Kennet & Avon Canal - From Trowbridge to Bath

Bradford-On-Avon

Woke up with the sun and hurried to get my stuff together. I reached Bradford-on-Avon in the early lunchtime, went around in this pretty village for a while before cycling on in direction Bath. On my way I crossed the Avoncliff Aqueduct and the Dundas Aqueduct before I reached Bath. Here I searched for Sarah and Steven, the first boaters I met one year ago and who inspired me to travel on the towpathes. I found their boat, but they wasn´t home so I checked in on the camp site in Bath.

Bradford-On-Avon

Thithe Barn

Avoncliff Aqueduct - Although with a longer span, 100,5 meter, an slightly taller, Avoncliff Aqueduct was built to a similar design and using the same material as Dundas Aqueduct. Therefore literally from the day it was completed it suffered from crumbling stonework and retaining water across the aqueduct was a major problem. Having spent years drained of water it has also been relined with reinforced concrete and the stonework fully restored.

Dundas Aqueduct -  Regarded as John Rennie´s finest work, the Dundas Aqueduct was built to carry the canal over the River Avon and then also later the Wessex Main Line Railway. Completed in 1805 it is a three-arched structure built of Bath Stone and measuring 137,2 m. Its name comes from Charles Dundas, the first chairman of the Kennet and Avon Canal Company. It is also the junction with the Somerset Coal Canal. The crumbling stonework meant the aqueduct was empty of water for many years but in 1984 after it was relined with reinforced concrete it opened to navigation and has since had further work to waterproof it and restore the stonework.

The Somerset Coal Canal joins the Kennet and Avon Canal at the western end of Dundas Aqueduct in Brass Knocker Basin. The wharf was where boats from the coal canal were assessed to determine the toll to be paid. The tollhouse and cast iron crane still stand.

Somerset Coal Canal

Bath

Fashion-conscious owners of Sydney Gardens didn´t like the idea of a working canal passing through their patch, so the canal company spent considerable sums of money on ornate architecture.