It was another relatively early start for us when we left the mooring at Bidford on Avon. We wanted to ensure that we would be able to moor in Evesham so again we tried to time our journey so that we would arrive in the middle of the morning. In the event, we needn’t have bothered as when we arrived, the town moorings were quite deserted.

All alone in Evesham.

Our tour began with a visit to the Abbey, we visited both of the churches (All Saints and St Lawrence’s) and the bell tower. Later in the day, we could hear the tune, “Abide with me” being played just before the chimes on the hour. It turns out that there is a whole host of hymns played in this way, the details are here.

All Saints church with the bell tower to the right of it.

This old building now houses the NatWest bank.

The Bell tower as seen from the gardens below.

When we were last here, in 2015, we quite liked Evesham but some experiences are best left in the memory. Don’t get me wrong, nothing bad happened but the place just didn’t quite seem the same. There are more empty shops than before, and there were already quite a few three years ago. The local market was more of a flea market and was a good representation of the feeling in the town. One of the highlights that we enjoyed on our last visit was the speciality gins in the Royal Oak. On that occasion, we were greeted by a friendly man wearing a white apron and looking like a French café owner. He handed us a gin menu which wouldn’t have looked out of place in The Savoy and took time to explain what each of the concoctions and infusions were. This time around, I was eventually served by a lad wearing jeans and T-shirt and when I asked him if they still had a gin menu, he fished a piece of card from behind the bar and handed it to me apologetically saying, “Sorry its a bit manky, mate but they get like that behind the bar.” The card was no more than an advert for various Fevertree tonics with different gins as the mixers. When Sue joined me a few minutes later, we had a short discussion and decided to leave.

Our mooring was good and quiet and we both slept well. When we awoke the following morning we were rather uninspired when it came to deciding what to do with ourselves. In the end, we took a walk to the edge of town and did a bit of shopping in Tesco – how exciting! In the evening, we walked back up to the market square and found that it was full of motorcycles and their owners. We had a wander around and chatted to one or two of them about their bikes.

1974 Triumph Bonneville.

Triumph Rocket III.

Another big Triumph.

The moorings had filled up during the day, one of the boats being Jolly Lamb so after we returned from town, I persuaded Julian to join me in the pub across the road for a couple of pints while Sue returned to Caxton and began her next knitting project.