Jane’s Walk 2026: Day 9
As we arrive at our start point, a car drives up and David, who is a good friend of ours, drives past hoping to bump into us, which was a lovely surprise. Sadly, he can’t join us on our walk, but we have a quick catch up with family news, some not good from his end which is sad.
It is a beautiful morning, so different from yesterday and the canal looks very enticing with the sun shining through the tree-lined route as we set off. The Kennet River is on our left. It is a chalk stream, hence its lovely clear water. The Great Western Railway is on our right but crosses over the canal soon after.
After about a mile, we come upon a group of Canal River Trust workmen. 4 on a motorised raft and the 5th in a wet suit and about to don full diving gear. He explains that he is going to travel through a water tunnel that runs from the canal, under the railway line to the river beyond, to inspect its condition. It seems to us to be a horrible and dangerous task, but he assures us it is routine inspection. Further on, we see the men in the raft busy clearing undergrowth in a stream near the railway.
We meet up with Richard at Kintbury and he explains this is where we will return to for lunch as there is nowhere suitable further on. As we pass a car park, we notice an old Hillman Imp van advertising horse-drawn barge trips, which intrigue us. Sure enough, there are lots of horse droppings on the path and the imprint of very large hoof marks. However, we notice the bulrushes are very tall on the side of the canal here and numerous barges are alongside. A horse pulling a non-motorised barge seems impossible.
2 miles further on, we come to a lock with the men manning the barge pulling it through by hand. On the other side, there was the horse about to be re-attached to the boat. According to his handler, he is a 12-year-old Cob and Shire Horse cross, a huge gentle beast who enjoys eating large mouthfuls of the bulrushes as he slowly walks along the towpath with the barge behind him. The barge has about 40 passengers who have paid £20 to travel 2.5 hours from Kintbury and back again. The rope attached to the boat and the horse is not hindered by the bulrushes as they bend as the rope passes over them, and the rope is raised on a pole on the barge roof when passing a moored boat. We watch with interest as the boat is turned to return to Kintbury. A complicated process.
We stop at Marsh Benham and return to Kintbury for lunch. On our return to the canal, the River Kennet runs into the canal here for a short while before separating again into meandering waterways. All along this stretch, we have passed numerous Second World War pillboxes, some being used as storage spaces. As we approach Newbury, the canal widens and we pass numerous swans, Canada geese and ducks who appear to be congregating round the sluice gates. These allow the amount of water flowing into the canal and river to be adjusted, to reduce the risk of flooding of houses nearby.
We finally arrive at the Newbury lock in the centre of the town. In 1790, when it was decided to build the Kennet and Avon canal, this was the first lock to be constructed by John Rennie. We end our day’s walk here.
