Routes
Pewsey Wharf
A mini-hub with a good community buzz, a bar-bistro/café
where you can eat outside or in, and a beer garden.
along the towpath
The Barge Inn
This is more than a dog-friendly pub with a good
atmosphere, good food and good ales. Its bare floors
overhear the ramblings of boaters who pull up outside
and moor here overnight... and, when the moon is right,
croppie-folk turn up from across the globe in the hope of
witnessing crop circle magic. The pub is alive with music
and chat, books and maps. There’s a mural on the ceiling
over the pool table that is surrounded by newspaper
cuttings and magic crop circle stories to believe or not.
A walk along the Kennet & Avon Canal
A canal walk in the Vale of Pewsey from aptly
named Honeystreet to Pewsey Wharf simply
sings, heads up, with Wiltshire magic. Some of
our favourite canals from our end-to-end routes
have won us over with their engineering marvels,
but this stretch of the Kennet & Avon Canal
lets nature do the work. A towpath that really
is a breath of fresh air, striding wide open with
Englishness, exploring the region’s swirling green
landscape.
It follows the White Horse Trail with chalkcarved mysteries and suspense around the corner.
Crop circle mysteries and ley lines keep canal
explorers wide-eyed in wonder, travelling under
big skies that keep the secrets to themselves.
The scene lies flat with interruptions of hills and
burial mounds... and the White Horse peeps
in and out of view. (The white horse was cut
into the hill in 1812, tracing the famous one at
Cherhill).
The pub has a small campsite in a grassy field with
virtually nothing, and everything you need.
Wilcot
Wilcot is a thatched village with an ancient 12th-century
church. The village green has been the scene of the
annual carnival since 1898 (starts on the third Saturday in
September and lasts for two weeks).
Lady’s Bridge
This prolific walk speaks for itself as it made
the front cover of this book - it would win the
rosette in our handpicked top 10 canal spots for
no reason other than its knack of uplifting and
grounding at the same time.
Just as Great Missenden is objecting to the proposed
high-speed London link railway today, and the battle of
Newbury climbed into trees to object to the road builders of
the 1990s... so the canal builders faced fierce resistance
from landowners to the new water-motorway of the 'canal
mania' era. In 1793 Lady Susannah Wroughton was bound
to moan about the transport route cutting through her land
and she had to be calmed by £500 and the commissioning
of a bridge with Rennie’s ornate stamp (built 1808), and an
attractive widening of the water set in a marshy landscape.
Pickled Hill
Celtic and medieval cultivation has beautifully scarred the
terraced landscape with Pickled Hill rising dramatically
from the flat landscape.
honeystreet
Pewsey
Wharf
Lady's
Bridge
Wide
Water
pewsey
Factfile
Kennet & Avon Canal
Start: Honeystreet OS SU099615
Finish: Pewsey Wharf OS SU157610
4½ miles, 0 locks
Highlights
The White Horse on the hill opposite the Barge Inn
Lady's Bridge and Wide Water
Pewsey Wharf
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I SOUTH I
I White Horse at Honeystreet Pickled Hill - Lady's Bridge I
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