Day out on the K&A

Saturday 24 April

First trip on Ray’s boat for a while. Also first train journey for a while.

Ruth and I caught an early(ish) train from Reading to Bedwyn, the idea being that Ray and his boat would meet us there and travel back to his mooring at Kintbury. He had been moored at Froxfield for the previous week where a friend had been helping him fit solar panels to the roof of the boat. In the event, there was no sign of Ray when we got off the train and made our way to the towpath at Great Bedwyn, so we started walking and met him at Burnt Mill Lock just outside the village. Apparently his friend’s estimate of the time it would take him to get to Great Bedwyn from Froxfield had been a bit out, and it had actually taken the best part of two hours. Think it slows things down quite a lot if you have to do all the locks yourself. As the canal was quiet we had a cup of tea in situ within the lock, chugged on to Bedwyn Wharf to turn around and then set off.

Coming back through Burnt Mill Lock

Heading northeast towards Little Bedwyn

It was quite a breezy day, which caused Ray some problems early on when turning the boat at the winding hole at Bedwyn, and again just before Little Bedwyn Lock, when the boat got a bit wedged and he and Ruth had to push/pull it from either side.

Tussling with the boat by Little Bedwyn Lock

We passed through nine locks between Great Bedwyn and Hungerford (Burnt Mill, Potter’s, Little Bedwyn, Oakhill Down, Froxfield Middle, Froxfield Bottom, Picketfield, Cobbler’s and Hungerford Marsh). Most 7 or 8 feet or so in depth. Hungerford Marsh Lock has a swing bridge directly over it (apparently making it unique on the canal) which has to be opened before operating the lock. For the first part of the trip, Ruth helped out with the lock gates while I idled around, but then I decided I really should get involved so did my share of gate-pushing and windlass-turning for the last few locks. Some big variation in the stiffness of the gates – it must do wonders for your core if you’re pushing them regularly.

In Oakhill Down Lock

The swing bridge at Hungerford Marsh Lock

At Cobbler’s Lock, just west of Hungerford on the other side of Freeman’s Marsh, there’s a cottage – presumably the former lock cottage – that Ray had heard had recently sold at auction for around £300,000, despite being structurally unsound (it’s visibly buttressed at the front) and apparently having no road access. Sounds like a labour of love, and money, for someone. The lock was one of a couple we went through that had a sign on it saying it was to be left empty – this Geograph contributor reckons it’s because the cottage’s cellar floods when the lock’s full.

The cottage at Cobbler's Lock

We realized early on in the voyage that we weren’t going to make it as far as Kintbury without making it into a route march (route chug?) into the evening, so Ray moderated his ambitions and aimed for Hungerford. We stopped just above Froxfield for a nice lunch and then carried on, reaching Hungerford about 5:30pm. Ray moored up near the church and decided he was going to spend the night there; Ruth and I walked to the station to get a train back to Reading.

Approaching Hungerford