Weekend out on Ray's boat

Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 July

Ruth and I joined Ray on his boat for a bit of a pootle down (actually, pedantically, up) the canal. The boat had been in the dry dock near Newbury marina for the week prior, having some repairs done and also for Ray to have a chance to do some painting of the underside. On the Friday evening he collected the boat and moored up overnight by Greenham Lock, where we walked over to meet him on the Saturday morning. The plan was to have a leisurely meander back to his mooring at Kintbury, stopping overnight on the way.

Leaving the mooring upstream of Greenham Lock

The walk from Newbury station to Greenham Lock made me wonder whether Greenham Lock Cottage was still standing. A friend of Mum’s lived there in the 1970s with her husband and two children and I remember going over there to visit them more than once. If I remember correctly, the cottage was accessed by a footbridge from the town side though I assume there must have been vehicle access, albeit looking at the site on Google Maps I can’t see where this would have been. I’m sure I remember there being an access bridge more or less opposite the cottage, plus a shakier-looking footbridge a bit upstream of it. However, memory being what it is, who the hell knows at this stage.

I asked the Facebook group ‘Memories of Newbury and West Berkshire’ whether anyone knew whether the cottage had been demolished – certainly I couldn’t see it, but the whole area has changed so much with the creation of the marina that I can’t really get my bearings. One chap replied saying that its site was the red rectangle on this Google Earth view:

This Heritage Gateway page states that:

The core of the cottage at Greenham Lock is of probable 18th century date, with a succession of later additions. The property was proposed for demolition and replacement with a new dwelling, and as part of the planning conditions, Historic Building Recording was carried out in January 2014 by Lang Hall Archaeology. The report concluded that the modern 'periodising' features have obscured the principal dating evidence and that only the core cottage is of any architectural or historic value.

Though the building is adjacent to Greenham Lock on the Kennet and Avon Canal (formerly the Kennet Navigation), it is unclear whether it was historically a lock keeper's cottage. The First Edition Ordnance Survey mapping of 1880-81 appears to label this as a boat house.

It clearly wasn’t still a lockkeeper’s cottage by the 1970s, if it ever was, as Mum confirmed that her friend’s husband had worked for Honeywell and had nothing to do with the canals.

Further searching confirms that the cottage was indeed demolished, and a new build erected in its place. Greenham Construction lists the New GLC among its portfolio of work (with some inaccuracies – it’s not in the centre of Newbury; there’s possibly some confusion with the lock cottage at Newbury Lock, which was indeed in the centre of Newbury, though it was demolished in the 1980s. It sounds as though GLC might have lasted a bit longer). Here’s a more extensive blurb re the construction of the new property: LOCK KEEPERS COTTAGE, SUSTAINABLE REPLACEMENT DWELLING ON AN ISLAND SITE, which includes the following:

The historic canal-side cottage was much loved by the local community and those travelling along the Kennet & Avon Canal, but in reality, it was flood-prone and uncomfortable to live in.

As a child, I remember having mixed views on it. It was certainly quite excitingly unusual to access someone’s house via a footbridge. If I remember correctly, the amendments made to it included a 70s-style slatted staircase leading up from the middle of the living area to the bedrooms; I remember that there was an additional back staircase, presumably the original. I can’t say I ever hankered after living there. As a child I determinedly favoured nice modern houses that weren’t by dark bodies of water, a preference that it’s fair to say I still have in adulthood.

Passing Newbury Wharf

We set off, passing Newbury Wharf. Ray bemoaned that recent redevelopments at the wharf have not included any boaters’ facilities; there are none between Kintbury and Aldermaston which given the increasing popularity of narrowboats seems a bit ridiculous. We passed under the little 18th-century Town Bridge.

Approaching Town Bridge

Some volunteers were manning Newbury Lock so we didn’t have to do the gates ourselves. The next obstacle after the lock is the swing bridge at West Mills. Operation of this is intended to be a simple matter of turning the key in the lock and then pressing and holding a button to open and close the bridge. Opening it went fine, and Ray took the boat through and moored up just past the bridge. Closure wasn’t quite so smooth: I kept my finger down until the bridge had got itself back in position and the level crossing-style gates had started to lift, then took it off, carelessly assuming that they’d make it the rest of the way up by themselves. Unfortunately they didn’t and stopped where they were. The handful of pedestrians who’d started forward to cross the bridge as the gates started to lift stepped back uncertainly, while I took my finger on and off the button in agitation and the gates jumped up and down. Eventually I took a punt on just holding it down again and hoping that the gates completed opening, which thankfully they did. The elderly couple who’d paused in their walk to watch me operate the bridge, with helpful input at one point along the lines of “ooh, you’ve messed that up”, shuffled off at this point.

