Long-term moorings in Gloucester

Moorings in Gloucester are in and around Gloucester Docks, at the northern end of the 16 mile Gloucester & Sharpness Canal, where Gloucester Lock drops to the River Severn. The Canal & River Trust runs both waters and lets the long-term berths in the city. Sharpness, Frampton on Severn and Hempsted have their own pages.

Moorings in Gloucester

• Victoria Basin: a Trust site behind the main docks basin, with pontoon berths for up to 44 boats, among them cruisers, narrowboats and a few wide beams. Electricity and water at each berth, and no dedicated parking.
• Monk Meadow: a Trust site in a basin opened in 1892, about a mile from the city centre. It has 40 berths of 8m, 18.5m and 20m, with no parking or facilities block on site.
• Sellars Bridge: a Trust towpath site at Hardwicke, four miles south west of Gloucester, about 150m long with room for up to seven boats.

All three are leisure moorings and none is residential. The nearest pump out and Elsan point is at Llanthony pontoons, about 300 yards north of Monk Meadow.

On the water

• Licence: every boat must be registered and licensed with the Canal & River Trust.
• Canal size limits: 64m long, 9.6m wide and 3.5m draught between Sharpness Docks and Gloucester Docks.
• Gloucester Lock: boats of up to 41.15m by 6.4m, with 1.83m draught and 7.5m headroom, can pass between the docks and the river. A keeper works the lock, so call ahead; a watch is kept on VHF channel 74.
• Bridges: Trust staff open the canal's bridges in set hours. The 2025 to 2026 timetable was 8am to 4pm in winter, with no passage on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 31 October, and 8am to 6pm daily from 1 April 2026.
• River Severn: the reach from Gloucester Lock up to Upper Lode Lock at Tewkesbury is semi-tidal, and tides over 7.2m top the weir at Gloucester. The East Channel above the lock is narrow, shallow and often carries debris.
• Below Gloucester: the Trust calls the river from Gloucester to Sharpness dangerous for boats. The canal bypasses it.

Floods and closures

• Strong stream: indicator boards at the Severn locks show whether conditions are normal, liable to change (proceed with caution) or hazardous (do not proceed). The Trust's advice in a strong stream is to tie up.
• Low water: Gloucester Lock closed on 29 August 2025 for low water and reopened with limits from 20 September. On 26 August 2026 it opened only three times while divers worked to cut water loss.