North of A4: 2010 – Present (click on photographs to enlarge)
There is now limited public access to this section of canal.
Please note:
1) If driving you can park in the public layby next to the Hyundai Garage, but please ensure that you do not block the entrance to Greenlane Farm. The entrance to the towpath is just to the right of the Greenlane Farm entrance, through the trees.
2) the towpath is not level, there are some steps and in places it is narrow and there are are animal burrows on or very close to the path so care should be taken if walking this section. Hopefully in the future we will be able to negotiate a longer lease which will make it viable to spend more on making the towpath level and with easier access for all.
3) Public access is only as far as Pudding Brook which you will reach after approx 800m. In 2021we signed a lease on the next section (see below) and hope to open this to the public in due course.
In 2012 Lord Lansdowne suggested he had a section of land with the Wilts & Berks canal line running on it. We took up his offer of a 5 year lease (recently renewed) and started to plan the opening of the 800m of tow path along a section which is simply known as A4 North.
After studying a Canal Habitat Management Plan, prepared for us by our friends at Ellendale International, we commenced a 4 year clearance plan on the 23rd February 2013. This initially involved clearance of the tow path vegetation and then clearance of vegetation within the canal bed. Management of the hedgerow, replanting and hedge laying was carried out where necessary.
Having viewed the canal line from a field on the west side of the canal we knew we had a work cut out and so it proved from the outset.
After a few weeks hard work the tow path is beginning to become a safe access to the work site.
Some 600m into the tow path and volunteers stop for a well earned break.
Trees are an important part of the environment but some are so close to the canal bed they can cause damage and leakage. Sadly such trees have to be felled. We appreciate new trees are not as effective as older ones but we replant 2 for every one major tree felled, Although there are 2 qualified tree fellers within the WBCT we are limited by the qualifications we hold to dealing with trees up to 20” in diameter. For anything larger we need to call on the services of volunteers from the Waterway Recovery Group (WRG). On the A4 north section one tree had to be felled from the top down, this was to prevent damage to surrounding hedge rows that would have happened if the tree had simply been felled from the ground.
We discovered some sections of the canal still in water which looks great however the down side is that as more light is able to access the water then more plants grow…great for habitat not so good for the volunteers that need to manage the water! It will be years before we attempt to re-water this section so it has to be managed in the meantime.
The Woodland Trust very kindly offer free tree packs to organisations wishing to replant areas. Here we asked local Scouts to get involved and help us with the planting of trees in a decimated (by nature not us!!) hedgerow.
Over the 100 years that the canal was abandoned the hedges had grown wilder and deer had enjoyed the hedgerow over these years and effectively killed off some plants. A great deal of skill and hard work was needed by Fiona and her volunteers to save what was left. We are grateful to the Woodland Trust for supplying trees/bush packs we could use to start the revitalisation of these hedges.
Despite large trees that were growing in the canal were cut down seveal years ago the stumps were left and these have regenerated and were choking the canal. Recently these have been removed opening up the canal. There are still some smaller trees that have self seeded in the canal and these will be removed shortlybefore they get too big.
A temporary path on the bank opposite the towpath has been created past Greenlane Farm giving access from the road (A4) to this section of canal and towpath.
More Great News
In 2021we signed a long term lease on a further 700m of canal along this line, from a different landowner. Once again Ellendale Environmental has created a Habitat Management Plan for us and we have now started work on a 3-year clearance plan.
- Clearing and making good the towpath to allow access to the general public.
- Installing stock fencing between the canal and the owners land.
- Re-installing and re-planting the hedgerow between the towpath and the owners fields.
- Clearance of the vegetation within the canal bed.
After this period further work will be carried out
- Creation of a formal towpath / footpath
- Dredging and re-watering this section of canal
This section of canal will go from Pudding Brook as far as Studley Hill Road and we hope to be able to link up to the Chippenham – Calne cycleway. After that it is less than one hundred metres to the site where the canal crossed the River Marden on an aquaduct, the collapse of which in 1901 stopped through trade and led to the final demise of the canal as a working entity. But that is a long way off!
In July 2021 we tentatively looked to gain access to the north of Pudding Brook. It appeared pretty daunting as all we could see was vegetation. However we made some progress which then allowed us to build a temporary bridge across the brook, with the help of some Corporate volunteers who came to help us out on a company ‘Away Day’.
After clearing this initial scrub we found that much of this section had a lot of relatively young trees many of which were in quite a poor condition with some having rotted and fallen over the years.
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The tree canopy had meant that little vegetation had managed to grow so clearing the footpath proved easier than we had first anticipated and we have managed to make good progress over the last few months.
We have come across the occasional much older tree which is always a joy to find, especially as in this case it is well away from the canal so can be maintained for future generations.
Little remains of the hedgerow, in fact it was very difficult to find in many places so we have re- established the line and are in the process of creating a ‘Dead Hedge’. This is created by using the off cuts of vegetation that we have cut down pushed down and inter-woven between two vertical sets of posts and is useful as it provides habitat for insects and small animals and mammals. It also means that we do not have to burn these off-cuts, as we would have done in the past, and so is beneficial to the environment in a number of ways.
As always the more volunteers involved the easier it will be to clear this section and get it open for the public to enjoy.
If you think you may be able to help us please contact Howard Wilson – howard.wilson@wbct.org.uk
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