Crofton to Great Bedwyn or How Anne Helps John To Get His Leg Over !!

Firstly..... the title was John's idea

Crofton Pumping station taken from surrounding hills

Crofton to Great Bedwyn is a very pleasant run with the locks evenly spaced. We were starting to get into a routine. I tried to arrive first to set the locks, Vinnie would join me either cycling the towpath or getting a lift on John's boat. I was managing to overcome my fears of vertical ladders and heights and climbing off and on the boat in the locks.

 Some more interesting boats on the way.

We stopped at the wharf in Great Bedwyn for water and John had discovered that he had a problem with his onboard generator again. On the way down we had heard that lock 84 at Newbury would be closed for 5 days so there seemed to be little rush. We were getting used to delays by now. John spent some time diagnosing the problem and found that the system needed to be reset. So with that fixed it was too late to set off for the next good mooring so we decided to stay in Great Bedwyn. Another lovely village with 2 good pubs!

Great Bedwyn is a village with a long history. There is evidence of Neolithic settlement nearby: the Celts, Romans and Saxons were here; and the village is mentioned in the Domesday Book. Great Bedwyn became an important mediaeval market town for the Savernake area, and once had two members of parliament - a real rotten borough. This importance of the status of Great Bedwyn was reflected in the buildings of the village, e.g. the large church, the former Town Hall, the school – and Great Bedwyn continues to thrive as a working and residential large village.  The Stonemason's Museum.   Lloyd's stonemason's yard was established in 1790, and (among many other activities) was involved in the construction of the canal. It closed down in 2009 and all the carved stones were auctioned off. People from the village bought them to preserve the memory and apparently they can be found in gardens throughout the village. There are several on the front of the post office     An impressive church but sadly not enough bellringers to ring the next morning  ( Sunday) But we did have a good meal in the Cross Keys Pub where we met a lovely couple away for the weekend on their working boat  There were many lovely houses in this village but this one intrigued me. Castle Cottage is one of Great Bedwyn's oldest buildings. It has a Norman chimney (and fireplace within), but its origins remain a mystery. A blue plaque shows that In 1621 Castle Cottage was the birthplace of the celebrated physician Thomas Willis, known as 'the father of neurology'.     This boat also was fascinating with its lawn on the roof ! Next day we set off for Kintbury via Hungerford. It was a very picturesque part of the canal but with work being done on it by the CRT (apparently to upgrade it to a cruising canal) most of the mooring spots were occupied by working boats. Being Sunday, they weren't working but making it difficult for Vinnie to get on and off  John's boat. We were being followed by Steve, travelling alone on his widebeam. Despite access problems for Vinnie our lock routine was going well. At lock 73, I had set the lock with Vinnie and I was walking back to my boat with Tara, John was entering the lock on his boat. As I approached my boat, I saw Steve waving at me as he approached the lock. Sensing something was amiss I turned to see John in the water, hanging onto the port-side stern of his boat, which was now going backwards ! I dropped Tara's lead and ran back to the lock. I could see that if I didn't get onto John's boat quickly I would miss the chance to do so from the side of the lock. Fortunately he was closest to my bank and I was able to grab his top rail and jump on. Once I was on the boat, John said to grab his leg and he would pull himself back on. Meanwhile his boat had reversed into mine and another man was able to assist by jumping from the front of my boat onto John's Hence the title of this post as I had to help John to get his leg over.... the back of the boat of course!!! And despite having my camera on my person I missed a wonderful photo opportunity - sorry. And he refused a repeat performance, which I guess is fair enough. So 2 locks later and in Hungerford, John was able to shower, change and grab a well deserved whiskey ( I had one too ) He is now fully recovered and back to his old (dry)self.  There were an awful lot of 'what if's' that we have discussed since, that could have meant a different outcome to this incident. But fortunately all is well.

Recycled Tractors to Restored Engines

A really delightful day's cruising ended with a similar late spring sunny evening. We walked into the local village. I was intrigued to see the clock on the church of St Andrew. One of the clock faces spells out GLORY BE TO GOD in place of the numerals. It was made in 1911 to commemorate the coronation of George V and the mechanism is assembled from a bizarre assortment of agricultural implements. The church sadly was closed.

Wootton Rivers is a really delightful village full of thatched houses and cottages

A delightful place to wander through on such a lovely evening

A new roof under construction

The next day started looking fair but then ominous clouds  started to roll in. On the way to our first tunnel we passed Burbage Wharf which marks the summit of our climb (457 ft.) from the Severn Estuary. Built in 19th century to handle trade from Marlborough, the buildings and crane have been sympathetically restored to reflect the importance of this wharf.

During its hey day, the wharf handled large quantities of timber, stone, coal and agricultural produce.

Very soon after the wharf, the woods lining the canal seem to close in to funnel the boats towards Bruce Tunnel

And then the tunnel appears.

Impossible to see at this point whether anything is coming in the opposite direction and is of concern despite the fact that it is wide enough to take 2 boats side by side

Then the end of the tunnel appears which is reassuring - 502 yards.

Taken with flash, it was actually extremely dark. 

As the engine starts to labour due to the narrowness of the channel, which reduces the effect of the propeller, it does seem as if you are actually climbing a steep hill........which you know of course is impossible !!! And keeping straight is really hard work

John still following.

And then just as we emerged into the light, the heavens opened and it was full pelt for a safe mooring.

