Severn Unit goes Live on Air

The Severn Unit of the MVS has taken BBC Radio Gloucestershire breakfast presenter, Mark Cummings from the Lower Lode Inn to Barton Street in Tewkesbury on MVS Minerva.

Mark is the Mock Mayor of Barton, a tradition which comes from the time of King Charles II’s return to the throne after the civil war and the siege of Gloucester in the 1660s.

The king punished the city for supporting Parliament in the war by ordering it to tear down its walls and made the civic boundaries much smaller, meaning the large area of Barton no longer had a mayor.

The people of Barton then elected a Mock Mayor and this tradition continued for hundreds of years before disappearing and then being recently revived.

Head of Unit Nic Price said “Mark is visiting all the places named Barton within the county as part of his radio show.
He did live commentaries from the boat as we went along the Severn and onto the Avon which involved going through two locks.
This gave us an opportunity to tell listeners about the MVS and the role of Severn Unit within the local area.”