Kennet and Avon - Walk from Bedwyn to Pewsey. TransWilts day out.
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2011-08-01 17:37:06 - Graham EllisI first walked the Kennet and Avon canal from Pewsey to Bedwyn in the early 1970s ... in those days I lived in Kent, and travelled down on the only morning train to call at Pewsey, picking up a two hourly stopper back from Bedwyn later in the day. And in those days, the canal was weed infested, the first four locks little used ... because the navigable canal ended abruptly at some "stop planks" and the following locks were derelict, with a dry canal bed. I did the walk again last Sunday, in the opposite direction, and goodness me how things have changed.
Trains run to Bedwyn every hour, even on Sundays, and we took the Summer Sunday TransWilts service at 07:45 from Melksham, changed at Swindon and Reading, and were on the towpath by midmorning.
Great Bedwyn is on the very end of the line of the London train - it's a pretty village, just in Wiltshire, that's also the railhead for Marlborough (by bus). And the River, Canal and Railway are sharing the valley as they climb towards the watershed. With just a few yards to walk from the station to the canal.
The canal continues to climb alongside the railway through countryside, past now-operational locks, and a canal that has move from being dry to being busy with boats. About a mile from Bedwyn, you see an industrial type brick chimney in the distance, and on Sunday it was spitting out black smoke. This is Crofton Pumping Station.
Whichever way a boat passes through a lock, it always takes water from the upper level to the lower level. So at the top of the canal, there's a need for a constant replemishment. And this is often the worst place to look for a water source - high up in the hills. And in the case of the Kennet and Avon, the summit is just 4 miles long. Little scope there! But a short distance below the summit level is Wilton Water, and Crofton Pumps are used to raise the water to the upper level. 
The oldest engine there dates back to 1812 and is preserved by the Canal Trust, and on Sunday the old pump was being given its monthly run. It's a real tourist attraction - something to look around and see - allow an hour or more if you're going. Gypsy and I wondeed about looking around, but she was more interested in a bowl of water labelled "Hot Dogs", and in any case it's "no dogs in the building"; we say outside and enjoyed the sun.
Savernake was a railway junction for Marlborough, and the spot where the old Midland and South West Junction Railway crossed over the Berks and Hants main line that we are following. Bridge abutments stand in the canal; when I walked past here 40 years ago, the final train over the M&SWJ had only passed about ten years previously. The tall trees growing on top of the old trackway remind us just how many years have passed since the.
Canal summits typically have cuttings through the watershed, and this one is no exception. Many also have tunnels to avoid even deeper cuttings, or even more locks to get over the top. Bruce tunnel on the K&A is fairly short, but impressive in stature. There's a big bulk of land above the tunnel mouth, and this is a "broad" canal that can take wide and quite tall boats.
Boats were originally hauled by horses, and there's no towpath though the tunnel - rather there's a path over the top. Boats were either "polled" or "legged" through in the prepower days. Legging is remarkably easy - someone lies on their back on each side of the boat and walks along the tunnel walls. Great fun; I've done it, though not at Bruce Tunnel.
After a long cutting, the canal reaches Burbage Wharf. When the canals were industrial highways, villages would have their wharves and they would be places of great activity, with coal and bricks arriving and agricultural products leaving. Many such as Burbage are now prettified, although here at Burbage the wharf crane, which I recall being restores in the 1970s, is being re-restored again and should provide an interesting museum piece in due course.
At Wootton Rivers, four locks drop the canal off the 4 mile summit pound onto the "long pound" - 15 miles of canal to Devizes which wind through the Vale of Pewsey. Look carefully, and you find discreet pumping systems that are returning water from below the lock to above in each case, allowing the canal to pass a far higher traffic now that it even did in its real working life.
And so on to Pewsey Wharf. A glorious final few miles through the countryside, ending up at a pub and bistro at the wharf, with lots of boating activity. Final few hundred yards gets you to Pewsey station ... 
Train to Westbury and then pick up the 19:35 to Melksham, (here it is arriving from Weymouth, full of day trippers although you might not guess that from this picture) ... with an arrival about 8 p.m. at Melksham (100 people got off, but that's a story for another blog!).A wonderful day's re-introduction to this fine stretch of canal!