Gloucester & Sharpness Canal
Sixteen broad, near-level miles from Gloucester Docks to Sharpness, cutting out a dangerous stretch of the Severn
The Gloucester & Sharpness Canal runs sixteen miles down the Gloucestershire side of the Severn, from Gloucester Docks to the deep-water port at Sharpness. It was built to let ships avoid the most dangerous stretch of the River Severn below Gloucester, where shifting sandbanks and the great tidal bore make navigation treacherous, and it is a ship canal — broad and deep, with only a single lock along its length, so it stays almost level from end to end.
When it opened in 1827 it was the widest and deepest canal in the world, able to take vessels of six hundred tons. The scheme had been authorised in 1793 to run from Gloucester to Berkeley, but it ran badly over budget and stalled for years until Thomas Telford took charge and the route was shortened to meet the Severn at Sharpness instead. The docks at Gloucester, filled with tall Victorian warehouses, grew up as the inland port at its head.
The towpath is flat and open the whole way, and one of its pleasures is the row of small bridge-keepers’ houses, built in a neat classical style, that stand beside the swing bridges carrying roads across the water. The canal passes through Frampton on Severn and Saul, where the old Stroudwater Canal once crossed, and runs close to the Severn’s edge with wide estuary views. Near Slimbridge it skirts the famous wetland reserve on the riverside marshes.
It is still a working navigation, kept by the Canal & River Trust, used by pleasure boats and the occasional coaster into Sharpness. Gloucester at the top end is easy to reach by train, and the towpath makes a long, easy day’s walk or ride.
