Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The three hectares of Wilton Water are home to mallard, teal, pochard, tufted duck and
moorhen. More importantly, it acts as a reservoir to supply the summit level, which Rennie
constructed only 4km long. This was one of the shortest summit levels in the country when
it was built and it is above the springline so it has no feeders. He built the Grade I Crofton
pumping station to raise water 12m. Water difficulties mean that back pumping is required
more than ever today. The Cornish beam engines are the oldest in the world still in steam and
doing their original job. They are a Boulton & Watt of 1812 with 1.1m bore and 2.4m stroke
and one by Harveys of Hale in 1845, their efficiencies measured at 1.8 and 2.4 per cent re-
spectively. Modern pumps do most of the work today but the beam engines did have to be
used on their own for a couple of days in 2009 when the electric pumps failed.
Lady's Bridge at the end of Wilcot Wide Water
.
Henry VIII courted Jane Seymour at Wolfhall, or Wulfhall, with the king taking over the
house here while his prospective inlaws had to move out into a barn.
Tottenham House, set in a deer park to the north of the canal, has a monument to the res-
toration from insanity of George III, erected by the Marquis of Ailsbury. The current Marquis
of Ailsbury is a direct descendent of Richard Sturmy, who is recorded in the
Domesday Book
as holding seven manors in Wiltshire.
Bruce Tunnel, 460m long, is named after Thomas Bruce, the Earl of Ailsbury, who wanted
a tunnel rather than the proposed cutting through his deer park. It is second only to Netherton
for the size of bore of any tunnel remaining open and has chains along the sides for pulling
boats through as legging would not have been possible.
