Severn Rhyne

Back to early morning dog walks with my girls along the river Severn.

This blip shows a rhyne entering the Severn near Whale Wharf.

Before 1885, the wharf was known as Littleton wharf, but on January 31st 1885, a 68 foot Rorqual or smooth backed whale washed ashore here.

It swiftly became big (no pun intended) attraction.

The local gazette reported that:

?Those who stood to leeward, and into whose faces the spicy breeze from the monster blew, held their noses and manifested in a very demonstrative manner that their olfactory organs were in no way delightfully tickled?.

Apparently it was towed in to Bristol by a tug and was exhibited in Bristol for 2 weeks, it is a well known fact that city folk have no sense of smell, so I doubt their olfactory organs were tickled at all.

It ended up as fertiliser, judging by my poor crop, none of it ended up in my garden.

More info HERE