Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
17
Kennet & Avon Canal
Distance
141 km from the River Thames to Hanham
Highlights
The Blue Line, comprising over 120 pillboxes and the best preserved defence line from
1940 Garston Lock, the only surviving turf-sided lock Crofton Pumping Station
Caen Hill Flight, Britain's longest continuous lock flight - 29 locks drop the canal 72m over
3.6km
Avoncliff and Dundas Aqueducts
Bath World Heritage City
Navigation Authority
Canal & River Trust
Canal Society
Kennet & Avon Canal Trust
OS 1:50,000 Sheets
172 Bristol & Bath
173 Swindon & Devizes
174 Newbury & Wantage
175 Reading & Windsor
Proposals for what turned out to be the only east-west canal across southern England began in
1660 as a broad canal, the Western Canal. This turned out to be a successful canal, no thanks
to the residents of Reading, where the mob, led by the mayor, attacked construction work,
which they feared would cost them their road business. John Rennie surveyed the canal route
at the age of 29 and it was completed to his design in 1810, after 16 years of construction.
Highly profitable for the first 30 years, it carried coal, iron, stone, slate, timber and agricultural
products but went into decline in 1841 after the arrival of the Great Western Railway (GWR),
which follows the line very closely to Pewsey. The GWR bought the canal in 1852 and allowed
