Walk along the K&A, 24-30 September 2018

Was so knackered after completing this that didn’t blog about it at the time, apart from posting Relive videos of each day of the walk.

Can’t remember whether it was Ray’s or my idea to walk the entire length of the Kennet and Avon Canal from Reading to Bristol. It seemed like a reasonable project at the time – after all, it’s flat, isn’t it? We planned the walk to be spread over seven days but even so, neither of us had really done enough training for the daily mileage involved – and/or, it’s possible I just get pissed off once a walk goes over about 12 miles (though that could, of course, reflect a training issue).

Ray drafted an itinerary that was intended to spread the mileage over a reasonable number of days. He located and booked accommodation for days 3 to 5; I booked us into a Premier Inn in Bristol for days 6 and 7. Day 3 was the only day we had to book an accommodation type neither of us would have ideally picked (a B&B) due to understandable lack of choice in modestly-sized Pewsey. The reference to my birthday in the header was because this was planned as one of several activities to celebrate my 50th last August.

The start point of the K&A is considered to be the Floating Harbour at Bristol and the end point the Thames at Reading, and that's the direction the locks are numbered in (lock number 1 is Hanham Lock, above the Bristol Floating Harbour; the last lock, lock 105, is Blake's Lock on the Kennet at Reading). Consequently, most guides to walking the K&A seem to assume you’re walking from Bristol eastwards to Reading - however, we chose to set out from Reading and walk towards Bristol.

As a guide to estimating the distances, Ray had used ‘The Kennet & Avon Canal: A User’s Guide to the Waterways between Reading and Bristol’, by one Niall Allsop (though despite the title, this book also chooses to progress from Bristol to Reading). Ray became so incensed by the apparent discrepancies between Allsop’s estimates of the mileage, and what turned out to be the actual mileage, that he vowed to track down and have it out with Allsop, or in the event that he is no longer living, with his descendants. Mileage aside, though, the detail in the book was useful and helped us to identify points of interest at each stage.

Day 1: Reading to Woolhampton, tracked at 13.2 miles

We started, properly, from Kennet Mouth and followed the first part of the canal through Reading. Technically speaking, it’s combined canal and river at this point. The K&A and the River Kennet don’t separate until Newbury.

Starting point at Kennet Mouth

Canal through Reading

The narrow section of canal that passes through what’s now the Oracle shopping centre is known as the Brewery Gut, so named as the Simonds Brewery used to occupy the land along the canal just here. The brewery went in the late 1970s; I remember there then being a bus depot on part of the site as per this Geograph photo from 1991. It’s one-way for boat traffic, controlled by red and green lights at either end. The photo shows what this stretch of canal looked like before the Oracle was built. It must be looking east as that’s the former Yield Hall car park in the background, demolished to make way for the Oracle. At the time of the photo, there was no towpath along this section of canal and you had to walk round by the road and rejoin it further on.

This page has some interesting photos of the Reading stretch of the canal from around the 1980s.

South of Calcot

Turf-sided Garston Lock

Quiet spot near Ufton Green

We ended Day 1 with tea at The Rowbarge in Woolhampton, before catching a train back to Reading.

Tea

Day 2: Woolhampton to Hungerford, tracked at 18.1 miles

Day 2 proved to be the longest walk of the week. It was slightly lengthened by Ray not feeling too well at the start of the day, as we took a detour into Thatcham for a second breakfast and a sit down, rather than having the first stop at Newbury as we’d planned.

Early morning canal west of Woolhampton

After breakfasting at Thatcham’s Waitrose, we then stopped for elevenses at the café in the little stone building on Newbury Wharf, before pressing on westwards to Kintbury.

River Kennet branching off from the canal at Newbury

Bridge carrying the A34 Newbury Bypass

Approaching Kintbury

My parents had supportively driven to Hungerford and then got the train to Kintbury in order to do a few miles of the walk with us. It was nice to have their company for the last stretch though both Ray and I were knackered by then. On arrival at Hungerford we had tea at Eliane, and Ray and I got the train back to Reading.

Tea at Eliane

Day 3: Hungerford to Pewsey, tracked at 15.1 miles

Drink at The Three Tuns

This was probably the most rural stretch of the walk, and it was a beautiful day weather-wise. The canal turns south west from Hungerford, past the Bedwyns – Little and Great; we stopped in Great Bedwyn for a drink at the Three Tuns – and then on to Crofton, where we sat for a while watching a boat struggling with one of the locks.

Crofton Pumping Station was built to supply the summit pound of the K&A with water. The summit of the canal is just west of Crofton Top Lock, part of a flight of nine locks at Crofton. Interesting to see the abutments of the lines that used to carry the Midland and South Western Junction Railway.

Boat in lock, near Crofton Pumping Station

Old railway bridge abutments near Crofton Top Lock

After Crofton, it’s westwards to Pewsey via Wootton Rivers. The Bruce Tunnel necessitates a short up-and-over detour. We passed Burbage Wharf and its replica crane.

