Down Caen Hill on the way to "The Three Magpies."

Lock 37, part of the continuous flight of 16 locks

Here we are walking, once again down Caen Hill, the famous flight of 29 locks on the Kennet & Avon Canal at Devizes.  This is lock 37, one of the locks in the middle the continuous flight of 16.  The flight down starts at Town Bridge Lock, after which you travel through 6 locks, meet the continuous 16 down at Foxhangers, and onto the last 7 locks to Lower Foxhangers.  This flight is 5th in Britishwaterways "Wonders of the Canal System" list.  I have travelled up and down this flight on many occasions when I had my lovely boat, and used to gather a good crew of 6 friends and make a day of the journey, eating tasty rolls and drinking beer on the way!  


With a crew and depending on how busy it was, the entire flight could be traversed in 4/5 hours, although on some occasions we travelled very slowly and took three days!

Looking up the flight from the bottom of the 16 locks

The best view of the flight is from the bottom of the 16.  John Rennie was the canal engineer, and I always wonder how he felt looking up this hill and thinking, "How on earth do I dig to the top?"  But to the top he dug, digging out tons of earth and clay by hand and shovel with the workman navigators or "Navvies" as they were known.   This last section of the canal was completed in 1810, opening on December 28th of that year.

Hire-fleet boats moored at Lower Foxhangers, with the newly opened "Foxhanger's Marina " in the background.  The disused bridge, the pillars of which can be seen mid picture, used to carry the railway line from Chippenham to Devizes over the canal.  Mr Beeching axed this line in 1960 to save money!  We eventually arived at the "Three Magpies" for lunch and a pint, and then walked some of the way back.

Up on the Ridgeway at Avebury with Ancient Man, (and woman!)

The Ridgeway, walking towards West Kennet Long Barrow

Today's walk in Avebury took us up to the "Ridgeway" an ancient track that runs along the top of Marlborough Downs and is described as Britains oldest trackway.  It is an 87 mile, long distance walk that starts in Marlborough and runs up to the Chiltern Hills and Aylesbury.  Britain now has many long distance paths, all interlinking and providing an opportunity to walk the whole of the country without setting foot on a tarmaced road.  We walked on chalk, not too slippery after the rain, although we had to dodge the many puddles, as can be seen in the photo.  

Avebury is famous for its stone circle of neolithic origin, although its exact purpose is not understood.  Stonehenge, the other more famous stone circle is some twenty miles away.  The trees below are growing out of a Bell Barrow, one of many neolithic burial mounds.  Not far distant is West Kennet Long Barrow, a many chambered burial mound, and excavated some years ago, where many skeletons of ancient man and his burial objects were found.  Nearby too is Silbury Hill, another enigma, a very large artificial hill, built for we know not what!   Was ancient man trying to reach the stars?  That's my theory.    

Trees growing on a Bell Barrow.

Walking back to the "Red Lion" through the Avenue of stones.

Alexander Keiller, 1889-1955 of the famous marmalade making company lived in Avebury Manor.  As a very wealthy man, he could indulge his interest in archeology and in the 1930s with his wife, he excavated the stone circle, re-erecting the stones, digging out the ditches and re establishing the stone avenue.   The following website:  www.avebury-web.co.uk  is very informative and shows scenes of the excavations.   This avenue of stones leads from Avebury up to the Santuary, another henge further along the Ridgeway. 

The small area of Wiltshire is littered with the remains of ancient man and must have been the centre of a very important primitive settlement near the River Kennet.  At the end of the walk we retired to the pub for a well earned drink.

A large monolith at the end of the Avenue.

The haunted "Red Lion" in Avebury, where we ended our walk.  A young lady fell down the well here, and her ghost is supposed to haunt the pub.  I have never seen her.

Rambling from Edington, up and over Imber Down to Coulston and Bratten.

"The Duke" at Edington, the start of the walk.

