Bath to Honey Street

After turning in the winding hole at Bath we returned along the Kennet and Avon to Bradford-on-Avon.  This quirky little town of honey coloured Bath stone is perched on a steep sided valley.  I walked up the narrow streets and through a series of steep passages up the hillside to the hermit chapel of St Mary.

Steep passages led me up the hillside

 The grounds of the little church gave me good views across the town.

The view across the town

Back down the hill I came across the Saxon church of St Lawrence, a narrow but tall building with a simple interior.

The simple interior of St Lawrence

From Bradford-on-Avon we sailed back to Seend Locks and after a couple of nights back to Sells Green.  Ahead of us were 29 locks into Devizes including the 16 locks of the Caen Hill Flight but we had a plan.  On Sunday we went up the first 7 locks and stopped at the bottom of the flight.  At 8pm the locks are closed and drained down for the night.  The next morning when they were opened we would have 16 locks in our favour, we just needed to push the lock gates open.  At 7.50am the lock keeper arrived on his quad bike to unlock the gates and we were straight in.  The only drawback was torrential rain but undeterred we made our way up the 16 locks in 105 minutes which we thought was pretty good going.  A volunteer lock keeper braved the weather to set the remaining 6 locks spread along the route into Devizes.  

On Tuesday we enjoyed a tour of the Wadworth Brewery which was very interesting.  The brewery has retained some traditions and along with the brewing methods we saw the sign writing department where all the signage for their chain of pubs is still painted by hand and pub signs are painted by an artist.  We also saw the shire horses who make the deliveries in Devizes using a dray.   The tour ended with a generous tasting session of 6 ales and a stout after which we staggered back to the boat.

The artist at work on a pub sign

On Thursday we left Devizes sailing on the narrow, shallow section of canal to the Barge Inn at Honey Street.

The narrow section of the canal, luckily we didn't meet anyone coming the other way 

We'd arranged to meet up with Geoff and Chris who sailed with us from Goole in February.  Although this canal is busy we've noticed the hire boaters move on after 10am leaving the visitor moorings free and by arriving mid-morning we were able to moor up near each other.  The Barge Inn made an ideal location to enjoying catching up and we stayed for a couple of days.

The Barge Inn and yes that is Bess staring intently at the door

Our journey from Bath to Honey Street

Sells Green to Bath

After our descent of the Caen Hill locks we were reluctant to move on Monday morning.   Sells Green was a nice area but we had to use the plank to get on and off and Bess and Brinny were a bit reluctant.  We sailed less than a mile and stopped opposite the Barge Inn at Seend Cleeve.  

Opposite the Barge Inn.  During the spell of hot dry weather we left the wheelhouse down overnight.

As we sailed towards Semington the canal gave us good views across open countryside and we stopped near another pub, The Somerset Arms, where we enjoyed a meal and Kev sampled a pint of cloudy cider.  

The next day the canal took us through woods on the approach to Bradford-on-Avon.   We stopped on a pleasant mooring just outside the town and enjoyed the sunny weather. 

On Friday we sailed down through Bradford Lock and the character of the canal changed again, here it followed the course of the River Avon in its steep-side valley.  At Avoncliff we turned at right angles to cross the Avon on the first of a pair of aqueducts.  We continued along the valley and through the trees saw glimpses of the houses perched on the opposite side.   We moored up for the weekend just before Dundas Aqueduct which crossed back over the river.  During the day we saw several hire boats carrying groups of men on their way to Bath and some more passed on Saturday morning.  Obviously it was going to be rowdy in Bath over the weekend.  

Dundas Aqueduct which was busy with boaters and walkers

The architecture of Dundas aqueduct is better appreciated from the river bank.  

After watching streams of boats passing us all day on Sunday we were beginning to wonder if there were any moorings left at Bath.  We set off on Monday morning, crossing the aqueduct and the county boundary into Somerset.  On the Somerset side we passed the entrance to the Somerset Coal Canal, only half a mile remains navigable and it now serves as a marina.

The entrance to the Somerset Canal is narrow because this was once the site of a lock

The Kennet and Avon continued to follow the course of the river winding it's way to Bathampton where we intended to stop and luckily we spotted a good mooring behind Jen and Bern on Daydream. Jen enjoys patchwork and applique so we compared our current projects.

