Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
From Standards Lock it is possible to look right across the Somerset Levels and just see
that most mystical of all the hills in Britain, Glastonbury Tor.
At Huntworth, present-day activity returns with the Boat & Anchor Inn and by the orderli-
ness of the pairs of rectangular pillars that support the 900m long M5 viaduct that crosses the
canal, railway and newly arrived River Parrett in one long glide. It is a surreal experience to
sit under the viaduct at the canal end and look down that long line of columns as the invisible
traffic roars overhead.
The canal enters the south end of Bridgwater and passes a brightly painted YMCA centre.
A weir on the right is unprotected although signs warn of reduced headroom on a bridge that
is no lower than many others on the canal.
Between a water intake and a high fence round what could be a tennis court, another corner
leads into the major engineering feature of the canal, the deep Albert Street Cutting between
high walls lined in the New Red Sandstone of the area. The overbearing nature of this cleft,
with its solid bridges crossing, is enhanced by a number of heavy timbers between opposite
walls, a quotation carved on each one.
Bridgwater Dock was home to
Teignmouth Electron
, found in the south Atlantic in 1969
with a falsified log but no sign of sailor Donald Crowhurst during the Golden Globe, the
world's first round-the-world race.
The Blake Museum flies the Commonwealth Jack, 150 years older than the Union Flag.
Admiral Sir Robert Blake was born here in 1599, becoming a general then an admiral for
Cromwell. The museum features Blake and the Battle of Sedgemoor. The Admiral's Land-
ing and residential and amenity building are all around and there is a large crane for lifting
out cruisers. Old cranes and bases are still in evidence. A conical red-and-white object on the
quayside is a Bristol Channel buoy from 1860, standing upside down for stability and exhib-
ited as a feature.
Crowpill Coalyard was Brunel's last broad-gauge railway site, redeveloped for housing in
1995. A brick bottle kiln standing on the far side of the river is the last remaining of a forest
of them that once made bricks and tiles from the silt in the River Parrett. These were subse-
quently sent as far afield as the West Indies. A double-leaf bascule bridge gives access to the
smaller lower basin. This is overlooked by Russell Place, a row of Georgian cottages built in
1841 for dock workers, with a double-fronted villa at each end of the row for senior staff. In
1873, at the height of its prosperity, Bridgwater was Britain's fifth most important coal-im-
porting port.