We never start a walk with a drink, although "The Duke" in Edington looked tempting on Sunday morning.  Fourteen walkers gathered at the start for a 7 mile walk over rolling Wiltshire landscape, and with beautiful weather to accompany us.  It felt like a spring day, and in places we saw daffodils in full bud, waiting to bloom.  Hold on!!  It is too early to bloom, you could get yours heads frozen off next month.  We plodded a steep climb up to Imber Down, an army range still used for tank manoeuvers and firing practise.   

During the last war Imber village was requisitioned by the army to give soldiers practise in the art of warfare.   Some derelict buildings remain, including the church, were every year services of remembrance are held for those forcibly removed from their homes and for the fallen.  The village is open to the public on certain days, but closed when the army is firing its guns!  Red flags fly warning you to keep your head down!

Walking towards the steep climb up to Imber Down.

Climbing Imber Down was a steep, prolonged struggle, but once at the top the wind blew through your hair and the view back down into the valley was wonderful.  Near Edington we passed a battle site, where in 878 King Alfred met the  Danish army, won a decisive battle and forced Guthrum the Dane to sue for peace.  England was once again back in the hands of the English!

The chapel of "St Thomas a'Becket in Coulston, with its watercress pond.

The old "Squeezes" gateway into Edington Priory churchyard.

Edington Priory was built by William of Edington and completed in 1361.  It was a large priory and the remains of outer buildings can still be seen.  This interesting, little entrance gate allows people in and out with ease, but prevents cattle from roaming into the churchyard.   The English language has many local dialect words for this kind of gateway.  I call them all "squeezes" because you have to squeeze in and out. www.edingtonfriends.org.uk   The photo below shows us walking back to our parked cars at "The Duke."   We did not stop for a pint and a packet of crisps, what a shame!

The long, lonely way back to the cars in Edington with Imber Down in the background.

Ebenezer Prout or Watkins Shaw? That is the Question!

Mr Watkins Shaw's arrangement.

The Marlborough College Choral Society will be singing Handel's "Messiah" in March this year.  It is a well known work, and this will be about the 12th time I've sung it during my long love affair with choral singing.  There are two arrangements of the work, one  by Mr Watkins Shaw and the other by Mr Ebenezer Prout.  The two arrangements differ slightly and each chorus, air or recitative is on a different page in each edition.  Each of my two copies of this work is marked with the page numbers of the other, and last night we had the same confusion that always reigns, the conductor says,  "Right, for those with the Shaw it's page 99, and in the Prout it's page 78."  The bar markings vary too, so my copies have the bar numbers of each edition.   Hi di ho, confusion reigns but we get there in the end!

Last night, singing the "Hallelujah Chorus" (that's Shaw page 171 bar 1, or Prout page 158 bar 1) we produced a most magnificent sound.  When asked, over two thirds of the choir of 240 singers had sung the work before, so last night's practise went really well.  It is easy to sing in a "run of the mill" Messiah, but last night our pencils were busy marking our scores with accents and diminuendoes, ff and mf.  The language of music is universal, these same markings would be understood from the North to the South Pole, and from east to west.

The music librarians organising the various editions of the Messiah.

Copies of the "Messiah" can be hired, so the two music librarians were kept busy issuing the scores.  I have a copy of each arrangement, so do not pay a hire fee.  The photo below is of the auditorium in the College theatre where practises are held.  We spend 10 sessions here, and then have two practises, and eventually the concert itself in the College Chapel.  This year we will be accompanied by a London  orchestra, I was told its name,  but my ageing brain has forgotten already.  I need a cuppa!

In the auditorium at Marlborough College before the first practise.

Etchilhampton Hill back to Devizes via the Wessex Ridgeway.

