several splendid villages suspended in time here along the backwater border of the Cotswolds with the Marches. Framilode is the point where the former Stroudwater Canal entered the River Severn. Remarkably, in 1789 this east-west canal connected tidewater on the Severn at Framilode with the Thames & Severn Canal near Stroud, an important Cotswolds hillside market town, making it possible to move freight and passengers between estuaries of the North Sea and the Atlantic (and between London and Gloucester). Little Framilode was the entry port of the canal at the River Severn, but only when the tide was in. At other times boatmen tied up at the Ship Inn, Framilode’s one pub, to wait for the tide to arrive. You can stop at the Ship Inn for refreshments—the canal is abandoned, but the pub remains open daily.
        From Upper Framilode the bike route follows roads south to Saul village, ½ mile west of Saul Junction, formerly the important intersection of the Gloucester & Sharpness and the Stroudwater canals. For the past decade the last weekend of June has witnessed the ghost town of Saul Junction transform into a mini-city of 12,000 as site of the Saul Canal Festival to raise funds to for the restoration of the Stroudwater Canal.

OLD ENGLAND IN ASPIC
        After Saul Route 41 turns east to cross the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal and then quickly south into the lovely village of Frampton on Severn. Lovely does it. If you’re hunting the mythic English village incorporating thatched cottages, Tudor and Georgian houses, cricket on the village green, and lively-but-civilized pubs, you needn’t go further than Frampton on Severn. The village (pop. approx. 1200) centers on its large village green, which the town’s web site boasts (mildly) may be England’s longest. We passed the green reluctantly. A cricket match was underway, and one table remained unoccupied outside the Bell Inn pub. We were now about ten miles south of Gloucester, and I was sure my thirst already needed slaking. But, we had miles to ride, and, since real ale is not the ideal liquid for active cyclists, we elected to push on past the Bell Inn, past the equally tempting Three Horseshoes pub at the southern end of the village green, past the 800-year-old Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin (the Rev. Cheeseman is vicar here), and across the wonderfully-named Splatt bridge once more over the G. & S. Canal. Here we passed through a gate onto the southbound canal towpath for two miles of broad, groomed trail southwest through marsh and moor to Shepherd’s Patch.

BIRDERS & BIKERS
       At Shepherd’s Patch National Route 41 leaves the canal for good, turning left and crossing the bridge into Shepherd’s Patch hamlet. But, if you have an interest in waterfowl, turn right instead, and ride ½ mile to the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) Slimbridge headquarters. Here amid the Severn marshes is one of Britain’s most important wetlands for migrating waterfowl of all kinds. The center's blinds, observatories, and tower provide excellent opportunities for seeing birdlife, insects, and non-flying animals like otters for whom this preserved corner of the River Severn has been a natural home for 60 years. (Open daily except Christmas Day, 9:30AM to at least 5PM. Admission: £6.75/adult, £5.50/seniors/students, £4/children.)
        My son Jess and I share many interests, but birding is not among them. We crossed the bridge and quickly passed through the hamlet of Shepherd’s Patch heading southeast for the village of Slimbridge. Coming toward us roared a string of antique motorcycles dating from the 1920s to the 1960s, some with sidecars, most with riders in period leathers and helmets, all with the stylized logos of the British AJS and Matchless marks. As I was growing up in the 1960s, my older brother owned an AJS 600cc twin dating from the mid-50s, a bike rarer then in the States than even now in the UK. I’ve seen very few AJ’s in the 40 years since he sold his. But on this day I saw at least a dozen on this lonely back road in far western Gloucestershire. I wished my brother were with Jess and me to see these wonderfully eclectic British bikes with their eccentrically costumed riders.

