........ about a year or so ago we'd cover an old railway or we'd cover an old canal and we
do it all in one go one day and you guys would say oh but you missed this or you've missed this and
you were right we did miss this and this so we've decided to do it late is cover small Snippets so
you really get to see and feel what we're seeing on the day today is just that we've had a tip off
from our local uh Canal correspondent that the Calne branch of the wilts and Barks is definitely
worth our attention and yours so welcome today's video which is from the Khan branch of the Wilts
and Berks canal and oh my goodness there's got some good stuff here I promise you stick with us
so without further Ado let's start the video now just down here okay whoa whoa whoa whoa
there before we go clambering into that hedge see what we can find let's have a little bit
of context to exactly where we are today so the wilts and Barks Canal we've explored many
different parts of this already over the last few months it went all the way down from Malcolm
right up to Abingdon near Oxford and today we are exploring the Calne Branch opened around
10 years before the entire length of a canal was actually opened so let's get back in that hedge
what we're all now is we're on the Old Railway actually on the calm uh Railway branch and just
down there well you can see the whoops and bolts now this is the main line of the canal about 100
yards that way is our start to our calm Branch standard Junction I believe it's called [Music]
the railway engineering blue brick of the Railway over what would have been here the canal so kind
of underneath that way of course now it's all infield and there's no bridge to remain there's
no Railway on top it's just a pathway but there you can see the bridge structure not built by
the cow because obviously the railway came 60 years after this was built a quick look this way
this is unequivocally impossible um right Mom we're now in December so this is as good
as they're going to get in terms of vegetation really wanted to get down and see if you could
see part of the old uh Aqueduct and maybe the junction but we'll do that by drone instead but
nevertheless this is going to Mark the start of today's Journey on that calne Branch it's
some wonderful stuff to see a bit further on already seen some pictures so I know it exists
so uh join us on this little stretch of the calm Branch albeit of an extremely brambly one
[Music]
locks we're heading back North we park near Black Dog station the black dog halt on the Old Railway
we're now having to come back on ourselves and back over the railway but it looks like the only
way is up a very steep embankment right yeah which is the railway yeah okay I guess we just go up it
nothing to hold on a camera [Music]
I mean that there nearly poked me in the face as well
now I've got to go back across the moist field
so in the distance the lowest point you you have the river marden and on the top of that
embankment look at another seven or eight meters higher you've got the old canal and in those trees
just there is exactly what we're looking for on today's little journey so before we get there
let's do two things number one let's blind you with the sun right behind us number two quick
bit of History so the Wilkerson box fully opened by 1810 oddly we're not trying to research this
Branch line the calm Branch the weirdest thing was I couldn't find really much history other
than it said opened 1801 that's because they did actually do that they opened uh sections
of this canal before the whole route so The Canal at calne was actually in use fully operational at
least up to standard Junction before the whole opening and the ceremonial the opening of the
canal right Rebecca where are we going I don't know you said this way I said this way but I
know I'm exactly sure [Music] that's a bridge over the river Marden which is nice in there
I feel as I had a lot more in here a lot more secrets this bit of wood
is holding I think right ahead of me here is a line of the canal [Music] here we go
trying to find one of the locks here I think we can see something because they're going up a bit
of a slope on this path down there about five or ten meters lower you've got the river modern and I
were telling you what that holds a lot of stories itself there because there's so much water coming
in from there look at that massive sluice area I reckon the water from here it's really low
down as well compared to up here now yeah but it's been my point is it's been channelled from
somewhere yeah all these man-made channels down here they use the water here I wonder
if there's some Mills here or something like that perhaps well there's a building just there right
and I reckon that there because it's got a whole marks of a lock we've got a big up incline thing
yeah oh look oh yes look at this I mean it's been significantly filled in but the line in the head
each wall trough a bad State this is in but
it's still here you still see it trees growing out the side look at this [Music]
perhaps the most curious thing of all is a very old tree or two grown up in the middle
of this lock here right in the middle so this has all been in field here so we've
got a 10 feet of rubbish or soil down there on the wall of a canal here obviously another one
here as well all the way along here um about as far as Rebecca the other side
and trees has grown up in the middle of this whole lot
this is a good point
so there we go there is the wall of conigre I think it might be conigre top block
proper bubble hat whatever Rebecca it is I've got mine off mine I haven't got a bubble he ain't got
a bubble anymore which is a little bit just fine I think our viewers are going to ask for their
money back at some point the elastic went in my Bobble Hut and it was like it wasn't working
what we're looking for I know the lock [Music]
right I really missed this if anything this could be not completely convinced but could be
um the site of the next Locker lung it's all brick line down there
anyway to do it is to get in isn't it and see
[Music] so we've headed a bit further south now interestingly there is a tunnel on this
Branch uh conigre conigre tunnel and I tried to find it a long while ago so we're not going
to redo that you can watch the video just up there you just better get in this field just
be permissive and you could go along there's very marshy and go and see where the entrance
to the tunnel will be it was only a cut and cover tunnel and they used a lot of the stone
and the rubble they found in that tunnel to build a lot of the tow parts and it went under
the hill just across the way over there but we're not going to go in that field because
we're not allowed anymore it's a bit of a shame what's permissive no longer foreign
bit of this abandoned Canal as we're heading into
heading into Carl the last section A few more fascinating old things to show you have a look
at this map which is in the back of this wilts and box book I've got and it shows you the real
extent of the canal in its entirety and we zoom in and go into the little branch that we're just
covering today you can show you while we've done this bit in sections first little jewle is right
ahead of us either a small one over it almost looks like it's a model does that make sense
Rebecca it looks kind of like quite little Canal classic Canal over bridge look at that sorry it's
not the best path where is it but this this is the joys of an abandoned Canal but look at that
[Music]
I think if I had a top 10 bridges that would be in the top ten easily it's just wonderful
isn't it it's kind of funky it feels almost um oh I'm so small for a canal but obviously it's
not because it's there and it's clearly very early if not originally I'm just walking over
the clearest well the source of water in calm apparently the only one that wasn't a source of
um typhoid in 1880 fascinating stuff one thing we didn't mention when we're back at Connie gray
was the brickworks yeah so there was a brickworks there 1797 It produced 300 000 Bricks now put down
the contest because they also said that if you had a lock single lock that would take 178 000 bricks
I think the next year did 350 000 at this Canadian brickworks okay so then like there's other stats
like a bridge like that not necessarily that but even a bit bigger but would be like 30 000 bricks
all these different stats on how they could um build this canal and how many brickworks they had
I think pwesham had a bricks Works uh Laycock and all of those other places along the canal
because they're safe traveling bricks safe traveling moving bricks yeah [Music]
right just ahead of us Rebecca I can see a vessel a barge a narrowboat
the right phrases I'm not sure it's um seaworthy is it right no but um well it looks pretty good
and there's a lot you can see the lock Gates Right this gives us a better context of what the locks
would have looked like because they've actually restored whether there's water or not I don't
think there is but they've actually restored part of this all of that all of the lock apart
from the inside bit right so they filled in the inside fill them inside fine an old vessel in it
then the grey long one two locks leading round to the final bit of today which is the wharf foreign
[Music]
just around the corner you've got the The Wharf literally just around that corner
um I think it's still an old building there now which either has been redone but it still looks
like a wharf Canal kind of building which is great it's good to see this bit of water
um in the meantime we shall see you this time next week if you've liked this you've enjoyed
it give it a Boop sorry that's it now Boop is here to stay we would appreciate you giving it a Boop
the like button that is I mean subscribe too but you know yeah all those things goodbye [Music]