We had planned to stop tonight at Spellbrook lock and go to the Three Horseshoes for a meal. But there wasn’t any suitable mooring space, and also it’s right under the flightpath approach for Stanstead airport. The planes were coming over only a few hundred feet up about every two minutes. So we decided to carry on and forego our pub meal.

The upper Stort is really rural and interesting.  At one point the river meanders across a wide open marshy area – most odd. Tednambury lock is out in the open in the middle of a farmer’s field. We were visited by some Highland cattle.

Bishops Stortford is very dissapointing. Rather than making a feature of it’s river the town seems to be embarassed by it. Unlike in Hertford there are no riverside pubs bars or social areas. The buildings turn their back on the river, hiding it away behind a multistorey car park. Some of the buildings are modern so the town planners missed an opportunity to open the area up and make it inviting.

These rather attractive stone signs adorned some of the locks.