A walk on the Wild Side—along the Kennet & Avon Canal

By Alan Tilbury

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Devizes Wharf is how the canal should be

OVER a weekend I saw a few lengths of the Kennet & Avon Canal, and can only concur with Keith Norfolk [You Tell Us] on its state.

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Defra Rash on the Caen Hill Flight

The Caen Hill flight is very impressive, but boaters were having a nightmare on one of the locks in the flight, the leaks were so bad it was impossible to form a level. One boater told me it took five people to force the gates open.

A 'seasonal' lock keeper was bombing up and down the flight on his quad bike towing a trailer and occasionally stopping to give advice to boaters! Apparently it was taking six hours to clear the whole flight, I've no idea what a good time is!

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Defra Rash and hanging gardens

The orange rash was everywhere where the banks had subsided or collapsed.

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One of several wide beam boats having problems

When we cruised the Kennet & Avon before Robin Evans' 'reorganisation', the manager of the Kennet & Avon was the very committed Michael Goodenough, who told us 'come back in five years and see what we have achieved'.

Alas, Michael would not move lock stock and barrel to Gloucester as Robin wanted, so this dedicated manager was another of the good ones that was lost to British Waterways.

Instead we now have Ian Jarvis, responsible for the shambles that is now the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal.

Alan Tilbury is our Principal Reporter and in addition to his boating activities sometimes takes a walk around the waterways with his camera...

Vegetation

There were several wide beam boats cruising, but goodness knows how they managed to pass on some sections as Keith pointed out!

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Which way—left or right?

Towpath mooring is virtually impossible for miles, I'm sure the environmentalists think it is a good idea not cutting the massive growth, where from walking on the towpath you cannot see the canal.

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Hope that there is nothing coming the other way

Another boater pointed out a broken side paddle gear which he said had been taped up for months. Yet another boater said that one of the gates at Aldermaston Lock was almost impossible to move, The general consensus amongst all that I spoke to was the total lack of maintenance, which reflects the opinion of most people across the system.

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Sign of the times—diesel at 91p a litre

I only saw two boats with out-of-date licenses, and several not showing anything, though the majority were fully licensed.

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I don't know how many hire boats Reading Marine have in its fleet at Aldermaston but there sure were a lot moored up at its base not going anywhere!