Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
home of lawn tennis and hosts the women's national bowls championships each summer, a
touch of elegance not seen from the canal. Near the station is the art gallery and museum
in the Royal Pump Rooms of 1814, which were built over one of the town's seven springs.
Jephson Gardens, with their glasshouse, were named after the local Dr Jephson who, in the
19th century, developed the spa water concept and was responsible for the town's medical
reputation and mini Eden.
Roman coins have been found at Radford Semele, the reed ford of Norman landowner
Henry de Simely in the days of Henry I. Flints and axes show the settlement to be at least
30,000 years old. The hilltop church is now Victorian although its appearance seems to have
more in common with its 1100 rebuild. Radford Hall is reconstructed Jacobean with wood
carvings, completed by travelling Hugenots in 1622, rebuilt in Victorian times and now di-
vided into several dwellings.
The Knowle lock flight, below which many powered craft turn
.
The
Prince Regent II
, a luxury Edwardian-style cruising restaurant, is based below Rad-
ford Bottom Lock. Above this is Offchurch Viaduct, which carried the former Leamington to
Rugby railway. More locks follow. There are shallows on the left before Fosse Middle Lock,
above which is the B4455, the Fosse Way Roman road.
Views over the valley of the River Itchen become extensive, first to the north and then also
to the south as the Bascote Flight of locks is climbed, a flight including the only staircase pair
on the Grand Union Canal main line.
