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Tell us YOUR story and what you'll miss most about your nearest bowser.

Janet Arnott
Two bowsers got removed from one end of my street (Read Way, Bishops Cleeve), but there is a poor lonely one round the corner. Is there a place to report the homeless ones? I'm sure the council lost track of where they were all put.

Elaine
Most of the bowsers have gone from my area now. It's amazing how, two weeks ago, we were taking them for granted, getting used to seeing them on the streets, and now, we're playing "spot the bowser"! I saw one yesterday and where once it looked "normal" now it looks out of place!

Pauline
Today, 11th August, there is still a bowser sitting at the junction of Cornflower Road and Bluebell Close Abbeymead ... one of the missing ones?

Liz Ingram
The other day Anna King mentioned that 100 bowsers seem to have gone missing. One of them is still sitting in Cherrington Drive, Abbeymead just waiting to be collected!

David
Well after driving around 15 bowsers to find one with water I saw some very nice parts of Cheltenham (funny that the nice areas having full bowsers and the other areas having empty ones) I would love to say I will miss my bowser but no one bothered giving us one

Alison
As of wednesday 8th, most of the bowsers in Bussage/Chalford have not been moved!! Maybe they are here to stay!

Paul Bennett
I've had such fun with our Bowser Ive wheel-clamped and anchored it down so it's staying now. All it took was a ton of aggregate & some bags of cement & steels and a few hours of my labour as a time-served construction industry professional. If necessary I'll chain myself to it. HAH! LET THEM arrest me! THEY CAN TAKE MY FREEDOM, BUT THEY'LL NEVER TAKE OUR BOWSER!!!

paul
i wont miss the neadle in a haystack search for bowsers with water in. Severn Trent failed the people of Gloucestershire twice one by not planning and filling bowsers it took the army to organise them and secondly by not paying a small chunk of their huge profits in compensation.

Alison, Bussage
Although it is good to have clean water flowing through our taps, i will miss having to walk to the bowser to collect water and being "part of" this emergency. It is certainly a memory i will never forget and will talk about often. I have also enjoyed reading the messages on this website and have looked for bowsers when i have been out and about. Like several people have already said: now i need to get a life!!

guy williams
I got chatting to a couple as we watched our bowser being taken away. the lady pointed out that now we would have nothing left to talk about. I disagree, I'm going to bang on about the floods for a good while yet. Might even see if I can get my own bowser for a momento.

Dave Kempster !!!
Bye bye bowser I have a tear in my eyeyou came to our aid when the taps ran dry.saved many a life with your gift of clean waterCame to our need like a lamb to the slaughterTaught us a lesson about wanting and wastingWe now know more about wall paper pasting (I was decorating at the time)I had loads in the garden and more in the pond,but none for my veggies, I was feeling quite conned. Nothing to drink or even to cook, Yet loads in my study soaking my books.Then along came the blue water tanksIt meant we could flush our Armatige ShanksThey saved us all with a gift of clean waterWe appreciate it now or at least we oughtaAlong came the bowsers with

GRAHAM PONTING
I like the bowsers but i feel that blue was an awful colour. I hate chelsea and bristol rovers. Next year can we have some pink ones?????

Deb
The Bowsers were great - forced us to be sociable with our neighbours!! I will never forget the excitement of the bowser arriving in our street at 11pm on Tuesday night - everyone rushed out of their houses armed with buckets & big, cheery grins!! They served us well....sniff! : )

Matt
I must say I remember my mum telling me about the bowsers and standpipes in the drought in 1976. It was weird that 31 years later we were using the bowsers again. But for the distruption caused it made for an interesting few weeks. I also came transfixed with bowser spotting!!!!!

Judith Thomson
I just hope that they have looked at the long range weather forecoast before they move them!!!! Joking apart they did bring more than water, they brought a bit of cheer to the neighbourhoods, motivation for those that live alone and sometimes dont bother to go out and, despite lots of moans from people who expect it all, I think Severn Trent did a fabulous job. It has been good to be on this link too and read messages and share the crisis with others.

Fiona McLean
Bowser spotting has become part of my daily routine. I'm now having to come to terms with the fact that soon, after they have gone that I may need to get a life.

john
I really like those bowsers and collecting the water

Duke Theedam
Be glad to see the back of them myself....a sign that life is getting back to 'normal'....whatever that is....lol

The Sad Sullies
As we sit at home, unable to travel too far due to an outbreak of chicken pox, we think of our many visits to the local bowsers. We named all those in our vicinity, at least the five that we could walk to. Over the past week we have been on the lookout and in our travels around the town we counted 105. We know there are many more which we did not see and we wish them well in their travels, it will be strange not to see the blue containers round and about. It has been a different start to the holidays and memories will stay with us for a long time. It is now time to get back to normal.

Anna
I will miss the social activity that it became, seeing children collecting it, the elderly man walking with his walking stick and his saucepan, taking just enough, the comments that we were the lucky ones, and the feeling as i collected it that it was a precious commodity which we usually take for granted, and how this is how it once was - everyone gathering at the well and appreciating every drop - and how, with water on tap, we have bcome ungrateful and wasteful and always complaining about how expensive it is. I miss the bowser, already, looking as it did, perched at an angle at the top of a hill, like a cartoon version of Thomas the Tank Engine!

Dan Vesma
Its so sad to see them go... they've been good friends to us over the past couple of weeks. Some of us who have bonded over our love in the Bowsers of Gloucestershire facebook group are meeting up on Friday to mourn collectively - discussing and photographing these blue beauties has put a smile on all our faces.