Educational Cruises

The usual length of educational cruises is 1 or 2 hours, but this can be altered to suit your needs. There are 12 activities specially designed for educational river trips and these were put together in conjunction with Homerton College, Cambridge.

For 90 pupils on a 1-hour cruise, the cost works out to be as little as £2.78 per child.

The majority of the activities have been linked to Key Stage 2 National Curriculum for your convenience, although they can be adapted to fit Key Stage 1.

What's more…

Tea & Coffee is provided for the teachers and helpers as part of the educational package.

If you wish, and if it fits with the timings for your excursion, your pupils may eat their lunches on board.

Worksheets and Exercises

Please click here to download our specially designed River Cruise worksheet.

Points of Interest

Below is an overview of knowledge which can be obtained from Worcester River Cruise's Educational Tour:

The River, Surrounding Land and Landmarks

Along this stretch of the River Severn, you may see natural features of the course of a river, such as meanders, beaches, small cliffs, eroded crumbling banks, and overhanging trees.

There are also many examples of man-made features, which have been built to help preserve the banks and to help navigation along the river. These include walls along the banks, boat
moorings, locks, weirs and bridges.

There are many varied uses of land that you can see along the river banks. Some are directly because the land is next to the river; e.g. water sports and tourist activities. Other uses could be because the flood plain is flat and fertile; e.g. Worcester Race Course and farming. Some could be the re-development of existing historical sites for a
different use e.g. Brown’s restaurant which used to be a grain store, and the building of homes in the old Oil Basin. Other uses may not appear to have a specific reason to be there.

Look out for the following landmarks as you cruise along the river:
• Worcester Cathedral
• Radio Hereford and Worcester
• Worcester Rowing Club
• Worcester Canoe Club
• Diglis Hotel
• Severn View Hotel
• The Glover’s Needle (a very tall and narrow spire, that used to be part of St. Andrew’s church)

About the river

• The River Severn used to be known to the Romans as Sabrina, and to the Welsh as Afron Hafren.

• It is the longest river in Britain, and flows for about 210 miles from its source to the sea.

• It rises as a boggy spring on top of Plynlimon in mid Wales.

• In its first 12 miles, it falls about 1,500 feet (463 metres).

• After passing through Ironbridge Gorge (the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution), the river heads south and becomes wider.

• By the time it reaches Worcester, it is in the latter stages of river development.

• Locks have been built to help maintain water levels and to keep the river navigable. The excess river water passes the lock via the weir.

• The River Avon joins the Severn at Tewkesbury (a confluence).

• By the time the river reaches Gloucester, it is tidal and no longer navigable because of shifting sand banks.

• The Sharpness Canal has been built to carry boats down to the sea from Gloucester.

• By the time the Severn reaches Frampton on Severn, it widens dramatically and develops wide mud flats.

• Severn bores occur several times a year to a variable degree, and are connected to the spring tides. They can come up the river as far as Upper Lode in the form of a wave riding against the river flow.

• The Severn Estuary has one of the largest range of tidal rise and fall in the world, and certainly the largest in Britain

Flooding

The River Severn in Worcester occasionally flood. This happens when water from heavy rain in the river catchment area rushes downstream. The extra water in the river channel causes the water level to rise and the flow of the river to increase.

Sometimes the river rises so high that the water spills out on to the surrounding land (the river flood plain). Worcester Race Course and Worcestershire County Cricket Ground have both been built on the flood plain as it is a large flat area, and does not matter too much if it gets under water sometimes.

River Transport

Up until the 1940s, the River Severn was an important transport link between the cities of the Midlands and the sea ports of the Bristol Channel. At Diglis, the Worcester to Birmingham canal joins the river. Amongst the cargoes that were shipped, were cocoa beans to Cadbury’s at Bournville, and metals, glass sand, grain and food stuffs to Midland cities. After unloading their cargo, the boats returned down river with salt and coal to Gloucester and Avonmouth. In the 1950s, some large oil companies used oil tankers to transport petroleum products up the river.

River Transport

• In the past, the river has been an important transport link from the Midlands to the Bristol Channel ports.

• It was used for commercial traffic until the 1960s, when it started to go into decline.

• Barges, tugs, longboats, horse-towed boats and motor barges moved and trans-shipped varied cargoes. Severn trows were a flat bottomed boat with one or two sails. The flat bottoms enabled passage for variations in the depth of the water.

• Originally, gangs of men were employed to haul the boats along with ropes. They wore harnesses and were fiercely opposed to the introduction of horses to do their work.

• Cocoa beans, chocolate crumb, sugar and condensed milk was moved between the Cadbury factories at Bournville and Frampton on Severn.

• A variety of cargoes, including metals, imported grain, glass sand and foodstuffs to the Midland cities were taken up stream.

• Boats returned down stream with salt and coal to Gloucester and Avonmouth.

• Oil companies used tankers to transport petroleum products up the river. The Severn Traveller was built in the 1930s for this purpose. Oil was unloaded in the Oil Basin, which is near to Diglis lock. Shell–Mex had its depot there. The old tanks have only been dismantled in the last year or two, to make way for redevelopment.

• Goods were trans-shipped in the canal basins. Diglis Basin handled wine and grain amongst other things, and Lowesmoor Basin (further up the canal) dealt in timber and coal.

• At Worcester, access onto the Worcester Birmingham Canal is through the narrow lock at Diglis Basin.

• In days gone by, Worcester is reputed to have been the haunt of smugglers! There were many narrow alleys and hostelries around the quaysides.

• Some old warehouse buildings have been converted into restaurants and apartments in the city.

• The road bridge was rebuilt and widened in 1931- 2 with the increase in motor traffic.

• The railway bridge was opened in 1860 and rebuilt in 1904. It has a very long viaduct, and carries the former GWR route to Malvern and Hereford.

• The foot bridge (Sabrina Bridge) was opened in 1992. Note the symmetrical date plaque in the centre.

Further information

• Worcester Race Course and the Worcestershire County Cricket Ground have been built on the river flood plain, but are not easily visible from the river.

• The cottages built near to Diglis lock sometimes flood, and when they do, are often seen on the regional news.

• When facing the bows when on board the boat, the right hand side is starboard, with a green light.

• The left hand side is port, with a red light. The way to remember is, ‘left’ and ‘port’ both have 4 letters, and ‘port’ is a red drink!

• The Glover’s Needle is all that remains of St. Andrew’s church (a tall narrow spire). Gloves used to be made in Worcester at the Dent factory.

• Motorised boats pass one another on the port side (the opposite to road traffic).

• Boats do not travel on the river if it rises 1m. above the summer norm. This is because the water flows too fast, there may be debris in it e.g. fallen trees, and bridges become un-navigable.

• North Quay (where the ‘Pride of the Midlands’ departs from) and South Quay (where ‘The Earl’ departs from) were served by a branch of the G.W.R. from Worcester Foregate Street Station. This linked the river and rail networks. The line ran along the quayside through a small tunnel in the road bridge, thus connecting North and South Quays.

• At the time, it was hoped to extend the line down to Diglis lock, but Worcester Cathedral authorities refused permission for it to pass through their land.

• The old Oil Basin is near to Diglis lock on the east river bank. It is an inlet leading off the main part of the river, with a small foot bridge over the entrance.