Kintbury to Newbury
Having learnt from the extremely useful website Home – Sustrans.org.uk that the towpath from Thatcham to Reading and from Devizes to Bath has been widened and surfaced, I thought I would tackle the roughest section left, about six miles each way. The path was very narrow in parts and I nearly knocked myself out on an overhanging tree trunk, but otherwise it was fairly user-friendly. It was nice just to get on the bike and go, rather than having to drive anywhere. The short distance on the road to the canal seemed the ideal opportunity to test one of a pair of wing mirrors I had bought since people drive idiotically and dangerously through the village, in spite of a 20mph speed limit, especially those in Chelsea tractors. It was absolutely useless. The handlebar fitting got in the way of either the brake lever, the gear lever or both and all I could see was my arm. It will be returned and I have ordered another more expensive alternative. This one was a false economy.
I know most of this part of the canal well, having walked along it or taken out my little inflatable boat with its oversized outboard motor many times. I know Newbury well too, but it was interesting to see it from a different perspective. I thought to have lunch there, but none of the ever-changing line-up of restaurants and pubs around the market square had the slightest appeal. The canal was lovely as ever though. The children used to paddle here, probably unwise nowadays since Thames Water have discharged God knows what into it. There is a sewage outlet not much further on.
I stopped to chat with a bargee who had put up traffic cones and this charming sign on the bank.
His marmalade cat, on a lead and harness, had been harassed by dogs too, owners doing nothing to call them off. Why they were not on leads? Because many dog owners are supremely arrogant. I mostly like dogs but as I have said before, increasingly I think they should be on leads at all times except in specially designated areas. I would ban them from pubs too. It’s not just the barking, snarling and growling, the tangling of leads around my legs, one owner locally thinks nothing of letting them walk on tables from which people eat. We had both noticed many very dark blue to the point of black dragonflies which I have yet to identify. I assume they were dragonflies or damselflies. There were Willow Warblers to be heard and perhaps, judging by the volume, a Ceti’s Warbler.
Plenty of bridges and locks: Kintbury, Dreweat’s, Copse, Hamstead, Benham, Higgs’ Guyer’s and Newbury.
And their mysterious, to me, workings:
This part of the canal seems especially well populated with pillboxes.
These, from a previous excursion, were also a mystery, although I had an inkling that they might be what they are, which is tank barriers, although I still can’t make sense of the alignment.
All part of the World War II GHQ Line Blue. The pillboxes housed men, especially from the Home Guard, armed with rifles or machine guns, to defend against the expected German invasion during the Second World War. Some of them now have listed status.
These huge leaves (they can grow up to a metre in diameter) are apparently Japanese Butterburr, Petasites japonicus, a potentially invasive plant. Weeping willows line much of the route too.
These beauties are yellow waterlilies, Nuphar lutea, a.k.a. brandy-bottle or spadderdock, useful as both food and medicine.
Yellow flag iris, Iris pseudacorus, in bloom at last.
The iridescent, metallic green beetle is Oedemera nobilis, the Thick-legged Flower Beetle, or Swollen-thighed Beetle. The names are rather more obvious in origin than ‘spadderdock’. Only the males have the thickened legs. The elytra (a new word to me, the wing cases), don’t quite meet, which also makes them distinctive.
As an aside, I recently had reason to visit the Museum of English Rural Life, next to the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading. It is tucked away and TARDIS like. I cannot recommend it or the curation enough. The collections are extraordinarily wide-ranging. They have strong holdings of Joyce and Beckett, part of the University of Reading’s special collections, somewhat surprisingly, but also of over twenty farm carts and wagons (c. 1780 to 1939) to the side of a long corridor, the Wagon Walk, and no aspect of rural life seems unexplored, including for example the history of ploughing, selective breeding of farm animals, and farm models and toys. There is also the enchanting Ladybird Gallery. The archive comprises over 20,000 illustrations for the Ladybird books and here, beautifully arranged, one can see the entire output of titles and some of the original artwork. Forming a collection of the books would be great fun. The museum is currently in the process of acquiring the W.H. Smith archive as the shops are closed down. In spite of all this and much more, the genial librarian told me that by far the most publicity they had ever received was from a picture they had published of a sheep with an amusing caption, which went viral.
Finally, the skittish female Great Spotted Woodpecker was back this morning. Not enough light for a decent in flight image, but nevertheless …
I have just now seen a pair flying off from a tree and sure enough the male is at the feeder a few moments later. Also the bedraggled looking little Great Tit back at the feeder being fed from it by a parent – so he or she has the right idea but not quite learned how to do it alone. See Gifts of Nature: The Return of the Starlings; A Wren’s Nest; Other Birds, a Ladybird and Flowers – Animal Wild. Of course it’s possible it’s not the same bird.
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