Monday and a walk

Last night I watched the 'slow' canal trip along the Kennet and Avon Canal.  Two hours of watching the scenery slip by as the canal boat slipped through the water from Bath to Dundas Aquaduct.  In truth I did not watch all of it, fast forwarding now and then.  It was a walk I did often in my 30 year stay in Bath, leaving the car at Bathampton and walking to Bradford on Avon to see that medieval wonder, the great 13th century tithe barn. 

No-one has taken this beautiful barn and turned it into a mod-con house, protected for evermore by English Heritage, it belonged to those monks who took their gold from the land and piled it high in their barns.  Images taken from the net. 

A forested wonder - stone and wood

I suppose being married to an archaeologist my eyes were opened to this historic world around me, there were plenty of books to read and contemplate past lives, weekend trips but this barn was to me one of the seven wonders of England, I did my thesis on Wiltshire abbeys, those self-sufficient islands of beauty and industry. When Paul and I moved up to Yorkshire, my first thought was Cistercian abbeys.

But that is too digress, I was walking the canal path from Bath to Bradford on Avon, a distance of about 6 miles and you could catch the train back to Bath if you did not want to walk back.

This walk went through some beautiful countryside, at Claverton  Water pumping station, where water from the River Avon was pumped up to the canal above, people came and swam in the weir there.  Then further on you would come to the Dundas Aqueduct, a beautiful construction of Bath stone.  At this pinch point in the valley,  you would have the A46 road, the railway line, the River Avon and then the Kennet and Avon canal taken over the river, a graceful engineering masterpiece from the last part of the 18th century.

Dundas Aquaduct

The walk over time became more frustrating though, it turned into a cycle path as well, and with a couple of dogs to be kept on the lead almost impossible.  Not sure walkers and cyclists should be together, the cyclists were still to be trained in their use of the bell, it tends to make you jump when a cyclist came up behind you silently.

One of the things I have forgotten was almost opposite the Water Pump station, on the other side of the valley was the American Museum, another beautiful old building with gardens.  Its chief glory was American style rooms, and quilts exhibitions.  There was also a small building in the garden devoted to naive American art.  I notice that the gardens have been redone to a different pattern as well, see this virtual tour.