Great Bedwyn to Burbage Wharf
Another boneshaking but wonderful ten miles or so, there and back. The new electric bike seems remarkably robust so far, although there were some squeaks of protest for the last couple of miles, so I think some tlc is in order.
On this stretch alone, which continues the southward direction from Hungerford before the route heads west again at Crofton, there are no fewer than ten locks, including the highest of all, Crofton Top Lock, and almost as many bridges. The Crofton locks are a series numbered 55 to 63 with a drop (or rise) of 61 feet. And a couple of architectural mysteries. Starting at picturesque Great Bedywn, reached through a narrow road wooded on both sides in parts where bluebell carpets have now emerged, I noticed the Canal & River Trust’s list of works on the wharf which gives some indication of the very great deal they do on the Kennet & Avon alone. They include replacing wooden quoins, a dive survey on a river wall, inspections, mooring pontoon repairs, redundant gas pipe removal, updating strong stream warnings, clearing trees blocking the navigation and towpath, and lock paddle repairs.
There’s also a short history of Great Bedwyn Wharf, described as once bustling, the main cargoes being coal, timber, grain, wood and “a coarse cloth” (which seems a bit vague). There was a carpenter’s, a wheelwright’s, a coal yard and shop adjacent, and stabling and a blacksmith were available in the village for the horses which towed the barges.
One of the pleasures of these trips is the friendliness of most of the walkers, cyclists, picknickers and boaters encountered. The father of a picnicking family told me that this was his favourite bridge.
I stopped off at Crofton Pumping Station, another engineering wonder, reached by, rather worryingly, crossing the railway with no more than a green light to let me know that it was safe to open the gates and go for it, with a warning that it would be wise to be quick about it.
I have visited a number of times over the years at weekends and once when it was in steam, brought about on a regular basis by a team of dedicated volunteers. It’s closed otherwise, as it was yesterday, until Easter, then it’s open every day until September. There are two engines dating from 1812 and 1845 and they are the oldest working beam engines in steam in the world. The Canal Trust restored the pumping station and it was opened to the public in 1970 by none other than Sir John Betjeman. Locks or tunnels are not always the solution. See here for more fascinating detail:
Crofton Beam Engines – Crofton Beam Engines
I have been playing with software filters (which I never usually do) and seem to have overdone it rather with the second image above. Quite a pleasing effect all the same.
Immediately beyond this, the view opens up to reveal Wilton Water, created by damming a naturally fed stream and used to feed water to the canal summit and also serving as something of a wildlife haven.
Further along, I asked a lady looking through a pair of binoculars what she had seen: a Sedge Warbler. I didn’t see the bird, but I did hear him. I asked if she had the Merlin bird sound ID app – she didn’t, but unlike me, I doubt she needed it. Merlin did give me a reassuringly rich variety of species though: Wood Pigeon, Rook, Mistle Thrush, Chiffchaff, Jackdaw, Goldfinch (at one point I saw a stunning little flock flying to a group of trees), Collared Dove, Goldcrest, Wren, Robin, Chaffinch, Great Tit, the astonishingly loud Cetti’s Warbler, and Pheasant, as well as Sedge Warbler. Later on I heard a Great Spotted Woodpecker, drumming with a clarity and intensity I had never heard before – for a moment I mistook it for the workings of a machine.
More locks, more bridges and beautiful stretches of water.
Bedwyn Church Lock is number 64.
Some of these are from 2011 when I travelled here on our little inflatable boat with my children.
Two of the locks have special names, Sam Farmer and Adopters, in thanks to a local philanthropist and supporters.
These are the two mysteries. I have no idea what these are.
Nor what these are the remnants of. A collapsed or demolished bridge perhaps?
Next up was Bruce Tunnel, another solution to inconvenient land rises when you are trying to build a canal. Again, some of the images are from 2011 when we actually went through it – quite scary in a small boat. I remember wondering why it was so much darker on the way back but then realised I had forgotten to take my sunglasses off. What’s noticeable about the 2011 images is how poor those taken by phone then were.
The towpath necessarily goes up and around the tunnel, diverts away from the canal for a little while and then diverts back to it under the railway bridge.
Hauling the heavy bike back up the steps was a bit of a challenge.
It was actually the landowner, the Earl of Ailesbury as above, who insisted on a tunnel rather than a cutting. It’s 502 yards long and men had to temporarily replace the horses to pull the boats through using chains which ran along inside the walls.
My final stop was at Burbage Wharf. As I approached the bridge in front of it, I suddenly noticed a Grey Heron standing there. I don’t think I could have dismounted and got my camera out more quickly or more quietly but as I began to press the shutter, he was off. I think it was Amy-Jane Beer in her book The Flow, reviewed at length elsewhere in this blog, who said that herons don’t like to be looked at, which seems to apply to the camera lens as much as the human eye. Nevertheless, I managed these fairly poor shots as it flew away – I have yet to get a decent photograph of a Grey Heron.
I stopped for rest at the wharf and started noticing things, as you do.
I haven’t been able to identify this but I like the reflection.
Living proof that life will always find a way in the most apparently sterile and hostile of environments:
And wonderful patterns and shades of colour in the brickwork:
Also, the wooden crane:
It is the last one remaining of up to twenty on the canal and Grade II listed but not much is original – it’s a bit of a Trigger’s broom.
On the way back, these stood out, Common or Black Sedge, Carex nigra, some showing the dark, male inflorescences:
This is White Dead-nettle in flower, Lamium album:
And this Mute Swan, clearly a cygnet last year, showing plumage not yet fully white and the bill still pinkish rather than orange:
Before heading home I headed up to the windmill at Wilton. I’ve been there before too, once when it was in operation, which quickly dispelled any notions of a miller’s occupation being romantic (as per Windy Miller in Camberwick Green): the noise was infernal and I hadn’t known that windmills were phenomenally dangerous places to work. Camberwick Green was the stop motion puppet children’s programme narrated by the great Brian Cant, alongside Trumpton and Chigley. If “Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grub” means nothing to you then you are not of my generation.
The sky obliged with a suitably draamtic backdrop.
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