The Stour at Stratford St Mary

Well, it was fine today, so I did go to Stratford St Mary! Gradually working my way up the River Stour, with my Four Seasons on the Stour project.

The river runs along the side of the main street for a short distance in this sprawling village, before veering off to the north-west, while the main area of Stratford St Mary veers of to the north and north-east. There are two channels, one – the main river –

– going up to the weir, and the other diverting through the newly restored lock gates, and continuing down stream, re-joining the main channel by the Maison Tolbooth.

The newly restored lock

There were lots of wild flowers, dog roses, campions – both pink and white – elderflowers, bramble flowers, and yellow water lilies.

Elderflower and dog roses overhanging the channel downstream of the lock gates

Campions and bramble flowers

Yellow waterlilies

There were countless darting electric blue dragon flies, and some larger ones, with much bigger almost black wings!

I walked some of the footpaths up and down the channels on both sides and over the little foot bridges, and then sat on the steps of the ‘portage’ area (where canoes can be carried across to avoid both the weir and the lock) and drew this lovely view.

A perfect early summer river scene. 🙂