The Wharf Theatre beside the Kennet & Avon Canal in Devizes

The "Wharf Theatre" beside the canal.

The Kennet & Avon canal was opened in 1810, and bought much trade to Devizes from Bristol, Bath, Reading and Newbury.  This place, the old Wharf,  and managed by a "Wharfinger," what an interesting old name,  must have been a hive of activity up until the mid 1840's.  The opening of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's  "Great Western Railway" between London and Bristol,  killed off canal traffic almost overnight.   Goods could be transported by train in a matter of hours, instead of the days it took on the old, horse drawn barges.  Devizes council took over the wharf buildings after the collapse of the canal company, and the site was used by carrier services, coal merchants and various traders.   The Theatre building is canalside and the old cranes that lifted the goods from the barges can still be seen, as can many bricked up windows.  At the moment the theatre is preparing for it's Christmas production, and it's various shows and events are  well supported by the people of Devizes.


Below is another interesting Wharf building.   Once warehouses, it is now the home the canal museum, information centre and shop.  Devizes Canoe Club is also based here, and every year at Easter stages the world famous "Devizes to Westminster" canal race, the longest canal marathon in the world.   Elite crews and those of amateurs and young people leave at intervals on Good Frioday and must negotiate all the locks to Reading, and then onto the River Thames towards London.  The record is around 18 hours!  Amazing, but the canoeists do have support teams.   www.dwrace.org.uk  Every year the smell of bacon butties wafts around the Wharf, as the early morning starters tuck in before their gruelling paddle to Westminster in London.  Many famous rowers enter the race, and next year Steve Redgrave says he hopes to take part.

The Old Wharf Building, home of the K & A Trust's shop, museum and information centre.

What's On?  This Christmas it's  "The Witches" by Roald Dahl.

The new Main Entrance.  Note the bricked up windows of the old warehouse.

The Old Crane still attached to the wall.

The Holburne Museum in Great Pulteney Street, Bath.



Pulteney Bridge and the weir.



This is Pulteney Bridge in Bath, the beautiful structure based on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence.  The bridge is lined with shops, and when passing over, you are not aware of the River Avon flowing underneath.  The bridge appears as an ordinary street and linked the wealthy area of Bath around the Abbey, to the less desirable parts of the outer  city.  The River Avon floods in winter, and at times the weir  completely disappears from view.  Today the river was placid, but it can become a ferocious torrent.

Today I visited an exhibition of Thomas Gainsborough's landscape paintings in the Holburne Art Museum.  This beautiful building was originally designed as an hotel standing in Sydney Gardens.   When Jane Austen lived just across the road in Sydney Place in the early 1800s, she regularly walked in the gardens.  The paintings of English landscapes were wonderful, and alongside the pictures were the preliminary sketches in various mediums, chalk, ink and pencil, that Gainsborough had used to compose his paintings. 

Below, the photo shows the new glass extension added to the back of the building.  There was much desention about the building of this modern, glass structure.   Many thought that it did not fit in with the building heritage of Bath.  It is now completed,  I think it fits in well and is hidden from view from Great Pulteney Street.  It now provides a cafe on the ground floor, and two extra galleries for the display of china, miniatures and glassware.  In the lowest photo, Jo waits for me at the main entrance.  We had a most enjoyable visit and wander around the busy city.

The Holburne Art Museum.

The new glass extension added to the back of the museum.

Jo waits for me at the Museum entrance.

The Great Porch House in Monday Market Street.



The Great Porch House with its Blue Plaque



This is the "Great Porch House" one of only two surviving medieval houses in Devizes.  It was a timbered-framed,  three bay hall, open from floor to roof, and with a two storey cross wing.  Originally it had a large porch to the front, after which it was named, but which was removed in the 17th century to allow houses to be built in the back courtyard.  The board across the arch give it a date of 1450.  The interior has carved heads of Henry 1V and Queen Joan of Navarre, and the flowers paintings on plaster  at each end, inside the roof, suggest that it was the home of a wealthy merchant, possible a member of the Coventry family.  It is also thought that Queen Joan may have stayed here when Devizes castle was being repaired.

In the photo below can be seen, top left, the remains of a rare clerestory or chamber window, the other windows are from the 19th century.  It is now a listed building and in private hands.  The cross beam that carries the date board, is decorated with little carved roundel flowers.  I live two minutes walk from here and can see the roof from my roof garden.  It is very foggy here today,  a day for staying in the warmth.





A Walk Over Roundway Down.

Information about the Civil War Battle of Roundway Down

 On Sunday afternoon I enjoyed a long walk with the "Mid Wilts Ramblers."  We went up to Roundway Down and walked part of the Civil War Battlefield site.  The Battle on July 13th 1643 was a decisive  victory for the "Royalists," who supported King Charles 1, against the "Parliamentarians" lead by General Hopton.  The Royalists had been trapped in Devizes and had taken refuge in several large churches.  Even today, St James Church shows cannonball holes in its tower, and in the late 1800s, a cannonball was found in the belltower.  The Royalists eventually managed to escape from Devizes and the two opposing sides met and fought each other up on the Down. 