Entrance to the Bruce Tunnel

Ray reading the blurb

Burbage Wharf

Late in the day, west of Wootton Rivers

I remember being pretty knackered by the last few miles – guessing we hadn’t really recovered from the 18-mile trek the day before. We were tired by the time we reached Pewsey Wharf and then had an unrewarding trek up from the canal into the village to locate Circles B&B, where we had booked for the night.

I don’t like B&Bs very much and had probably not stayed in one in since my early 20s and the discovery of Travelodges. I’m prepared to accept that they may have improved over the years and am fairly sure there are more decent ones around these days in terms of the quality of the food and standard of room – my parents report having stayed in some nice ones. What hasn’t changed is the feeling of staying in a complete stranger’s house, which presumably a lot of people find relaxing/reassuring but which I don’t care for. If I want a ‘home from home’ I’ll, uh, stay at home. I like a nice impersonal hotel thank you. Or failing that I’ll just self-cater.

Our stay in this one didn’t start all that well as the owners weren’t there and had left it to their daughter to let us in and show us to our rooms. She somewhat sheepishly had to explain that there are no locks on the doors of the rooms as a matter of policy, and invited us to take it up with her parents if we had any issues. Parents, it turns out, are the sort of wholesome twats who can’t believe there would be any security issues, and – moreover – expect their guests to be sitting around in the communal breakfast/relaxation room of an evening forging new friendships, presumably over a mug of rooibos, kombucha or similar (they don’t put TVs in the bedrooms for similar reasons). As it happened I hadn’t brought anything of significant value with me other than my phone and purse, which I kept with me, but if I’d e.g. been travelling for work with a laptop I wouldn’t have been thrilled with the arrangement. The rooms were nice enough but nothing special.

Ray and I duly left our stuff in our rooms and went out into Pewsey to seek dinner. We had dinner at an Indian restaurant which is probably the only restaurant in the village – there were I think a couple of pubs, but we were knackered and just happened to reach the curry house first. One of the first things we decided after sitting down and ordering beers was that we were not going to walk the next day and needed a rest day. I think we both felt immeasurably better after deciding this.

Day 4: Pewsey to Devizes, tracked at NO MILES AT ALL

We went downstairs to an impressively laden breakfast table. Three other guests appeared for breakfast, all older than us, all very nice. We met the owners for the first time – wife didn’t speak much; husband did indeed impress me as something of a twat. My suspicions were first aroused when he warned us that what looked like sugar was in fact crushed golden linseed. Subsequent further evidence: a) I swear there was also something about the difficulty of getting hold of organic chia seeds; b) when one of the other guests had the temerity to ask for sugar for his coffee, the owner declined to provide any and instead asked if he’d thought of trying agave syrup. Stupid given that there isn’t much evidence anyway for these things being better than sugar, and just made him look a) pretentious and b) unresponsive to his guests’ wants. I was glad Ruth wasn’t there as I wouldn’t have vouched for his safety if he’d tried to deny her sugar in her tea. Our fellow guest was extremely gracious and agreed to try the syrup, but really.

After leaving the B&B, we spent the morning having an enjoyable ride around on local buses, the first one from Pewsey to Salisbury, where we then caught another bus from Salisbury to Devizes. Pleasant country views – though really we were just thankful to be sitting down.

On arrival in Devizes we had a pleasant lunch and walk around, including a visit to the Wadworth Brewery shop and a walk down to the wharf, home to the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust.

The Wadworth Brewery

We stayed overnight at The Pelican Inn in the Market Place. Absolutely lovely - it's a pub, but has some newly refurbished rooms leading off a courtyard at the rear. Lovely spacious rooms, done out to a really high standard.

Relaxing in the courtyard at The Pelican

By not walking from Pewsey to Devizes, we missed out on a couple of things of note: the Barge Inn near the former Honeystreet Wharf is, according to the internet, an international centre for crop circle research – this page claims that you can get ‘the latest in up-to-date crop circle news’ at the pub, and refers to a ‘croppies’ meeting room and noticeboard. Could have been a laugh – though the internet also reveals that the pub came into new ownership earlier in 2019, so one hopes the croppies haven’t been turfed out.

From www.cropcircleconnector.com

Also, the Long Pound – a 16-mile lock free stretch of water north of Devizes. (To be honest, a few locks are good to break up a canal walk, lovely though the scenery is.) The Internet suggests that this stretch has been severely weeded up in the past and even these days seems to require occasional dredging.

Day 5: Devizes to Bradford-on-Avon, tracked at 12.7 miles

We had breakfast at a café and set off from Devizes Wharf, feeling somewhat refreshed. We soon passed the Caen Hill Locks, which are fun from a pedestrian’s perspective but must be a right pain to take a boat through.

