Tag Archives: Kennet and Avon Canal

Removal of Aldermaston Wharf lift bridge for refurbishment

In early January 2024 the lift bridge of the A340 Basingstoke Road over the Kennet and Avon canal in Aldermaston Wharf had to be removed for some major refurbishment work. During the initial preparation for its removal there wasn’t much to see, although I did manage to get some decent shots of the bare bridge in the afternoon light one day. Then on Friday 12/Jan/24 I was lucky enough to catch a good part of the loading of the bridge on to a trailer during my lunch break walk:

The bridge will now receive some long overdue maintenance and improvements over a few weeks before being reinstalled in mid March 2024. I’m hoping to be lucky again and be out for my lunch break walk at the right time, but obviously can’t promise anything.

For a few pictures and a video from the original removal check this report in Newbury Today.

Flooding along the Kennet and Avon Canal in Aldermaston Wharf and Woolhampton, West Berkshire

After a wet end to 2023 leading to saturated grounds in much of England storm Henk and shortly after some very heavy rain in early January brought some significant flooding to many parts of England. While not as serious as in some other parts of England there is also some flooding along the Kennet and Avon Canal in Aldermaston Wharf and Woolhampton in West Berkshire. I’ve lived here for 15 years and think on the stretch of canal I regularly walk it’s the worst it’s been in those years. There has been flooding before, but this year seems more and higher. On Saturday 6/Jan/2024 I went for my regular walk and took my camera with me for a few pictures and video:

I also recorded a few short video clips, here is the video I edited with them showing some of the flooding:

Floods around Aldermaston Wharf and Woolhampton, West Berkshire in January 2024

I hope you found the pictures and video interesting and informative, please let me know your thoughts in the comments.

August morning walk along the Kennet & Avon Canal in West Berkshire

I go for a walk along the Kennet & Avon Canal every morning, on a weekday I usually walk from Aldermaston Wharf to just past The Rowbarge in Woolhampton. Over the weekends I often walk a bit further, past the old Lock Cottage towards Midgham.

Usually I’m walking with a pair of weights, today I decided to leave the weights at home and turn it into a photo walk. I left fairly early in the morning at about 6:45, which gave me some nice mild light for a while.

Here are 10 of my favourite pictures from this morning, click on the pictures for the larger version in the gallery:

A variety of pictures, from Swans to colourful boats to beautiful trees and reflections. I hope you’ll find something you’ll like. Maybe let me know of your favourite picture(s) in the comments?

Storm Eunice damage along the Kennet & Avon Canal in West Berkshire

After one of the worst storms in decades hit the south of England including West Berkshire with storm Eunice on Friday 18/Feb/2022 there was a lot of damage. When I write this on Saturday afternoon the village of Aldermaston (just over a mile down the road from where I write this in Aldermaston Wharf) still hasn’t got any power and might not get it back until late in the evening or potentially even Sunday. I know of at least two trees having come down and having hit houses in Aldermaston Wharf, luckily as far as I’m aware nobody was injured (and I believe there was no serious damage to the houses). This morning I went out for my regular daily walk (slightly extended as it is Saturday, where I usually go on a longer walk than on weekdays), here is some of the storm damage I spotted along the way:

One of the first things I saw was also one of the scariest, a quite large tree had fallen across the canal and the top of the tree had hit a moored canal boat (Pictures 01 & 02). The owners had already cleared most of the tree off the boat and as far as I could see there was no significant damage to the boat itself, only the solar panels were rather smashed up.

Not very far down the canal along a field with cows and sheep there was more damage: Three smaller trees had been snapped off (I suspect the wind had enough space to run up across the field and hit them hard) and were pretty much blocking the towpath (pictures 03, 04 &11). I managed to squeeze past two of them, for the third one I had to climb over the fence for a short ‘detour’ across the field (luckily the cows with their calves were far away, so it was safe). Luckily I didn’t have to do that when I returned about an hour later as kind boater had taken his chainsaw to the trees and cleared the towpath.

After that it wasn’t too bad on the towpath, of course there was branch debris pretty much everywhere, but there wasn’t really any blockage. The fallen trees were either away from the towpath or left enough room to get past them without much difficulty (Pictures 05, 08, 09 & 10).

But my walk was stopped by a fallen tree just before where I usually turn around anyway on my longer weekend walks. While I just managed to squeeze past the first tree (Picture 06) the second one, a large tree covered in Ivy, fully blocked the path (Picture 07) and I couldn’t find a way past it. So I turned around and walked back to Aldermaston Wharf.

Just before arriving back home I couldn’t resist the obligatory fallen fence picture (Picture 12), I believe that’s a standard for after the storm pictures. Interestingly the fence at the communal garden below my flat was swaying precariously yesterday, I think at least one of the posts is pretty much gone. So far it’s still holding up, but will it survive the next storm?

Autumn colours along the Kennet & Avon Canal in West Berkshire

Having decided not to travel to Islay because of the Covid-19 pandemic this year I had a two week staycation at home in West Berkshire. Unfortunately the weather didn’t turn out as nice as I had hoped, so I didn’t get out for walks as much as I had thought (I ended up visiting a Swedish furniture store and completing some home improvements I had thought about for a while instead). Still, I managed to squeeze in a few short sunny walks along the Kennet & Avon Canal allowing me to take a few nice autumnal pictures (click on the pictures for the full size gallery):

Except for the first picture (which is from my flat overlooking the canal in Aldermaston Wharf) all the pictures are from the towpath from Aldermaston Wharf walking west towards Woolhampton. Some really nice autumnal colours around, especially over the second week. All the pictures were taken with my large wide angle zoom lens (14-24mm, mostly towards the 14mm), allowing me to capture some big views of the trees and their autumn colours.

I hope you’ll enjoy the pictures and the colours.