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Are we nearly there yet?

It's never too early to introduce your grandchildren to history - even if they really, really don't want to know!

When my daughter said she’d never walked along the canal, I immediately went into local historian mode. What a lovely idea for an educational day out. We made a picnic lunch and armed with cameras we headed off with grandchildren in tow. Our walk took the route that begins behind the Esso Service Station at the bottom of Kingshill and extends into the Wichelstowe housing development.

Begun in 1795 and under construction for 15 years, the Wilts & Berks canal opened in 1810. Stretching 52 miles from Semington Junction on the Kennet and Avon to the Thames at Abingdon, the canal was used chiefly for the transportation of coal from the Somerset mines. Its most profitable period was during the construction of the Great Western Railway and the Swindon works when it was used to convey materials. Sadly, the collapse of the Stanley Aqueduct over the River Marden in 1901 sounded the death knell for the Wilts & Berks after which it became an unsightly, stagnant waterway through the centre of the railway town. Closed by an Act of Parliament in 1914 stretches were gradually in filled from the 1930s onwards.

But by the 1970s public opinion had changed and the many advantages of a canal running through the town centre were recognised. In 1977 the Wilts & Berks Canal Amenity Group was formed becoming the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust in 1997 and for more than 40 years volunteers have been busy restoring and reconstructing the waterway. 

Of course, I spared the children this blow by blow account …

We called in at the playpark in Rushey Platt just as the resident heron paid a visit causing great excitement.

On plaques installed within the playpark equipment are verses of poetry written by Reginald Arkell. Now, Arkell is a name well known in Swindon but more for the pubs and the Kingsdown brewery than for poetry, but Reginald does in fact trace his roots up the same family tree.

Reginald Arkell, poet, script writer and comic novelist was born in Lechlade in 1881, one of farmer Daniel Arkell and wife Louisa’s eight children. Daniel’s father was William Arkell, the younger brother of John Arkell who established the brewery at Kingsdown in 1843.

And no, I didn’t try to explain all that to the grandchildren.

At the appropriately named Beavan’s Bridge we joined the former Midland & South Western Junction railway line, better known today as the Old Town Railway Path. Following the closure of the railway in the 1960s and before developers could stake a claim, the Swindon Bike Group proposed transforming the route into a scenic park for walkers and cyclists. In 1995 sculptor Alec Peever and poet Fiona Sampson were commissioned to create a series of sculptures to commemorate the industrial history of the area.

And no, I didn’t try to explain all this to the grandchildren, although they did enjoy exploring the ‘stones.’

We saw ducks and swans, not forgetting the magnificent heron. We took photographs of each other, some enviable canalside gardens and a ladybird named Larry, but by now the children were cold, tired and hungry. We had walked an estimated four miles and to be honest they were pretty unimpressed by Swindon’s history. 

Well, I had a nice time anyway.


















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