It nice to get out of the office and have a look a section of the Wilts & Berks I have not seen before , so with some of the WBCT team , and with permission of Wiltshire Council's property team, on Tuesday I had a look at Lower Forest Farm just outside Melksham. This is part of the land that Wiltshire Council has agreed to give to WBCT and most importantly contains the new route out of the river Avon to re-join the historic route of the canal . It is a very picturesque spot and the new locks required to come out of the river and climb up to the canal will be very impressive. The old canal is a mixture of in filled sections and derelict waterway just waiting to be restored.
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| Derelict Canal Lower Forest Farm |
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| Site of junction with River Avon |
Seeing this section of the canal 100 years after abandonment is very relevant to a report by consultants Peter Brett Associates shortly to be published. The study has looked at the whole canal route as it is today and relates it to local habitats and will be an important tool in future planning applications to assess what mitigation may be required as part of the canal restoration.
The start of the week was a meeting with the WBCT engineering team to finally conclude how the canal will connect from Croft Road Swindon to Coate Water Country Park.
Thankfully unlike the Whitworths when they had to physically survey the canal we were able to rely on 21st Century technology and use 'Lidar' mapping to establish the levels along the route . The meeting concluded that we will need 5 locks to get from the old summit pound (99.1m) to a new summit at 114m . The aim will be to build all the remaining locks at a standard 3m depth.
This week concluded with a visit to the Peterborough Arms ( looks better each time I go) for a meeting of the WBCT Executive.
Ken Oliver
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