Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
it to deteriorate. During the First World War it was used for troop training. The closure Act
of 1952 was strongly resisted, the annual Devizes to Westminster Race helping to draw atten-
tion to the canal and ultimately being a significant factor in its restoration - canoeing's major
contribution to our canal network. In 1956 Commander Wray Bliss took a 20,000-signature
petition for restoration by canoe and cruiser to Westminster. The Kennet & Avon Canal Trust
was formed in 1962 and tackled the country's biggest restoration project successfully, the
canal being reopened by the Queen in 1990. Much of the towpath is used as a Sustrans cycle
route.
Sheffield Lock, a scallop-sided lock, formerly turf-sided .
Reading was successively an Iron Age then a Roman then a Saxon settlement situated on
the banks of the River Kennet, rather than on the River Thames, which it joins just down-
stream. Indeed, the Environment Agency are the navigation authority for Blake's Lock, the
bottom lock on the river.
The Abbey or Forbury Loop takes in several important buildings. Prudential's offices are
on the site used by Huntley & Palmer from 1822 to 1970, the world's biggest biscuit com-
pany, breaking fewer biscuits by using water transport. Only one of the original factory build-
ings remains at the east end.
The Scottish baronial-style prison is where Oscar Wilde was imprisoned in 1896/7 for
gross indecency, writing De Profundis here and The Ballad of Reading Gaol after his release.
Toad of Toad Hall also served time here.
Next to it are the remains of the Norman Reading Abbey, founded in 1121 by Henry I,
who presented the abbey with the hand of St James that attracted pilgrims, and who was bur-
ied here in 1135, as was the Empress Maud, his daughter Matilda. The abbey was built with
stone from Caen and from the Roman site at Silchester. King Stephen built a castle inside
the grounds in 1150 but that was soon destroyed. One of the oldest known songs, John of
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