The Wilts & Berks Canal Part 2

The photos in both parts were taken over 3 years ago so I have no doubt some of the places will have changed.
On this walk we started at Childrey Wharf and worked back to Wantage  and I was pleased to see that some sections had been restored and parts were still being worked on. The photos were taken back in December 2010 so things will have changed since then

Part of the restored canal looking towards where work is going on.

Sure this was the wharf as there is what looks like the remains of a building nearby.

This is part which has yet to be restored and where it feeds into. There would have been a bridge here once.

 

 

Un-restored section

 

The towpath still runs beside it

 

Restored section 

 

Down the other end of the section was machinery

Large excavator

 

Part to be restored

The canal is filled in here around mid field

I traipsed across the field to find where it ran

The line of the canal back to where we were

You start to find information when you come back to parts of the canal

Some parts have water in it 

This is part of an old lift bridge

It was made into a culvert

You can also see the remains of where the old bridge was. it was made into a  culvert which was done by A.F Ackrill & Son 1948 as the name and date is in the cement indicate 

Further along in West Challow you find the canal has again been partly restored for a little way.

Not much to see from the seat

The path can be muddy and here the canal looks dry

Further on you see water

Most likely a lift bridge used to be here

Looking back

 

Going towards East Challow you find the canal is very overgrown though you do come across a lock on the way

Getting nearer Challow

 

It's quiet nice walking along the old parts even if there is little water to see

A bridge nearer Challow. 

 

Some more water

 

This building was an iron works once and would have used the canal.

Cross the road for the next part to Grove

This point is where the canal went under the bridge but it's long gone and a house sits  where the canal used to be.

 

It's easy to follow the path

 

 

This part has water still

 

A good path to follow as well

Well kept back when I visited

Lots of duckweed in the canal

 

Soon enough you get to Grove

 

Sure there may have been a lock here 

You get to parts where you loose sight of the canal and water

 

Then it stops

 

 

It would have run here but it's filled in

 

 

Fenced off area where the canal was

You start to see the housing estate

Which has a hit of what was here

I'm sure this is the part where the Wantage spur split from the main canal by a basin

From here to Wantage it is footpath and hints of the canal

Its all overgrown and filled in

We followed a footpath that was along where the towpath ran

Parts fenced off from what may have been the canal

None of the canal was visible now

Eventually you come across part of a bridge that once spanned the spur

Finally getting to where the Wantage basin used to be

Which was near Lecome brook and Wantage Flour Mill. This was 15 years ago what it looks like now along the route I went I do not know. It would be nice to see the parts restored but as to having a navigable canal like the Kennet I cannot see that happening. Landowners might be persuaded to give the land up for the canal but Thames Water want to build a huge reservoir which will encompass part of it so no way will they want a canal going through it. If they had not drained the canal in the first place we may have had a chance to use it for pleasure purposes now I feel it is a pipe dream.