A canal lock in Siccaridge wood, Daneway

I managed to get away after lunch to try a recce for the possible steam train which is expected to travel up the Golden Valley towards Swindon via the infamous Sapperton Bank. I had found some possible locations on maps which might afford unusual views but I wasn't sure where exactly I should go.

I had a takeaway falafel wrap which I held off consuming until I reached the Daneway inn sited by the now abandoned Thames and Severn canal close to Sapperton. The pub was originally built as navvies accommodation and then at some point after the canal was completed in about 1790, it became a pub. I have been drinking there since the mid-70s when I first came to work in these parts and used to spend evenings in conversation with a local musician who has just hit the big time. The pub then was pretty much as it had always been, with just barrels sitting on stools in a very simple bar. Today it has been somewhat modernised but new visitors would regard it as an old style pub.

Having eaten I decided to walk into Siccaridge woods which have been given to the local Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust who have down a great job of managing it. I walked through the ancient coppiced woodland rather than the more open parts and enjoyed the quiet under dappled light as green leaves gently fell from the trees and birds sang once they fort used to my presence.

The land is very steep in parts being near to the head of the valley where the canal disappeared into a very long tunnel. I was about half a mile downstream from there and from the hillside in the wood I could hear water tumbling gently which I thought may have been a spring popping out of the hillside which is very common in these parts, it being a limestone region. I followed circuitous route and took a fork in the path heading straight down the hillside and suddenly came to the a big hole in the ground. I knew immediately from its form that bit was a derelict canal lock which had become overgrown under the canopy of trees. I climbed down into the bed of the old canal and found a some ground which wasn't too wet underfoot and took some pictures.

I considered whether I should lean]ve it for another day and try and use the place as a subject for the 'Derelict Thursday' challenge I have been doing for the last two weeks. But I decided that there was no time like the present. I walked along the canal towpath which must have been renovated recently and I realised that this lock was only one of five locks spaced about every hundred yards to allow the boats to drop steeply down the valley. It must have been an amazing sight when the canal was in relatively open space set between the coppiced hillsides which are reckoned to have been there for hundred of years a working woodlands. Maybe I will go back to one of the other locks later in the year when the leaves have dropped and there is more light to expose the beautiful old stone walls of the lock. I noticed that they must have been patched up long ago as parts of them were built of red brick rather than limestone. The canal was totally abandoned finally in the 1950s although it had been in decline since the 1900s.

On my return journey I did look for the viewpoint for Saturday which I hoped would be the top of the opening to the rail tunnel which like the canal goes for a long way under the Cotswold hills. They were constructed only a few hundred yards apart and nearly in parallel. Sadly I couldn't find the tunnel entrance so I moved on a few hundred yards further and found a crossing point for cattle to traverse the main railway line. I waited a for a short while and tested a few shots to gauge how the steam engine might look when it comes storming up the steep embankment. A train did appear going the other way which confirmed that the site would be suitable so if all goes well I may return there on Saturday morning. But then again staying in bed might be more appealing especially if it is raining.