Well it would have been, if the front of my boat had not become impaled upon a floating tree which I then had to battle with for a while before it allowed me to proceed unhindered.

But then as we arrived at the start of the Crofton Flight, the rain started to ease and we settled into 'lock mode' again.

We also had some assistance from 2 CRT (Canal and River Trust) volunteers who spend the whole day helping travellers with the flight of 7 locks.

 I met up with Richard who was travelling on his own. He looked a real hobo but turned out to be a retired flight engineer (RAF and British Airways). Used to work on Vulcan Bombers! It is amazing who you meet on the canals. Mind you his engine had only just been reconditioned and he was having problems with it.

At the end of the flight is Crofton Pumping Station which is one of the highlights of the K&A.

Initially it was proposed that a longer tunnel (4,300 yards ) was built during this final phase of the construction of the canal to mark the summit which would be much lower. But with the advice of William Jessop this was amended to the present day set up. But with the summit now being higher, water had to be pumped from Wilton Water 400 feet higher to maintain water levels in the locks. There is a sensor in the top lock that detects the water level and activates the pumps. One piston cycle moves 200 tons of water!

One attraction along the Kennet & Avon Canal isCrofton Pumping Station. It was built to pump water to the summit level of the Kennet & Avon Canal, a task it still performs (although mainly for tourists, the "real" pumping is now performed by other modern pumping stations). The chimney is 82 feet high, needed for the hand stoked, coal fired Lancashire boiler (below left). It powers two Cornish Beam Engines, the oldest one from 1812 which is the oldest in the world. The other engine is not much younger, being from 1845. Both have been restored and are maintained by volunteers. They keep it under steam on selected weekends (as of writing this on the bank holiday weekends and the last weekends in June, July and September).

The beam of the Boulton & Watt engine from 1812. Almost 200 years old and still working...	Wilton Windmill is approx 1 mile from Crofton Pumping Station. It's the only operating windmill in Wiltshire, built in 1821 and now maintained by volunteers. You can walk to it via a footpath from the pumping station, may be taking a break at the Swan Inn in Wilton.

Tara and I enjoyed several lovely walks in the area. We stayed 2 days because, on the Friday, very strong winds with severe gusts were forecast.......and arrived!! A case for battening down the hatches

There was a lot of helicopter activity around from one of the local stations. They all looked to be ready for military action.

And numerous families of Canadian geese. This was a shot of 3 families together each having the cygnets in at different stages from very newborn to quite independent.

The next day the winds eased and we were on our way again. No particular destination in mind just to take the day as it came.

John Gets Even Smarter!

A few days has now passed since Caen Hill Flight and I shall attempt to bring you all up to speed in this blog posting.

After Sunday lunch at the Black Horse (well the food was very good......) we moved on to Devizes Wharf. The Pub moorings were only 24 hours and so we could not stay longer and access into town was much easier from The Wharf. There was also water and a pump-out facility (both John and I had tanks that needed emptying)

A 5 minute wall took us into the Market Place in Devizes and access to Sainsbury's, Tesco's and Carphone Warehouse.

John's phone had not been working at all well since we left Saul so he finally decided to get a new one!

I won't go into great details, I shall leave that delight to John on his return. I am sure he will be happy to share his experience over a few glasses of wine/whiskey....endless list!

But suffice to say that John is now the proud owner of a new SMART phone on a new network and is spending many a happy hour adapting to the new technology :-[]....I think not!

We finally left Devizes on tuesday afternoon and motored on towards Reading. It was an easy stretch in that there were no locks but the weather turned and there was a cold wind blowing.

My pram hood went up today for some protection from the wind!

The canal banks were deep with reeds reminiscent of the Norfolk Broads and at times it was impossible to see the channel ahead

The banks are regularly flanked with pillboxes relics of when the canal was used as a line of defence against an invasion by Hitler.... how British!

We moored at All Cannings, a convenient and safe 24 hour visitors mooring.

One of our neighbours........

 She's just been finished inside and the owners kindly agreed for us to have a look inside. Very nice indeed.

The next day was another day with no locks until Wootton Rivers. The day dawned bright and clear. After waiting for a passing working boat......

And Tara having a photogenic moment. She is such a poser!

 ........This is my best side

.....No maybe this side is better

Under the gaze of the Alton Barnes White Horse we followed the canal as it gently wound its way eastwards

There are several white horses on Salisbury plain. Ref www.wiltshirewhitehorses.org.uk for further info.

It was a really pleasant day with no wind for once and a sun that decided to shine for a while. I started to look at some of the boats moored on the side of the canal and thought you might be interested in some of them.....

This was the first to catch my eye.......

A pair of working boats

I particularly loved this one. Very ingenious

......and by contrast

A very impressive roof garden

The journey today was delightful. Through dense woodland and so serenely quiet. This is what it is all about.

Glad this one's been sorted

We were then starting to see a lot of thatched houses. I thought they would probably be around after the previous day when we seemed to have been transported to the Broads with all the reeds growing by the canal.

This is certainly a very beautiful part of the K&A. Well worth all the previous few days of challenges

In 1793 at one point on the canal, the landowner objected to the canal cutting across her land. To appease the owner, Lady Susannah Wroughton, the canal company agreed to landscape the area around the cut to make it look more like a lake, to build this ornamental bridge, Lady's Bridge, and to settle with the sum of £500 as well. She must have been some formidable lady!!

It does have a special aura about the area.

That night we moored at Wootton Rivers.