Gloucester Docks to Sims Bridge Walk

Gloucester has long been an important crossing point of the River Severn from well before Roman times. The river has also been an important transportation highway for over two thousand years. In the 18th century, the growth of the industrial heartland in the Midlands around Birmingham meant that the river was a particularly important route for materials to be shipped between there and Bristol.

However, the river just below Gloucester with its extensive sandbanks and tricky tides, was difficult to navigate. In 1793 it was decided to build a canal to avoid the worst of the hazards and to build a seaport at Gloucester, which it was hoped would come to rival Bristol in importance. On completion it had a rule of sixteens: 16 miles long, 16 feet deep and 16 bridges. The canal and docks were in commercial operation until the mid 1980s when they fell into decline until renovation was commenced with Gloucester City Council’s purchase of the North Warehouse.

Canal: Gloucester & Sharpness Canal

Start: National Waterways Museum, Llanthony Warehouse, The Docks, Gloucester, GL1 2EH. OS Grid ref: SO 82711 18161

Finish: Sims Bridge, Sims Lane, Quedgeley, Gloucester, GL2 3NJ. OS Grid ref: SO 80939 15548

Distance: Three miles

Route instructions

1. The walk starts from the National Waterways Museum, which is well worth a visit to learn more about the history of the waterways. This is in Llanthony Warehouse, the first of a superb collection of original warehouses around the docks which were built to house large quantities of wheat, oats, barley & maize shipped from Ireland, North Europe, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. The museum also features a café where you can obtain refreshments.

2. From here we start an anticlockwise tour of the docks. With your back to the museum head straight ahead alongside the old barge arm on your left. Follow the water’s edge around and down the far side to an open square where you will see the Mariners’ Chapel set back on your right.

The Mariners’ Chapel was built in 1849 for seamen visiting the port, as they were considered inappropriately clothed to attend churches in the town. The chaplain was responsible for visiting every ship that arrived in Gloucester.

3. Leaving the Mariners’ Chapel on your left, head over the Victoria Basin Swing Bridge, staying close to the water’s edge. Follow the dockside around the warehouses and the main basin (anticlockwise) towards the Lock Warehouse. Gloucester Docks were built in 1812, but the canal itself was not completed until 1827. Following completion of the canal this was the point that goods heading north to the Midlands would enter the River Severn on their way up country.

4. Continue to walk around the dock basin towards the dry docks at Nielson’s yard. Just before the dry docks you will see a large blue piece of machinery. This is one of the old pumps once used to bring water in from the River Severn to feed the canal. Today modern pumps,  just visible through the fence across the road, still bring water into the Docks maintaining navigation on the canal. Water is extracted at the other end of the canal for drinking water in Bristol.

5. Head over the dry dock foot bridge, pass Gloucester Brewery and leave the docks behind you, heading down the canal towards Sharpness some 16 miles distant. As you start down the canal you will pass a large red Lightship (Sula), which was built to see service at Spurn point at the entrance to the Humber estuary on the East coast of England. If you look closely, you can still make out the word “Spurn” under the red paint on the side of the ship. This vessel has been converted into a residence and offers holiday accommodation.

6. Opposite the lightship you will see the remains of Llanthony Secunda Priory which was built in 1137. Today parts of the old tithe barn and some outer precinct buildings are still standing, and Gloucester College covers the site where the main priory once was. All the church buildings were destroyed by the start of the 18th century, so when the canal construction commenced, they were cutting through the ruins and waste material was dumped into the river.

7. Continue your walk along the towpath past Sainsbury’s until the path veers left to a small basin. This is Monk Meadow, presumably a connection to the old Priory monks. Constructed in 1892, by the 1920s this was the site of a large oil depot with oil barges being sent on up the river to Worcester and Stourport. Trade continued for 60 years but in 1985 the closure of Quedgeley Oil Depot saw activity cease and today the area has undergone significant redevelopment.

8. As you proceed along the canal from Monk Meadow you will pass through two sections of Hempstead Woods, divided by paved Roman Quay. In the woods the path deviates from the original towpath line but quickly finds the canal again and takes you to Hempsted Swing Bridge.

9. At Hemspted Bridge you have an option to shorten your walk. Do this by crossing the bridge and joining the Bristol Road. From here you can catch a bus back to the city centre.

10. Shortly after Hempsted Bridge you will see the historic dry dock on the opposite of the canal still in operation today, maintaining boats that use the canal.

11. Be careful as you pass Gloucester Rowing Club as this is a very active site with boats often out on the water. Look out for the sports coaches who cycle up and down the canal calling instructions to the rowers.

12. As you go round a right hand bend you will see what appears to be a block end for the canal. The canal was diverted here when the new bridge was created to carry the bypass to Hempsted.

12. From this point it is a short walk to Sims bridge where the walk ends. Here you have a choice either to re-trace your steps back to the docks or cross the bridge and head up Sims Lane. When you join the main road, a bus can be caught to the city centre, a journey of approximately 15 minutes.