Tyle Mill

Today's canal : Kennet and Avon

The forecast promised plenty of sunshine with a scattering of fluffy clouds but we awoke to grey skies. However, they cleared very quickly and the anticipated weather arrived even before we set off and stayed that way all day. At times it was quite warm.

A34 bridge

A couple of locks and then we passed under the A34 Newbury by-pass, which one a Concrete society award in 2000.

We now left the Kennet and Avon Canal proper - the rest of this canal was constructed as a canalisation of the River Kennet, once the Thames and Kennet Navigation, we believe.

New Mill

We were now approaching the outskirts of Newbury - the first landmark is the swing bridge at New Mill, manual barriers but automated bridge swing.

New Mill and swing bridge

Once through we could see that there as a queue for the next lock. Part of the delay was from a boat going down that refused to leave until the boat ahead had collected its coffee from Costa (alongside the river) and moved on on the grounds that it could not pass! (Why did it not go first?)

Newbury Lock

In the end we shared with an ABC hire boat from Aldermaston with two couples on it plus a small girl (called Joanna!) One couple were Portuguese - the husband works in the hotel industry and has a new placement in the UK. Very pleasant - we were more than happy to share locks with them all the way to Woolhampton where they stopped to visit the pub. As we had to wait at most locks and the landing are only one boat in length, we waited breasted up and then entered together - to their delight at doing something new.

Newbury Bridge

Victoria Park

We passed under the ornate Newbury Bridge before Victoria Park - mooring spaces available this time. (We had unforgettable problems here in 2010 when looking for a mooring quite late in the evening and a fast flowing river!)

Below Greenham Lock we encountered a loose work boat - the way in which the blue rope from the free end was resting it appeared that someone had untied it and thrown the rope back on!

At some point during the day - forgotten exactly where - a boat passing the other way commented that they had just found our blog and commended it! (sorry chaps, even forgot your boat name)

There were numerous swing bridges as well as locks to negotiate today, most of them manual. In general they were easy to operate.

Woolhampton Swing Bridge

Woolhampton is famous (infamous?) amongst boaters in this part of the world as tricky to navigate. Immediately below the lock the river re-joins at right angles and is fast flowing. Just after this is a road bridge and the instructions are to wait in the lock tail until the bridge is open and then to head straight for the bridge (not helped by being on a bend) and then fight the flow of water until through what can feel like an obstacle course! Going downstream is also more exciting as the boat is much less controllable. Our companion boat left us at this point a they tied up to visit the pub. They were a delight to share with and we were sorry to see them go.

We passed through an especially pretty river section, with the sun filtering through the overhanging trees.

At Aldermaston we turned into the short arm to use the water point and disposal facilities. We had to reverse out to pass through the lift bridge. This took a little longer than anticipated so we perhaps held up more cars than otherwise we might have done on a Sunday afternoon!

Two features from Padworth Lock:

Our target was Tyle Mill where we had moored overnight when picking up the two girls at half term but had forgotten that above the lock are long term moorings - we only took a space as one of the moorers told us which space was not being used!

So we passed through the lock and road swing bridge - amused that the house nearby is called Canal Cottage!



Canal Cottage at Tyle Mill

Not much further and we decided that we ought to moor but the fast flowing river made it more of a challenge than a simple canal. Still, it was beside an open field with a satellite signal in the line of sight!
13.6 miles - 16 locks