Approaching Newbury Lock

Swing bridge open

Thankfully there are no more swing bridges between Newbury and Kintbury, though there are several between Newbury and Reading, and there’s one at Hungerford. There are seven further locks, though in the event we only passed through three on the Saturday before calling a halt to the day's boating. Guyer’s and Higg’s (just beyond the A34 bridge) went OK; Benham proved a bit of a git. The footboard looked ropey, wobbling and with the edge breaking off it, though Ruth did gingerly make her way across it OK; more problematically, one of the balance beams on the upper gates was bowing in the middle, making it tricky to push. I pushed it for a while but all it did was bow even more, while the gate remained unmoved. Ray was eventually reduced to ramming the gates with the boat, which may have shifted something; he and Ruth then pushing together on the non-broken beam managed to do the trick. I’m not sure what happens if you get stuck in a lock – I assume there’s a number you can call, as I guess it must have happened to people.

This Reading Chronicle piece from May notes that repairs had recently been completed to one of the lock gate beams at Benham Lock. It did look as though a piece of metal had been nailed over the dodgy area, presumably to hold it steady, but it was still clearly bowing. I suppose the metal might at least prevent it actually snapping in two.

Ray declared that he’d had enough after wrestling with Benham Lock – it was a warm day – so we moored up for the night just short of Hamstead Marshall. We cooked dinner – I had brought a small tonnage of pork belly strips from the Caversham Butcher. Due to my unfamiliarity with Ray’s oven it was quite late by the time we finally ate and we’d tanked a fair bit of wine by that time, so we only made a scrappy meal and had some meat over to bring back with us.

Our mooring position was just up from a small weir – I assume one of the many points where the River Kennet comes in/goes out. Looking at the map, we were just opposite Hamstead Park, where Ray and I had walked quite recently. There was some sort of tributary going off just opposite us, which online research suggests was probably one end of the Craven Fishery. We could see some sort of little wooden structure, though it was hard to get a good view of it.

Channel going off opposite

The little wooden structure

On the Sunday morning, we passed through four further locks: Hamstead, Copse (lovely shady position), Dreweatt’s and finally Kintbury.

Copse Lock

Approaching Kintbury. Horse-drawn barge moored up

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

Another walk near Kintbury, 4.1 miles

Sunday 20 December

Went over to Kintbury again a week ago for another Tier-whatever-compliant walk with Ray. This time we set out along the canal towpath towards Newbury. This is a pretty stretch.

At Shepherd's Bridge we turned off the towpath onto a path going southeast up Irish Hill and eventually coming out onto a minor road.

Shepherd's Bridge

Heading up Irish Hill

Looking back towards the canal

We took the lane opposite us (Old Lane) and followed this to where it joins the Newbury-Kintbury back road near Mason's Farm. 

We followed this road a short way before taking a footpath off to the right and further on turned right at a crossroads of paths to return to the minor road we'd come out onto earlier. We followed this road back into Kintbury.

Gorgeous morning and lovely countryside. Our route in red below. The line at the top is the section of canal towpath.

Walk with Ray from Kidlington, 5.5 miles

Wednesday 2 December 2020

On the day we were released from the November lockdown into the dizzying freedom of Tier 2, Ray and I both took a midweek day off to meet up for a walk. We agreed to meet at Kidlington as Ray had identified this on the map as a rough halfway point between Wolverton and Kintbury (about an hour's drive for each of us). We met up at the Watts Way car park, which is nicely placed in the centre of the town and has a handy public toilet, an important consideration for our middle-aged bladders.

We set off from the car park along Lyne Road and across the railway to join the Oxford Canal, which runs roughly north-south to the west of Kidlington. We turned northwards to follow the towpath initially through nondescript industrial areas but later reaching the village of Thrupp.