Setting off from Devizes Wharf

Below the Caen Hill flight, looking back

Further on we passed the Caen Hill back pumping station and the hire boats of Foxhangers Canal Holidays. We stopped for refreshment at the canalside Barge Inn at Seend Cleeve.

Ray near Sells Green

Canalside refreshment

At Semington we passed the former junction with the long-abandoned Wilts & Berks Canal, which used to go from this spot to join the Thames at Abingdon. There is apparently a movement to restore it, though the project sounds heavily beset by challenges. The Wikipedia page has it that eight miles (out of an original 52) have been rewatered - see these pictures of a boat trip on the restored bit.

Junction with the former Wilts & Berks Canal

We noted the little aqueduct carrying the canal over Semington Brook. Allsop's book describes the aqueduct as 'impressively robust, though somewhat squat'.

Semington Aqueduct

I’d only been to Bradford-on-Avon once before, with Ray in the mid-1990s on our way for a weekend in Bath. Pic below from on that trip, of Ray outside The Bridge Tea Rooms. Bradford is a lovely-looking town though we were too tired at the end of our day's walking to fancy much of a look around, and instead made our way to our accommodation for the night.

Ray in Bradford-on-Avon in 1995

We stayed overnight at Widbrook Barns, advertised as ‘luxury B&B and glamping accommodation’. It’s slightly outside Bradford – we did walk there but found it a bit of a trek after the day’s canal walk. It’s a really lovely place – Ray and I each had one of the converted barn rooms, which open off a central area with plants and benches.

For dinner, we booked a taxi to take us the mile or so into town, not feeling like walking another step. The driver helpfully pointed out a number of restaurants to us; we ended up having a lovely meal at Pizzeria Amici.

At Widbrook Barns

Day 6: Bradford-on-Avon to Bath, tracked at 10.3 miles

A winding stretch that initially goes westwards from Bradford via Avoncliff and Limpley Stoke, then north via Claverton and Bathampton, then westwards again into Bath. This was the shortest walk of the week in terms of mileage.

For these last two days, my friends Matthew and Hai had kindly offered to join us for the walk, though Matt expressed light-hearted disgust at our having wimped out of Day 4. We made our way to the Lock Inn Café – clearly a popular local breakfast place – and met up with them. Matt was dropped off by his son on son's way to Bristol and Hai had gallantly got the train, involving what sounded like a bit of a convoluted journey.

Ray at the Lock Inn Café

This was a lovely sunny day’s walking. The main features of this stretch of canal are the Avoncliff and Dundas aqueducts, and then the pretty stretch into Bath.

Hai at Avoncliff

The Dundas Aqueduct

We stopped for a drink at the George Inn at Bathampton.

In Bath, we had drinks at The Crystal Palace on Abbey Street, where Ruth joined us, and then went for dinner at a Thai restaurant Matt knew from OU residential schools. After dinner, Matthew and Hai went off to their respective accommodations - being uber-thrifty types, they had booked in to an Air BnB and a youth hostel respectively - while Ray, Ruth and I caught the train to Bristol and made our way to the Premier Inn at Lewins Mead.

Near Sydney Gardens in Bath

Looking towards Pulteney Bridge

Day 7: Bath to Bristol, tracked at 16.1 miles

The final stretch of our walk. Although Hai and Matt were stepping out in reasonably lively fashion, both Ray and I had more or less had enough by this stage and frankly would probably have skipped the last day had I not invited others to join us.

Ray and I got the train back to Bath, leaving Ruth in the hotel working. We met up with Matt and Hai, and Hai regaled us with her less-than-satisfactory hostel experience, including “waking up to a chorus of snores and farts".

As the canal proper ends at Bath, this last stretch is characteristically river rather than canal scenery. We headed west from the city centre and out of the city past the New Bridge, at one point the western boundary of the city of Bath.

The New Bridge

Near Saltford, we went away from the river to follow a stretch of the Bristol and Bath Railway Path, rejoining the river path just south of Bitton.

The Bristol and Bath Railway Path

Looking back towards bridge carrying the railway path

Avon scenery

In Bristol, Ray and I elected to take the shorter route along the Bristol Feeder Canal, while Matthew insisted he was going to take the longer route along the New Cut, an artificial waterway constructed in the early nineteenth century to re-route the river Avon. The Feeder Canal carries on up to the Floating Harbour, but Ray and I decided to call it a day at Temple Meads station. In the event, Matt and Hai did too, as the path along the New Cut turned out not to be passable and they had to retrace their steps and follow the route we’d taken.

The Bristol Feeder Canal

The finish at Temple Meads station

We had a celebratory drink at a Wetherspoons by Temple Meads station, before Matthew and Hai left us to catch their trains home. Ray, Ruth and I returned to Reading the following morning.

Drinks at The Knights Templar

Verdict? We'd do something similar again, and have talked about a similar challenge along the Grand Union. More training necessary though.