Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Fornsete's
Sumer Is Icumen In
, was written down here in 1240. John of Gaunt was married
here in 1359 and Parliament met here in 1453 and 1464. Only tall sections of wall remained
after the Dissolution.
The first section of the navigation, the Brewery Gut, is the most difficult of all, the flow
being fast with blind bends. Use is controlled by boaters who push traffic light buttons, but
the buttons are too high to be reached from small craft and are recessed so they cannot be
pushed with an object such as a paddle.
Vehicles are strongly discouraged, by humps and a very low speed limit, from using the
A4, which crosses next. Brunel also wished to bring his GWR across here and up the Pang
valley to Pangbourne but his clients insisted that he take it to the north of the town.
At Burghfield the canal picks up the Blue Line that joined from the south and was to follow
to Bradford-on-Avon, a 1940 defence line in case of invasion of the south of England. There
were 90 infantry and 40 larger pillboxes forming one of the best preserved defence lines, a
conspicuous feature of this canal.
The Cunning Man (or fortune teller) is a popular canalside public house with a children's
play area. All custom disappeared overnight in the 1980s, however, when the landlord shot
an intruding stray dog with a crossbow, resulting in the brewery needing to find a hasty re-
placement for him.
Further acts of violence occurred at a nearby roving bridge, which was the site of riots in
1720 by 300 people opposed to canalisation of the river.
Garston Lock is the only surviving example of an early turf-sided lock. A restored listed
monument, it uses the original stone slabs and a framework of broad-gauge rail to protect the
sloping sides. Lock balance beams had to be shortened because a pillbox was built too close.
Sheffield Lock with its scalloped sides is set in an area of lawns. Scallops are in the original
rail rib positions. Its takes its name from Sheffield Bottom, which gained fame when the local
Stompers jazz group appeared on
Opportunity Knocks
, or might have done if Hughie Green
had not announced them as the rather more intriguing Sheffield Bottomstompers. These days
Hardy might have chosen a different name than Gaymead for Theale, in the opposite direc-
tion. It has Georgian terraces and a church built between 1820 and 1832 by EW Garbett in
the style of Salisbury Cathedral, although not so obviously as the one at Bishops Cannings,
further along the canal.
The swing bridge at Tyle Mill Lock is typical of those along this canal. These included
some of the first applications anywhere of ball bearings. This one is now electrically oper-
ated. Tyle Mill itself was a flour mill, burnt down in 1914, rebuilt as a sawmill that was used
until 1936 and is now a private house, neighbours including Kate Bush. The road leads out to
the A4 and the Spring Inn, still known to many as the Three Kings Jacks Booth public house,
partly named after a prize boxer and his booth.