Ohhh it was a beautiful morning for a brisk 3.75 mile walk from Etchilhampton Hill back to Devizes via the Wessex Ridgeway.   Our group of 12 caught the bus and set off on the three mile journey to the start of the walk.  The picture below shows some of our group and Salisbury Plain in the background, much of which is used for army manoeuvers and out of bounds to walkers.  The Great Bustard, a large bird once common in this area, has recently been reintroduced here.  It obviously copes well with the sound of tank fire and gun shots.   Wiltshire's flag has a image of the Great Bustard upon it, it is our county bird, but we did not see one today!

Looking out towards Salisbury Plain on a beautiful January morning.

Joyce explains the history of the area to an attentive audience.

During the walk we came across a dump for waste stone, infilling in an old quarry.  Joyce, who led the walk gave us a brief introduction to the history of the area.  The Ridgeway is the line of the old road from Devizes towards Salisbury, but the route was changed in the last century to accommodate motor vehicles and to avoid the climb up the hill.   The last time we walked this route,  we climbed the hill in thick fog and couldn't see the  much of the beautiful Wiltshire countryside.

Scraping  mud off our boots at the end of the walk.  Roundway Hill is in the background.

The route down the hill was very muddy after several days of rain, so each of us had about an inch of mud to scrape off our walking boots.  In the background of this photo is Roundway Hill, the site of the civil war battle in 1645. 

Cabbages, New Laptop, New Wifi Printer and Stress.

Decorative cabbages growing on Sandown Promenade over Christmas.

These decorative cabbages must have a proper name, if anyone knows what they are called please tell me.  They are obviously mutations from the normal variety, but are very pleasing to the eye.  These were growing in a small garden on Sandown seafront near the pier, and I particularly like the purple colour.  Below are the normal dinner table variety.

Edible cabbages growing in Bromham.

Today was very stressful!  My new laptop arrived yesterday and was a doddle to set up, make back up discs and generally organise into a machine that felt like home.  Today I bought a new wireless printer, one that is attached to my home hub, and should serve the three pcs I use here.  It should have been idiot proof to install, and all went well until I couldn't get the software disc to run.   

At one time, a nice little box would come up when I inserted a disc,  the on screen instructions asking me what I'd like to do, but for some unknown reason the box disappeared several months ago.    My nice little "easy to use"  instructions were gone and I had to work around it by uploading photos straight into Picassa.   The problem is now solved, thanks to the help of a PC expert friend who told me what buttons to press and in what order.  I now need several cups of tea.

My desk that has not been this tidy in years,

The Annual "Devizes Bounds" New Year's Day Walk.

Climbing up "Boundary Ditch."

Here we are climbing in "Boundary Ditch," part of the medieval boundary of old Devizes.   This walk  has become a tradition, a  good walk on New Year's Day to aid the digestion after the binge the night before, and to clear the fog in ones brain, caused mostly by alcohol.  The sky was overcast, but it didn't rain, the drops  saved themselves for the last moment when we  arrived on the steps of the "Silk Mercer" in Devizes Market Place for a pint and a well earned meal. 

The walk is varied, starting in the Market Place and walking part of the canal towpath, down towards the old railway line (sadly axed in the 1960s) and then down dale, up a steep, grassy hill and over or under several stiles.   Onwards along a muddy lane to Devizes, we passed "Gallows Ditch," the site of public hangings over the last centuries.  We saw the old railway tunnel under Devizes Castle, the present building, a Victorian idea of a castle, replaced the original which was  built by the Normans in the 12th cent.   Princess Matilda was held here during her fight with her brother Stephen, over her accession to the throne, via the female line.

Curious cows watch us pass by, mud was plentiful!

Mrs Pig enjoys her oats.

I first walked the "Bounds" with the Devizes Mayor way back in 2007.  Every year the Mayor in office leads a walk of the boundary, which in total measures approx 7 miles.  I have only once walked the whole distance in a morning,  but yesterday we walked only the western part of the walk, and at the half way point of 3.5 miles,  the general concensus was to walk on, but to the PUB!    Nobody objected.

A Monkey Puzzle tree bearing cones, which is most unusual, so I am told.