THE VALE OF BERKELEY
        In Slimbridge village—only about 12.5 miles west of Home At First’s Southern Cotswolds lodgings in Tetbury—Route 41 turns right and heads west into the Vale of Berkeley over little-used rural roads. From this gentle pastorale the mighty Double Gloucester cheese comes—to heighten our ploughman’s pub lunch or be famously, recklessly, chased down slope at the end of May annually at Cooper’s Hill eighteen miles to the northeast.
        For three miles the route meanders among dairy farms and through some woods before reaching Wanswell hamlet, where the route turns south for a mile before reaching the town of Berkeley. Berkeley claims both fame and notoriety. The slayer of smallpox, Edward Jenner, was born and raised in Berkeley and later practiced medicine there. It was there, too, that he discovered a way to vaccinate against smallpox using a mild form of the disease well known to local milkmaids, cowpox. His former home in Berkeley now houses a small museum in his honor. But it is Berkeley Castle—on the southeastern corner of town—that brings most visitors to the sleepy town in southwestern Gloucestershire.
        Built by the command of Norman King Henry II in 1117 just fifty-one years after the Norman Conquest, the castle has been the residence of the Berkeley family for over 850 years. The castle has witnessed great history: a siege during the Civil War of the 17th century, a meeting of English barons before they signed the Magna Carta in 1215, visits by Richard II and English I, and, most infamously, the 1327 imprisonment and murder of King Edward II. This latter episode continues to bring visitors to Berkeley Castle to see the cell where it happened. Visitors also come to see the castle’s extensive gardens (the roses and wisteria peak in June) and an exotic butterfly house. Some years on summer weekends the castle has held a jousting tournament and festival, welcoming throngs to experience their medieval English heritage.
        Seven miles of rural roads with the day’s first mild hills lead southwest to Oldbury-on-Severn village, remarkable only for its nearby riverside nuclear power plant, just downstream from a similar one at Berkeley, both of which were useful not just for commercial energy production but as producers of plutonium for Britain’s atomic weapons program during the Cold War. The Berkeley plant has already been shut down, and the Oldbury-on-Severn plant is due to be decommissioned in two years. However, as in the United States, environmental and geo-political (imported oil and gas) concerns are forcing the British to take a second look at nuclear energy as a potential component in the future mix of sources of energy production.
        Two miles southwest of Oldbury, Route 41 passes through the village of Littleton-upon-Severn, where, just after passing the tempting White Hart pub, the route makes a sharp left (east) turn and sets off for Elberton and Olveston. Visible at times to the west are the 400-foot-high piers of the M48 Severn Road Bridge. This 40-year-old (1966) mile-long suspension bridge carries a motorway a bikeway and a walkway across the Severn to Wales just south of Chepstow at the mouth of the River Wye. Chepstow’s romantic castle is one of Britain’s great medieval fortresses. And the Wye is perhaps Britain’s most beautiful river, curving and looping its way north through fine scenery: past Wordsworth’s dreamy Tintern Abbey, before leaving the Welsh border and turning into England at Monmouth. The Wye promises another adventure on foot or on two wheels.

TWO WAYS TO BRISTOL
        From Olveston, two cycle routes numbered 41 lead into Bristol. The western one zigs northwest then zags southwest on the B4055, crossing over the M48 and then, 1.5 miles on, reaching and paralleling the M4 before crossing over it, too, just before it crosses the Severn on its own beautiful bridge to South Wales, now ten years old. Once across the M4, this route follows the B4084 southwest to the village of Severn Beach where it picks up a long section of dedicated traffic-free trail southbound to Avonmouth. South of Avonmouth, at Shirehampton, this route arrives at the tidal River Avon, which it follows on a traffic-free promenade east about 5 miles into Bristol city.
        We elected to stay with the eastern version of National Route 41—a more direct southbound route from Olveston into Bristol—even though we knew we would have some hills to climb and traffic to contend with most of the way. A long, sweeping, gradual climb leads out of Olveston one mile, topping out at overpass crossings of the M48 and the M4 motorways within a few hundred yards of each other. In another two miles the route crosses British Rail’s western main line at Pilning Station. Pilning, however, cannot be used as an end point for the day’s ride—it’s a small commuter station with few through services. No—riders need to get to one of Bristol’s two major stations: Bristol Parkway (4.5 miles southeast of Pilning) or, our goal, Bristol Temple Meads, the city’s principal downtown railway terminal.
        From Pilning Station, our Route 41 meanders through the last open farmland of the day, first southeast to Easter Compton, then southwest to Compton Greenfield and onward into the wedge of land between the M49 and M5 motorways. At Hallen, the route zigs southeast again crossing under the M5 then over the railway and into the City of Bristol. Your entrance into the city, however, is no cause for elation, for the next hour is the most difficult of the day, with the route becoming difficult to follow, and hilly, heavily trafficked city streets adding to the challenge. We recommend carrying a compass to help get through Bristol.

