Semington

I picked up where I left off in Semington today, a section of the Kennet and Avon canal where there were locks instead of swing bridges. However, instead of lock gates and narrow boats I have chosen to present this splendid clump of teazel against a backdrop of the canal.

The section of canal pictured isn't just any old stretch of water, though - it is the very spot where the old Wilts and Berks canal joined the Kennet and Avon in 1810. You can see the bottom of the bricked-up section of its mouth in the top of picture. The Wilts and Berks canal ran from there up to Chippenham and then up via lovely Swindon to Abingdon, in Oxfordshire since 1974 but formerly the county town of Berkshire. It was opened the same year as the Kennet and Avon but abandoned in 1914, though some sections of it have subsequently been restored.