Wilts & Berks Canal


View Wilts & Berks Canal in a larger map

We've been on a couple of walks along the Chippenham branch of the Wilts & Berks canal recently. Well, actually, every time we leave our house we follow the spur of the canal towards Chippenham; the estate's roads don't have names like Canal Road, Pewsham Lock, Waters Edge for nothing you know! But during 'Archaeology Month' in July the local museum put on a guided walk to follow a stretch of the canal that most people don't see and don't know is quite so close to them - see if you can spot us here. The blue line on my map below shows the route of the walk and the pink line is a (very rough) tracing of the route of the Chippenham branch off the main canal.

It's rather fitting that the modern road follows the line of the filled in branch that came off the main canal and into the centre of Chippenham. I always find it heartening that areas of heavy industry that would have been really busy around a hundred years ago are now completely obliterated by the countryside. It just shows how quickly nature can recover. There is now no sign of the brickworks, lime-kilns, carpenters’ workshops, sawpits, dry-dock, lock-keeper’s cottage; just woodland and fields. I'm also always surprised that we know so little about the industrial and cultural heritage of the areas we live in. Some of these industries, like the brickworks, struggled on into the 20th century, but we know bugger all about them until some volunteer or researcher goes rooting around in the undergrowth.

The Wilts and Berks Canal Trust has spent the best part of 40 years restoring the length of the canal and we've watched their progress between Pewsham Locks and Lacock for over 20 years. They've recently been dredging the section between Pewsham and Reybridge and, for the first time in over 100 years, areas of it now have water. We took these photos on our second walk. This was along the length of the Pewsham to Lacock section (approx 4 miles each way) and, although it may not look much to you - just a pretty stretch of water like you'd see anywhere, this thing that now actually looks like a canal was just boggy ground with a few reeds sticking out of it not that long ago.

The Sustrans cycle route (National Cycle Network Route 403 [an offshoot of NCN4]) follows part of the canal but, unfortunately, the Lacock end has been blocked by a lease dispute with the new landowner for the last 2 years. So if you want to cycle into Lacock you've got to be prepared to heft your bike over 6 stiles, or just padlock it to a fence and walk the last mile or so into the village. Still, it's a pretty walk and there's the reward of an excellent pint in one of Lacock's pubs once you get there (come on, you didn't think we were walking the route for the exercise did you?!).

Goals

Last January I did a 10 year round-up and set myself some goals for the next 10 years and some one year ones. I did an update in June http://lazyferret.blogspot.com/search/label/goals. So, how have I done since then?

10 year goals:
1. pay off mortgage in 2012 (13 years early) This is on track to be paid off by Aug 2013
2. travel more – possibly by volunteering on archaeological/environmental projects Off on a tour of Syria's archaeological delights in the spring - I can see lots more trips like this happening, money and health permitting
3. perhaps do more studying At the moment it's more informal learning through WANHS lectures and trips like the one above
4. work less Ummmm, need to work on this one a bit more...
5. enjoy life more Am basically a miserable git so I'm battling against my nature here, but still persevering!
6. do more draft/scary things to prove I’m still alive See no. 7
7. use the motorbikes more – preferably abroad, preferably Libya, Iceland and Morocco Details of trip to Germany was posted in July

Goals for 2010:
1. re-mortgage in Feb when our 10 year fixed rate ends Done
2. over-pay mortgage to allow us to pay it off early Done
3. do at least one long motorbike holiday this year, even if it does rain all summer, again Yes, 2 weeks in Germany. It did rain and was very hard work. Maybe do an organised tour in future. But didn't die and had no major disasters...
4. get more exercise Needs more work

Goals for 2011:
1. Get more exercise
2. Do some track days/driving 'experiences' at local motor racing circuit
3. Cook a new recipe each month
4. Get a hair cut - sounds easy but I've always hated going to the hairdressers and the last time I went was Sept 2009!
5. Worry less
6. Sort out a new boiler

Exercise and bugs

I've started an 'exercise regime'...

Well, I've started walking UP the stairs at work as well as down them! But, to be fair, I do work on the 9th floor. My potential maximum 'ups' and 'downs' is 4 of each per day and I'm managing at least 3 most days. I do have to stop on the 6th floor to 'look at the view'/'get my keys out'/'pretend I'm waiting for someone'/etc when the real reason is to ensure that I'm not wheezing like a ruptured bagpipe by the time I get back to the office!

I've not died yet, but I'm not sure whether my eyes are supposed to be crossed like that, or feel like there's an elephant sat on my chest, by the time I get back to my desk.

The views are worth it though, I can see two of Wiltshire's White Horses from the stairwell (from Cherhill near Calne over on the extreme left to Westbury over on the right), although I'm less impressed by what looks suspiciously like a dead cockroach in the unbrushed bit of the stairs...

A slighty more interesting beetle was in the loading bay at the bottom of the stairs. I'd not seen one before so I thought it was a foreign import that had come in on a pallet, but then I spotted it in a magazine - the cockchafer beetle, mine was specifically the garden chafer variety. The general chorus when I pointed it out to colleagues was, 'I bet it does!', as it's about an inch long and has seemingly spikey legs, but it's a vegetarian. It's more commonly called the May bug and only lives for a few weeks in April and May. So, there you are, exercise AND education! I'm off for a lie down...