On Tuesday I took a bus trip into Bath.  It was a wet morning but Bath council had anticipated this and covered over one of their streets with colourful umbrellas.

Umbrellas in Bath

I joined the queue at the Roman Baths and was given a handset for the audio tour which was excellent. The tour took us through various displays giving a good account of the history of the baths and how they were used.

The Great Bath at the Roman Baths 

The overflow from the hot spring, essentially a Roman drain.  The photo shows steam rising off the water and vivid orange iron deposits.  

The tour ended with a taste of the spring water, it wasn't pleasant but not as bad as the sulphuric  Harrogate waters.

I enjoyed a walk around the town with its tall Georgian town houses all constructed in Bath Stone as were the public buildings and Abbey.  At The Circus three impressive arcs of these tall terraced house formed a ring around a central green but I thought the Royal Crescent was a bit disappointing.

An arc of Georgian houses at The Circus

We had decided, in common with several other boaters, not to venture any further down the Kennet and Avon.  However the next winding hole was in Bath so we had to carry on to turn around.  To avoid delays on this busy stretch of canal we were up early and heading for Bath.  On the way we sailed though Sydney Gardens, a park through which the canal flowed hidden from the residents of the suburb.  We entered the park through a tunnel and left it through another.

One of the wrought iron bridges in Sydney Gardens with the tunnel entrance behind it.  The building on the tunnel is Cleveland House and was originally built for the canal company.

We turned round at the winding hole at Bathwick and started our return journey along the Kennet and Avon Canal.

Crofton to Sells Green

The quiet moorings at Crofton made an ideal place to stay over the Bank Holiday weekend.  On Tuesday morning we set off up the small flight of 6 locks which took us to the summit level and Bruce Tunnel.

The entrance to Bruce Tunnel with a spot of light marking the exit

The summit level pound was 2 miles long and then we descended through 4 locks into the Vale of Pewsey and the character of the canal changed again.  A boater from Doncaster described the Kennet & Avon as a ditch, a very apt description for this section which is narrow and shallow.  We stopped at the small town of Pewsey where I found 'Miss Lemon's Wool Shop' which had a large tempting stock of colourful wools.  I did resist buying more wool but did succumb to some patchwork fabric.  

On Thursday we continued through woods and out into open countryside although the canal was flanked by hedgerows which sadly blocked our view.  It was slow going due to the shallow water and we had to slow down for the long lines of moored boats which are infamous on this canal.  Bess enjoyed looking out from the comfort of her bed on the roof.  

Bess sat up when something caught her attention

As we approached All Cannings we spotted a white horse carved in the chalk hill, one of several in the Downs.

The white horse near All Cannings

We stopped overnight at All Cannings which is a picturesque village with thatched cottages  and a row of 'Best Kept Village' awards on the village hall.  It was interesting to see some sedge warblers hopping amongst the reeds on the opposite side of the canal. 

A thatched cottage at All Cannings

On Friday we sailed into the small market town of Devizes, the home of Wadworth Brewery and a good pie shop.

Wadworth Brewery in Devizes

 While on the moorings we met Jen and Bern on their narrowboat Daydream and arranged to travel together down the next section of 29 locks which we were going to do in a day.

On Sunday their daughters arrived to give a hand with the locks and the sun was already hot when we set off through the first lock at 9.45am.  We quickly settled into a routine and worked well as a team, 2 women on the lock taking the boat down and 2 preparing the next lock while the men were at the helm.   After the first 6 locks we started our descent of the Caen Hill Flight, a spectacular flight of 16 locks which dropped the canal down 130 feet.   The locks were busy with other boats travelling in each direction and plenty of people on the towpath watching us work.

The Caen Hill Flight, I took this photo the evening before our descent and after the locks had been shut for the day. 

After the flight we continued down the last 7 locks to complete the 29 locks in 5 hours.  We were pleased to shut the last lock gate, it was hard work but satisfying to finish in a relatively quick time thanks to the extra help.  We then sailed a little further on to Sells Green for a mooring where we enjoyed a well-earned beer.    

Our journey from Crofton to Sells Green