Oxford Canal heading north from Kidlington

Canal Road at Thrupp

At Thrupp, the canal turns left in a 90° turn to roughly follow the path of the River Cherwell.

Ray on the lift bridge over the canal at Thrupp

Boats at Thrupp

We carried on walking north as far as the village of Shipton-on-Cherwell. At the bridge at Shipton, we turned away from the canal to follow a path across a somewhat flooded field to a footbridge over the Cherwell.

Looking back towards Shipton and Holy Cross Church

Footbridge over the Cherwell

Further on, we passed under the railway and followed the footpath leading to Hampton Gay. This had a couple of points of interest: a church that seems to be marooned in the middle of a field, and the ruins of a sixteenth-century manor house. From internet research, there was formerly a more substantial village at Hampton Gay than there is now; this has a bit about the former village.

St Giles, Hampton Gay

The ruined manor house at Hampton Gay

We followed paths and bits of road south-east to Hampton Poyle and then back into Kidlington, where we had a snack lunch in the back of Ray's VW camper van - not strictly within Tier 2 rules, but it was too cold to eat outside.

Ray crossing one of many fields

This was a grey day but a very interesting walk. Part of it followed the Oxford Green Belt Way, apparently set up by the CPRE to highlight the importance of the green belt around Oxford.

Our route in red below, showing start and end points in Kidlington at the bottom.

Walk from Wolverton to Castlethorpe and back via Cosgrove, 7.3 miles

Sunday 16 August - my birthday! Low-key fun

While walking the well-used path along the Ouse Valley Way between Haversham Road and the Iron Trunk Aqueduct, I’d often noticed a footpath leading off to the right over a footbridge, signposted to Castlethorpe. I’d also found out that Castlethorpe used to have a railway station, closed at the time of the Beeching Axe. Obviously the combination of an unexplored footpath and something disused made a tempting prospect for a low-key expedition.

The Great Ouse from the footbridge at the southern end of the path

The path, looking back; railway embankment on left

The little path leading up to Castlethorpe follows the path of the railway for most of its route. It was very quiet but seems well kept. I passed this rustbucket of a structure, which is marked on the map as a water tower. There's a blog post about it here by the British Water Tower Appreciation Society. Good to know there is one ....

Old water tower near Castlethorpe

Eventually the path comes to a footbridge across the railway, which I crossed and walked into Castlethorpe village. Seems quite attractive. Left the village again at the north end via Station Road (giveaway there), walking towards Cosgrove. Stopped on the bridge over the railway to spot the old platforms – they are indeed there, though the wall’s annoyingly high and I had to stand on tiptoe.

The old platforms, looking south

There’s a detailed page here on the station closure – seemingly the station had only just been modernised when the closure was announced, which caused some annoyance locally. There are some old photos of the station here.

Continued along Station Road out of Castlethorpe, dodging cars, until I came to the bridge over the canal just before a pub called The Navigation. En route, passed over a little river – the Tove, I gathered from the map. Joined the towpath walking south towards Cosgrove.

Walking south along the canal towards Cosgrove

I stopped briefly at Cosgrove and ate a snack bar sitting by the canal. It had started to get hotter by this point.

Grand Union Canal at Cosgrove

Set off again passing the Buckingham Arm of the canal going off to the right. This is the Cosgrove end of the partly restored canal; Ray and I walked along the rewatered bit of the Buckingham end back in January. My friend Matt is a volunteer on the restoration of the Cosgrove end, which from his descriptions seems to involve having a lot of fun with concrete. Got to admire the spirit of the restoration attempt but as the original route was severed both by the A5 and by the A422 Old Stratford Bypass, it faces some severe challenges.

Buckingham Arm going off to the right

After passing the lock the canal continues south east to the Iron Trunk Aqueduct. I didn't photograph this today, but did on a walk in early July with Ray, so here's that picture (bluer sky than today!). 

The Iron Trunk aqueduct

I left the towpath at the aqueduct and followed the path down to the river level, where I made my way home via the Floodplain Forest Nature Reserve and Big Hill Field.

Floodplain Forest nature reserve

Big Hill Field

My route in red below; start and end points in Wolverton at the bottom, Castlethorpe at the top.

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.