Eastington Slipway

The pound above Pike Lock is roughly 42 feet (13 metres) wide and non-tidal: the navigation's original tidal entrance, a lock into the River Severn at Framilode, was closed off and absorbed into flood defences in the 20th century, so the water reached from Eastington is entirely canal-fed.

Heading upstream from the slipway, the water passes Blunder Lock and Newtown Lock, part of a flight built for the Stroudwater Canal Company in the 1770s. Blunder Lock is unusual on this canal for being built largely in stone rather than brick, a Grade II listed structure with its own spill weir; Newtown Lock carries a similar overspill weir that discharges surplus water below its tail. The Stroud Valleys Canal Company has fitted paddler-friendly landing stages, with a lower step alongside the standard mooring level, at locks along this stretch, as an alternative to lifting a board out over the lock side.

Continuing east past the locks, the canal narrows towards Bonds Mill, where a low, all-plastic lift bridge installed in 1994 currently cannot be raised, forcing a portage before the water opens out again towards Stonehouse. The banks either side of the navigation support water voles, a species in national decline that depends on undisturbed banks for its burrows.