Gloucestershire, England

Highnam put-in (Tewkesbury)

Launch — A granite-sett slipway with the banks around it shaped into a gentle slope, launching onto the enclosed Over Basin. Boats can also be launched from the basin bank itself, though this needs a cradle or launching slings given the drop to the water. The Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal Trust owns and maintains the site (contact: overbasin@h-g-canal.org.uk); no launch fee, permit or registration for private craft is published.

Parking — An on-site car park sits adjacent to the slipway, reached through the same gated access as the basin; no operator, capacity or charge is published for it. The neighbouring Lock Keepers car park is free but is for the restaurant's own patrons.

Access — Reached from the A40 via Horseshoe Drive, past the Lock Keepers, onto the Trust's Over Basin site; a lockable bollard restricts vehicle access, and a Trust member lowers it on their arrival. On foot, a wide hard towpath runs along one side of the basin and roughly half a mile further to the end of the restored Vineyard Hill channel. The Trust states the site is open to the public at most times, though it allocates specific days at Over Basin to organised groups, including model boats, Sailing for the Disabled, and its own volunteer team. A paddler planning to launch a private board outside an organised session should confirm directly with the Trust (overbasin@h-g-canal.org.uk), given the lockable-bollard vehicle access and the allocated group days.

Season — The Trust runs organised boat trips at Over Basin in the warmer months, and has cancelled them in a season of low water levels and heavy weed growth in the basin. Its portable toilet is in place only when trips are running. The site has also been affected by flooding during winter high-river periods.

Regulations — The canal has no statutory navigation authority; the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal Trust controls the basin and its land as owner, and publishes no byelaws or speed limits for it. There is no onward navigable passage from the basin to the River Severn: the historic Over Lock that once linked them has not been rebuilt, though the Trust has proposed doing so as a future project.

Over Basin is the restored Gloucester-end terminus of the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal, an enclosed watered section on the west bank of the River Severn's West Channel at Over, on the western edge of Gloucester. The canal ran from Hereford to Gloucester, opened in 1798 and closed in 1885; the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal Trust has since reinstated the basin and its wharf buildings, and names paddleboarding among the uses of its sheltered water.

A restored basin with no through route

Over Basin was re-excavated by volunteers between 1998 and 2000, after being infilled in 1903 for the Over Isolation Hospital; its wharf walls were rebuilt from thousands of recycled Victorian bricks salvaged from the demolished hospital, and the basin was first filled with water pumped from the River Leadon at its confluence with the Severn. In April 2012, volunteers from the Waterway Recovery Group re-dug a further stretch of around 300 metres at Vineyard Hill, adjoining the basin; that restored length ends at a winding hole, with no through route beyond it.

The basin holds a managed, impounded level rather than a tidal one, even though the adjacent West Channel of the Severn alongside it is tidal.

Landmarks and wildlife

Thomas Telford's Over Bridge, a single-span stone arch around 100 metres long, carries the main road across the Severn's canalised West Channel a short way from the basin; opened in 1830, it is a scheduled monument in the care of the Secretary of State. Restored heritage narrowboats are moored in the basin alongside resident swans.

Across the Severn from the basin lies Alney Island Local Nature Reserve, an 80-hectare wetland of wet grassland and flood meadow managed by Gloucester City Council with the Friends of Alney Island; the council notes the island is prone to flooding on high tides and after heavy rain.

Conditions to check

Weir

An overspill weir and pumping discharge arches sit at the Severn end of the basin.

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Limited exit

The basin is enclosed, and its restored extension at Vineyard Hill is a dead end reaching a winding hole around 300 metres further on; there is no through route beyond it.

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Boat traffic

The basin is shared with organised group traffic on allocated days, including model boats, Sailing for the Disabled sessions, and the Trust's own volunteer boat activity.

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