The photo below gives you some idea of how high up we were, and below there is a view near "Bloody Ditch,"  so called because the Royalists chased the Parliamentarians over the edge of the escarpment and they, and their horses tumbled to their deaths.  Some remains of the soldiers, horses, musket balls and other artifacts have been found and can be seen in Devizes Museum.  This hill is known locally as "Oliver's Castle" and is the site of an old iron age hillfort. 

Oliver Cromwell, the leader of the Parliamentarians, and the eventual winner of the civil war, never fought here.  He became Lord Protector in 1653, and governed Britain for five years until he died in 1658, the only time that Britain has been a republic.  The monarchy was eventually restored when Charles 11 ascended to the throne in 1661.       http://www.wikipedia.org.uk/  Battle of Roundway Down

"Pippin" the poodle leads the way.



At Oliver's Castle near "Bloody Ditch."

Wadworth's Dray and Shirehorses.



Max and Prince outside the "Black Swan Hotel"

Beer brewed at Wadworth's Devizes Brewery is delivered to the local pubs by dray and shirehorses.  They are a regular sight around the narrow streets of Devizes and often cause a traffic jam, much to the consternation of some drivers.  The brewery was founded by Henry Wadworth in 1875, and when it outgrew its original building, it moved into new premises that now stand at Brewery Corner in the Northgate.  The brewing process is gravity fed, so all the ingredients of a good brew are lifted five floors to the top of the Victorian building, where they are fed into various hoppers for their journey down to the ground floor, brewed and ready for dispatch.  The brew is then transported to Burton on Trent for canning and to Liverpool for bottling.  When finished, some bottles of Bishop's Tipple find their way back into my store cuboard in New Park Street.

Wadworth's have stabling for Max, Monty and Prince, the three magnificent shirehorses that pull the dray.  Several breweries in the country use dray and horses for local deliveries, although recently Wandsworth Brewery reluctantly stopped using them, as motorists were becoming more and more abusive to the draymen. after finding themselves held up in traffic jam.   Fortunately Devizes drivers are more tolerant, and hopefully this method of delivery will continue for years to come.  Each year the horses go for a holiday on a local farm.  Pictures of them galloping freely in the fields are a joy to see.

                  http://www.wadwoth.co.uk/                www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shire_horse.

Max and Prince at a Drayman's Wedding.



The 49 Bus to Bishops Cannings and a Walk Back.

The 49 waits at the Bus Island.

Here she is, the No. 49 Trans Wilts Express waiting to take us to Bishops Cannings.  Today I led a small group of walkers to Bishops Cannings, a small village about four miles miles outside Devizes.  We alighted near "The Crown" the village pub and then walked up onto a hillside ridge, but not for long, we soon walked down again towards the K&A canal towpath for the flat walk back into Devizes.  The photo below shows the group in "Quakers Walk," the name having nothing to do with the Quakers, but is a corruption of "Keepers" meaning a game keeper, a man responsible for looking after the game birds, pheasant, grouse, quails etc, on a large estate. 

This pathway led towards Roundway Down and the former "Roundway House" a large mansion with many historical connection, which was demolished just after the war and replaced by a new house. 

The two curious concrete domes on top of Brickham Bridge are tank stoppers from the last war.  When it was thought that an invading force might use the canal for transport, large concrete obstacles were placed to impede invading vehicles.  Kitty then arrived to meet us and said hello, but soon disappeared again as a man with a big black dog approached.

Strolling back through Quakers Walk.

Over Brickham Bridge complete with tank stoppers.

Kitty wanted to join us.

An Entire School Visits Devizes Wharf for a Trip on the boat.



"Kenavon Venture" passing Cemetery Road Bridge.



Many local village schools like  to bring  their children to  Devizes Wharf, and   on Wednesday,  an entire school arrived for a day's visit.  The group included the smallest children from the reception class to those more grown up in year 6.  The visit was part of their studies into the history of transport and map making.  The visit included a ride on the K&A Trust's tripboat down  through "Town Lock," a visit to the Museum to see the many exhibits  about the history of the canal, the boats that plied their trade and the horses who pulled the great barges.    Divided into several small groups, the children had an opportunity to experience life on the canal,  to see a lock being operated, and to walk the towpath where the horses once trod.  The children  also did some drawings to take back to school to commemorate their visit.  Packed lunches were the order of the day, and everyone had an enjoyable time.

The lowest photo below shows "Avon Vale" the K&A Canal Trust's workboat, which was bought from Britishwaterways for a £1, but on condition that it was renovated and then used for canal maintenance.  It is used to clear trees that block the passage of passing boats, cut back the undergrowth and to remove obstructions on the canal bed.  Some of the locals like to throw supermarket trolleys into the canal, and these cause damage to passing boats. 

The long Wharf building in the background was used as a place of storage for goods carried on the barges.  The canal opened in 1810, and was a hive of activity until the coming of Brunel's Great Western Railway in 1838 from London to Bristol.   It was then possible to move goods in a faction of the time that it took a barge to travel the same distance.  http://www.steam-museum.org.uk/  This museum is housed in the old engine sheds at Brunel's works in Swindon.

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The trip boat enters "Town Lock"

At the bottom of "Town Lock"



"Avon Vale" the Trust's workboat lying opposite Devizes Wharf.