A FAMILY of four had a dramatic start to a holiday afloat when their 52ft narrowboat got stuck in mud above Bevere weir, north of Worcester.

As the River Severn rose after a day of heavy rain, the boat, Lydia, was in danger of being washed down the wrong side of Bevere island towards the weir.

Andy and Andrea Porter, with their sons, Thomas, aged 11 and Oliver, eight, endured four anxious hours before their boat was freed by rescue workers on Sunday evening.

Mrs Porter said: We had gone through Bevere Lock, where the lock keeper told us to keep to the right, when we saw two scaffolding poles sticking out of the water. There was no warning sign or anything, so we assumed we should still keep to the right.

We were nowhere near the bank, but the boat just stopped and we couldn't move it.

The Nottingham family did not realise the seriousness of the situation until the lock keeper shouted across to them.

Their holiday hire company, Black Prince Holidays, contacted British Waterways, who called Mercia Inshore Search and Rescue, based at Upton-upon-Severn, at 8pm.

Using a rescue boat and a four-wheel drive vehicle, the Mercia team managed to swing the boat round into the main channel and the tow was completed by a British Waterways tug from Diglis.

With the rising river waters, they were in a fairly precarious position, said the rescue group's chairman, David Walker. People who don't use the river regularly don't realise what dangers are just downstream.

Mrs Porter said her sons were worried at times during the rescue operation, but it had not put them off going on boating holidays.

They want to come again next year, she said.