Great West Way Travel Magazine | Issue 07
Follow the paths through England’s idyllic countryside, quaint villages and elegant towns where our best-kept secrets from the past meet twenty-first-century hospitality.
Follow the paths through England’s idyllic countryside, quaint villages and elegant towns where our best-kept secrets from the past meet twenty-first-century hospitality.
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Pictured previous page: Kennet & Avon Canal Pictured clockwise from<br />
below: The Canal Tavern; Bradford on Avon Canal; autumn berries on<br />
the Bradford on Avon Canal<br />
The Kennet & Avon Canal runs all the way from the<br />
River Thames to the River Avon, connecting the town<br />
of Reading with the World Heritage Site of Bath and<br />
Bristol. It is 87-miles (140km) long and is made up<br />
of two lengths of navigable river linked by a 57-mile (92km)<br />
canal section. It passes through some of the loveliest scenery<br />
you could hope to see.<br />
When you travel down the Kennet & Avon Canal you are<br />
hitting the rewind button on life. Wonderful views, tranquil<br />
waters, charming villages, quaint canal side pubs, impressive<br />
locks – all of them looking much the same as they always did.<br />
Not forgetting Bath's Georgian architecture of golden stone<br />
and the rich maritime history of Bristol.<br />
Started in 1794, the canal was completed in 1810 to the<br />
designs of engineer John Rennie. It became an important trade<br />
route bustling with boats carrying a variety of goods. As it<br />
snaked its way across country the canal brought prosperity<br />
and employment to rural towns and villages. Wharves and all<br />
the infrastructure necessary for handling goods were built,<br />
and today you can still see this fascinating industrial heritage<br />
scattered along the canal banks. The canal needed many locks<br />
and engineering solutions to climb up and down the Wiltshire<br />
and Somerset hills. Engineers were innovators and designed<br />
remarkable canal architecture such as the Crofton Pumping<br />
Station, Claverton Water Mill and the Dundas and Avoncliffe<br />
Aqueducts.<br />
The canal's locks are wide enough to take two<br />
narrowboats side by side or a large beamed boat. Most<br />
spectacular of all is the famous Caen Hill Lock Flight in<br />
Devizes, considered one of the wonders of the waterways. In<br />
order that boats could climb or descend the steep hill, 29 locks<br />
were built between Town Bridge and the bottom lock at Lower<br />
Foxhangers. In the middle of this is the 'staircase' of 16 locks<br />
70 <strong>Great</strong><strong>West</strong><strong>Way</strong>.co.uk
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