Christmas Day

Andrew joined us today,. driving across from Devizes and arrived just before 1 o'clock. Mike spent the morning preparing the rest of the Christmas dinner so that when we had finished lunch we were able to go out for a short walk.

We were all intrigued about just where the original line of the canal went after the top three locks. We found, what we had not really noticed before, is that the section just before the Rugby Club Bridge, after the present alignment turns slightly northwards, the old cut, full of reeds can be seen, still with some water in it. It disappears after the road and where it would have passed under what is now a small play area and car park.

We walked up to the junction at the top of the locks - noticing just how busy the Eagle and sun was serving Christmas meals. We later discovered from their web site that they had four sessions today!

We turned down the opportunity of a round trip once we discovered the state of the path across the field to the marina from the farm track!

Back down the towpath and to where we started and we tried to track down the old alignment. At first we thought we had found it but this turned out to be a much older stream which is, and was, marked separately on the OS maps.

For a short distance we followed a waymarked footpath and concluded that this was probably once the towpath. However, where it once crossed a fence it now follows the line of the modern property boundary and we surmised - later confirmed from the local Definitive Map web site, that the footpath had been officially diverted for the privacy of the new house owners.

Later, Andrew looked closely at the online maps using a transparent overlay facility which we had not spotted before and we could eventually compare the old and new alignments and features on the ground.

Back at the boat as the light was fading fast, it was time to set about in earnest to prepare our Christmas dinner. Juggling everything in the small oven takes a little planning and it was only just before 7.30 that we finally sat down with all the different elements ready and waiting. Not to mention a couple of bottles of good wine that Andrew had brought with him. By the time we had finished we were in no mood to complain if the tv schedules were entirely predictable!