Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
has been talk of building a second tunnel but there is no guarantee that bats would not move
into that, too. The walking route is poorly marked.
King John's Odiham Castle
.
The other end of the tunnel is amazingly different. A footpath leads to the tunnelmouth,
the portal of which was rebuilt in 1975. As with all the bridges on the canal in Hampshire, a
location plaque is fixed to the downstream face. Floating weed covers the canal surface but
the water is absolutely clear and the canal is wide.
The setting of the first part of the open canal is a rural one, alternating between open mead-
ows and woodland.
Just after the River Whitewater, the remains of the three-storey octagonal flint keep of
Odiham Castle, built midway between Windsor and Winchester from 1207 to 1210 for King
John, stand among the trees on the left. The castle once had two rectangular baileys, earth-
works and a moat with a small outer enclosure, also moated. It was from here that King John
set out to sign the Magna Carta in 1216. The French took it in 1216 during the first Barons'
War. David II was imprisoned from 1346 to 1357. It became a 15th century hunting lodge
and was ruined by the 17th century but partially restored in 2008.
A boom then reaches most of the way across the canal upstream of the first winding hole.
From here the water becomes murkier as the weeds thin, both results of usage by boats hired
out from a centre at Colt Hill. After North Warnborough the canal is followed by the Odiham
bypass, which can be heard but not seen on the left.
The Barley Mow at Winchfield is the next port of call for the thirsty brigade. On a summer
evening the click of leather on willow and sporadic applause break the silence from some-
where beyond the towpath hedgerow. A small swing bridge crosses.
