Jane’s Walk 2026 – Day 3
Today we are joined by 2 new walkers as well as Charles and Angela. We walk along well-maintained paths into the centre of the city of Bath. We leave the River Avon and pass up through a series of very deep locks on to the Kennet and Avon canal. By this means the water rises 65 ft at the Widcombe lock, the deepest of them all.
For 9 miles there are no more locks as the water is now pumped up from the river way below at the Clevedon pumping station, designed by John Rennie, the mastermind behind the building of the canal between 1750 to 1810. The machinery he installed uses waterpower to pump the water uphill. When the sluices are opened, the flow of the river turns a massive waterwheel. Through a system of wheels, gears, cranks and rods, it operates huge beam engines. These drive the pumps and force the water up to the canal. The machinery is remarkably quiet when in action.
Today, a modern back-pumping system ensures the canal is always full, and thanks to a lottery grant given between 1996 and 2002, the canal bed no longer leaks.
We pass the attractive George Inn, once a 13th Century Abbey at Bathampton. Here William Herbert in 1897 took up the post as Director of Bath City’s council art school. In the same year he created a new modelling material which he called Plasticine. The material was a mix of lanolin, coloured chalk and other ingredients, which initially he rolled into sheets with his garden roller. Recognising the potential of this new material, he packaged it in small quantities and sold it to art shops in Bath. It proved to be very popular, and soon production had to be increased and a factory was built for the purpose. In 1963 it was destroyed by fire but was quickly rebuilt and continued making plasticine for another 20 years before moving elsewhere.
We walk along the canal for a number of miles enjoying the creative gardens beside many of the stationary barges, the residents using the wooded areas beside their moorings. Eventually we arrive at the Dundas Aqueduct. This is one of 2 aqueducts on this stretch of the river, taking the canal over the Avon river and the railway, and considered a masterpiece of 19th century architecture. It is an amazing sight looking down at the river and railway far below. We get a lovely picture of a single swan swimming up the river below us.
We walk 2 miles further on along a wooded area of the canal with extremely steep banks on either side. A number of large trees had obviously crashed down these banks, causing quite an avalanche across the canal, which must have caused problems to the Canal Trust when clearing them. We end our walk at Semington Bridge and say goodbye to all our companions.
