Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Garston Lock, a turf-sided lock
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The A339 was formerly the A34, a traffic light-controlled roundabout creating a notorious
bottleneck that typically took an hour to pass on what was the main north-south route in cent-
ral southern England. Beyond the bridge is Newbury Wharf, or was until it was filled in dur-
ing the 1930s to become a bus waiting area, then a car park, but may yet be partially restored.
A crane imported from inside a railway building stands prominently in front of the Kennet &
Avon Canal Trust's sales and display building in former canal stables. These may have been
built from stone from the original castle erected in the early 12th century by the Earl of Per-
che, stormed in 1152 by King Stephen after a two month siege and later seized by King John.
An 18th century granary with an interesting balcony and the Jacobean Cloth Hall are used
to house the Newbury District Museum. This features archaeology, ballooning, cameras, old
costumes, weaving, butterflies and moths, a 2m elephant tusk from the Kennet and prehistor-
ic and Saxon material and artefacts from the Battles of Newbury. Sean Keaney was born here
in 1990 with 12 teeth, which had to be extracted so that he could feed.
Newbury was successively a Roman, Saxon, Norman and Tudor cloth centre. Most prom-
inent was Jack of Newbury, hero of Deloney's story of the same name. He was apprenticed to
a cloth maker, married the widow of his boss when he died, inherited the business when she
died and employed up to 1,000 local people (150 of whom he took to fight for Henry VIII
at Flodden) but declined a knighthood in order to remain on equal terms with his employees.
He was subsequently visited by Henry VIII, Catherine of Aragon and Cardinal Wolsey.
In 1643 Cromwell's soldiers caught a witch sailing down the Kennet on a plank. She
caught their bullets in her hands but they killed her by the usual method of slashing her fore-