NAVIGATING BRISTOL
        After crossing the railway, the route continues southeast for about ¼ mile before zagging southwest again on Kings Weston Road. When Kings Weston Road loops left (southeast) and ends at Shirehampton Road, continue straight (southeast) on Shirehampton Road approximately 350 yards to the intersection with Sylvan Way. Turn right (southwest) on Sylvan Way and follow it another 350 yards to its terminus at Portway, the roadway that follows the tidal River Avon southeast into downtown Bristol. Cross the Portway and ride on the broad sidewalk (serves as both a footpath and bike path) southeast into the Avon Gorge, one of Britain’s urban wonders.
        The River Avon somehow chose to get to the Severn estuary the hard way, by carving 250’ through limestone and sandstone. The gorge protected prehistoric Bristol harbor from invaders and bad weather, giving them a unique avenue to the Bristol Channel, making Bristol England’s most important western port during the Industrial Revolution. It was because of the Avon gorge that Isambard Kingdom Brunel—Britain’s premier engineer—built his Great Western Railway from London to Bristol, and built his great iron ships to sail from Bristol, and, although it opened only after his death, built his still remarkable landmark Clifton Suspension Bridge across the gorge. And, a mile down the gorge, there it is, flying across the span, looking vaguely Egyptian up there in the heights above the river canyon, still as much a monument to its creator as it is an inspiration to aspiring engineers throughout the West.
        A half-mile beyond the bridge, the Avon emerges from its gorge and turns east into Bristol harbor. Getting to the harbor is almost as hard by bicycle as it is by boat when the tide is out. Before Brunel, ships operating in and out of Bristol had to be abnormally stout vessels, owing to the river tides that left them unsupported in the mud flats when tide was out. But Bristol’s adopted son, Brunel, solved the problem by designing a "floating harbour" with a constant water level walled in by lock gates. Brunel’s floating harbor is today the core of Bristol’s downtown renaissance, a lively area of pubs, restaurants, clubs, museums, open space, street entertainment, and historic boats, including Brunel’s "SS Great Britain", now restored to its former glory when it was launched in 1843 as the world’s first iron-hulled, propeller driven ocean liner and the largest ship afloat. The Portway river road becomes Hotwell Road before reaching the bridge. Hotwell turns east with the river and parallels it inland on the way to Bristol Harbour. When it separates from the river it loses its broad cycle way. Jess and I struggled with traffic following Hotwell Road through this busiest part of Bristol: Hotwell Road east to the roundabout (the "SS Great Britain" may be seen here moored across the river), then straight on Anchor Road, which bends left (north) uphill, then descends. To the right of Anchor Road is a large open space surrounding the Custom House, busy with walkways, cyclists, skaters, and food stands.

GOAL – BRISTOL TEMPLE MEADS
        Leave Anchor Road and cross this square—you might want to dismount to do this—leaving it at its southeastern corner on Redcliff Way. Cross the floating harbor on Redcliff Bridge, and follow Redcliff Way around the wonderfully named but unfriendly for cyclists Temple Circus Gyratory roundabout 270 degrees. When you leave the roundabout (southeast) you will be on Temple Gate. Watch for the entrance to Bristol Temple Meads rail station within 150 yards on the left of Temple Gate. Cycle up to the station entry, dismount and enter this great station (the building on the right). The original I. K. Brunel station building, on the left, now houses the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum with its permanent displays dedicated to the rise and height of the British Empire, especially during the reign of Queen Victoria. (Open: 10AM-5PM daily except Christmas and Boxing Day. Admission charged.)
        From Bristol Temple Meads, trains depart with almost hourly frequency, sometimes more often. Rail service back to Kemble near Tetbury in the Southern Cotswolds requires just over 1 hour with a change at Swindon (e.g. depart Bristol Temple Meads at 6:30PM, arrive Kemble at 7:32PM; fares from £12.40 in second class). Rail service back to Moreton-in-Marsh or Honeybourne in the Northern Cotswolds is of similar frequency but takes twice as long, and may require two changes en route (e.g. depart Bristol Temple Meads at 6:30PM, arrive Moreton-in-Marsh at 8:47PM; fares from £9.50 in second class). We recommend always making reservations (no charge for these on First Great Western and Virgin railways) for a specific train—space for bikes is quite limited and the railway can turn you away if the bike space is already in use.
        After 3 hours of train riding and 6 hours of bike riding, Jess and I were tired. We had seen parts of Britain that we had not imagined, and done so at a pace that permitted us to savor the experience, like lingering over a meal. And, at the end of the day, lingering over a meal is exactly what we had in mind.

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