Evesham-Bidford 13th Sept 2012

 Pint of retro Brew XI in the Red Horse last night. Nice motto painted on the pub:
"If you drink you will get drunk
If you are drunk you will sleep
If you sleep you will commit no sin
If you commit no sin you will go to heaven
Bring on the drink"

 And so its  breakfast early in Evesham. It looks a bit better this morning. Nice around the Abbey. 0910 its off again up the Upper Avon for the 9 mile run to Bidford on Avon.

Tui and Stourbridge Lion on the Avon

 Paired up with a boat called "Tui" for the locks.The bloke off Tui and Joanne shown above. Joanne on the right.

Bidford

 Nice mooring at Bidford.
 Now legend has it that Shakespeare visited Bidford for a drinking contest with the Bidford locals. He went to sleep under a crab apple tree and when he woke and asked to continue drinking he said the following:-
"Piping Pebworth
Dancing Marston
Haunted Hilborough
Hungry Grafton
with Dodging Exhall
Papist Wixford
Beggarly Broom
and Drunken Bidford"
No one knows if this was actually said by Shakespeare but it does give a nice snapshot of the villages in that locale at a moment in time.
Poor old Broom and Grafton!

Bidford Church

Walked to the Cottage of Comfort at Barton a hamlet outside Bidford.  Had a nice pint of Black Sheep.