Before we left Hungerford, I wanted to visit the specialist Embroidery and Haberdashery shop in the High Street. That was quite an experience. The man who ran it was a talker, and I made the mistake of asking a question about the other haberdashery shop in the town which elicited a long monologue about Grade II listed buildings, how inheritance can cause many strange things to happen to shops, and about his mother's skills at making a kneeler for the alter in the local church which was not blessed by the vicar, but by the Bishop, and how the Bishop had originally been appointed by his father, who's memory the kneeler was sewn in response to. Need I go on? Whilst I was in the shop another customer came, and identified the threads she wanted and bought them and left. I think she had had a 30 minute chat on a previous occasion too and had been clear about her solution!!Anyway it was an interesting shop to look around!!
The canal route from Hungerford to Newbury sets off with a series of locks every half mile to three quarters of a mile or so. I did the locks this morning which took us as far as Kintbury - a little village about a third of the way to Newbury. The canal follows the path of the Kennet, and for quite a lot of the route, there is a tiny distance between the river and canal.
In this photo, the two waterways are 100 yards or so apart, but sometimes they are very close, with just the towpath and a row of trees dividing them.
At Kintbury we joined another boat to go down the locks. The boat driver had a seriously damaged ankle as a result of a motorbike accident in 2002. For 15 years or so, it had been OK after operations after the accident, but it had now become very troublesome and he was really struggling to walk. As a result he had a friend who came and joined him at Kintbury, and then another just outside Newbury and it was good to have another boat and help in the locks. Note that this was now Chris' turn to do the locks....!
In Kintbury there is some sort of 'try out a horse to tow your canal boat' thing going on, and this horse appeared on the canal side. A really beautiful looking animal. We didn't stay long enough to see what happened next.
From Kintbury the locks are again regularly spaced along the canal, about half a mile apart or so. The railway continues to pass very close to the canal and crosses sides here and there, at one point at a bridge called Pickletimber Railway Bridge. Why it is called this is not clear - a web search puts up some pictures, but no explanation of the name!
We arrived in Newbury at about 5.15pm today and found a mooring on the edge of the town, just before the swing bridge. The light down the canal was lovely! And the buildings and reflection in the sunlight was also lovely.
We had dinner tonight in the pub by the lock and bridge, called the Lock, Stock and Barrel, which is perhaps the wrong sort of lock, but the beer and the dinner were good!
We've got one last day's journey back to Aldermaston tomorrow which we shall do with help from one of the Trustees from TEABAG and her colleague from Treloars College at Alton. That should be fun!
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