Walk in a wintry mood

We had an amazing walk and a fascinating glimpse into Gloucestershire’s maritime and industrial past. Starting along quiet country lanes, a turn took us to Sharpness Docks, an extraordinary scene of abandoned industrial buildings, railway tracks, wooden pallets, rusty iron palings, metal crates and all the paraphernalia of a once busy, thriving port, now eerily deserted.

After a mile or so we passed the massive stone pillar that once supported the original Severn bridge, until, in 1879, a ship adrift in the fog smashed into it and brought it crashing down into the river. On our left, vast reed beds and bulrushes. It was strangely beautiful.

A little further along we came to a river bank where boats had been beached in the 1960s to stop erosion. Touchingly, each had its own headstone. Their bulk had rotted away, leaving jagged skeletons poking up from the mud. In the fading light it was hugely evocative. A walk we shall remember for years to come and one that shows winter walks can be just as wonderful as summer.

Stephanie Robbins, Cirencester