Upper and lower Avon Ring licences are payable by crews at Tewkesbury and Evesham locks.

Travelling north via Braunston, Napton and Kingswood Junction you join the North Stratford Canal to Kings Norton, past Alvechurch and down the notorious Tardebigge flight of 30 locks. On to the River Severn at Worcester, there are very few mooring places between Worcester and Tewkesbury. Be careful not to overshoot the turning by Healings Mill at Tewkesbury. Head on up the lower and upper Avon to Stratford where you can moor in the basin outside the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre. The southern Stratford Canal with its barrel-roofed cottages is very shallow and slow going. On reaching Kingswood Junction you retrace your outward track to Weedon.

180 miles - 249 locks - 6 tunnels - 2 aqueducts - 8 hours per day navigating (a busy two weeks).

A variation of the Avon Ring would be to travel north via the North Oxford and Coventry Canals to Great Heywood. Travel the full length of the Staffs & Worcester Canal to Stourport, then down the River Severn to Worcester where you can join the Avon Ring.

243 miles - 196 locks - 9 hours per day navigating (a busy two weeks !)

Places of interest for this route

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