Bradford on Avon to Devizes

Beeches Farmhouse redeemed itself quite considerably this morning - the breakfast was good; served in the main farmhouse by a friendly woman. As we left, she was chatting to the people from the cottage next door to ours who were sitting outside with their dogs. We walked back down to Bradford on Avon, again cutting across the field next to Beeches Farmhouse then climbing over the gate onto the road near the garden centre. There is a footpath from here to the town centre. We bought provisions for lunch and went in search of a toilet, almost as difficult as it had been finding a tea shop yesterday! However, we found both when we reached the canal at Bradford Wharf, a busy little area next to Bradford Lock. There are no locks on the Kennet and Avon Canal between Bath and Bradford on Avon (the canal meanders somewhat to follow contours and so to avoid locks); in contrast, between Bradford on Avon and Devizes there are lots of locks. We got used to watching expert boat owners negotiating both locks and swing bridges, which added to the interest of the walk. It was however rather a cold day and at one stage I ended up in full waterproofs just to keep warm.

From Bradford Wharf the canal took us through the outskirts of the town and past a marina, home of the well named Sally Narrowboats. We continued through open countryside to Hilperton on the outskirts of Trowbridge. Here we passed an industrial area and a modern marina, then we continued through more open country to Semington and Seend Cleeve. We enjoyed the locks and swing bridges and also the wildlife, including swans and a heron.

We had decided to stop for a drink at the Barge Inn at Seend Cleeve. The pub is on the opposite side of the canal, but there is a road, with bridge, just past the pub and we had planned to cross here. Unfortunately we reckoned without the renovation work taking place on the bridge, so we had to return to the previous bridge to cross the canal; somewhat frustrating though it wasn't really that far.

After returning to the northern towpath we continued past the villages of Seend and Sells Green and we reached the bottom of the famous Caen Hill flight of locks, passing the pump which was installed at Foxhangers in 1996 to ensure a water supply to keep the locks in operation; the pump is capable of returning 32 million litres of water per day to the top of the flight.

The flight of locks was engineer John Rennie's solution to climbing the steep hill into Devizes, and it was the last part of the Kennet and Avon Canal to be completed. The 29 locks enable a climb of 72 metres in 2 miles which is, Wikipedia tells me, equivalent to a 1 in 44 gradient. The locks come in three groups. The lower seven locks, Foxhangers Wharf Lock to Foxhangers Bridge Lock, are spread over 1.2 km. The next sixteen locks form a steep flight in a straight line up the hillside. Because of the steepness of the terrain, the pounds between these locks are very short, so there are unusually large sideways-extended pounds, to store the water needed to operate them. A final six locks take the canal into Devizes.

There are all sorts of health warning about the time required to negotiate the locks by boat because once you've started on the 16-lock flight there is no way out! We watched a couple of boats negotiating the bottom lock of the continuous flight, with Kennet and Avon Canal volunteers to help them, but otherwise it was quiet. We enjoyed watching a swan on her nest in the middle of the flight, though one can't help thinking that this is not the most sensible choice of location!

At the top of the locks there was a diversion away from the canal and along a main road, but we then returned to the towpath for the final section of our walk through Devizes, past the Kennet and Avon Canal Museum and the junction with the Wessex Ridgeway. Now on a familiar path, we continued along the towpath until just before the right-angled bend in the canal, where we left the canal and walked a short distance along the road to Rockley House, a slightly tatty but extremely pleasant B&B, with views to the Police HQ from the front and to the canal from the back of the house (our room was at the front of the house, up on the second floor, but the owner also allowed us access to a twin room at the back, and our bathroom was at the back of the house too). The owner also gave us excellent recommendations for eateries. The first place we went to looked lovely, but we'd have had a long wait, so we went to The Bistro where we had a truly excellent meal, just slightly marred by the opinionated male halves of two couples who came in when we were part way through our meal.

The following day, after a very good breakfast at Rockley House, we caught a bus from Devizes to Swindon via Avebury, and from Swindon we caught a train to London, then a tube, then another train home to Norfolk.