Sunday Times Where Was I? Holiday Competition

Near as I can figure it, through the possibly flawed perceptual filters of my own reality tunnel, the most likely answers this week, seem to me to be:


Q1. The Gloucester and Sharpness Canal


Q2. Sir Peter Scott



The initial clues seem to place us near the city of Gloucester, which is at the northern end of the sixteen mile long Gloucester and Sharpness canal. Some of the reference sources I checked claim that this was opened c 1827 and was once one of the broadest and deepest navigations in the world.

The architect born c 1780 who designed the Royal Mint (c 1809), is probably Sir Robert Smirke. Smirke designed Hardwicke Court, an elegant Georgian house near the village of Hardwicke, which was completed c 1816-17 and this looks to be a good fit direction and distance wise from Gloucester, for the hints given.

Travelling south from Hardwicke would bring us into proximity with the remains of the Stroudwater navigation (closed c 1954), which used to have a junction with the Gloucester and Sharpness canal, prior to joining the river Severn.

The wildfowl centre is most likely Slimbridge, which is in the correct location for the given clues and the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust there, was founded by the son of the explorer Captain Scott of the Antarctic, Sir Peter Scott c 1946. The remains of the Severn railway bridge can be seen near Sharpness. This collapsed c 1960 after being hit by a barge.

The two hundred and twenty four mile path is probably the Severn way and the docks at Sharpness appear to have opened c 1874. The puzzle author is not joking about the tides there, some reference sources claim that a tsunami travelled up the river Severn c 1607, which was caused by a geological fault line lying off the southern coast of Ireland. Die flutwelle katastrophe reportedly killed around two thousand people living along the Severn and was exacerbated by the same narrowing of the river that produces the Severn bore. The fault is still active and there may not be any tsunami warning systems in place to alert the local residents, should the fault slip again..