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Towpath Walk: Avon gorge and aqueducts

IT’S a city sculpted from pale-coloured local stone that has comfortably grown up with fashionable life; and to prove its credentials, today’s Bath echoes with the decadence of bathing Romans and swaying crescents of Georgian airs and graces. But away from the woozy culture of spa water, a less hailed and quietly modest waterway swoops the urban edges of Bath.

The Kennet & Avon Canal opened in 1810 creating a revolutionary transport link from London to Bristol. Graceful Georgian ladies of Bath in their exquisite drapery may well have huffed at the arrival of the navvies, boatmen and canals; and even Jane Austen, one of Bath’s most famous residents, might have mingled her own opinions among Regency gossip on such matters.

But from the start, the Kennet & Avon Canal made no apology and its bold locks still link the man-made canal to the River Avon on the south side of the city. The original canal architecture was firmly steered by influential local residents, giving this canal its unusual delicate ironwork bridges and others adorned with ostentatious stonework. Grand upright Georgian houses overlook the water as if still expressing their opinion. Even today, a generous percentage of occupants perpetuate Bath’s reputation for affluence by cushioning their gardens with more expensive garden benches than most canalside gardens in other regions could muster. As views of the Abbey, Pulteney Bridge and Crescent Gardens get left behind, the canal reaches less populated climes. The fringes of the city might briefly splurge with graffiti, but the charms of the Kennet & Avon are soon allowed to come out and play with all your senses and sensibilities.

The canal saunters into golden Avon fields, so now you can slow your pace to really enjoy this walk. But try not to be enraged if you have to share the towpath with others: Bath to Bradford on Avon is part of the popular National Cycle Network and is well used all year round by cyclists wearing Bristolian hats and pannier-families saddled up for a grand day out. Intrepid walkers might even be disappointed by the over-cosseted hard-surfaced towpath on the Kennet & Avon since it's never rough rambling along the string thin, overgrown, clumpy towpath trail that some canals promise – but it's easy walking, and cool for ramblers who use wheelchairs, or family walkers who want to keep the kids interested by taking bikes.

This section of the Kennet & Avon gives you more than just a leafy walk; it's also a peep show at long lines of moored narrowboats. Live-aboards are attracted to this canal and winter brings a stern to stern community, sprawling with traditional narrowboat colours and hippy shades of pink, purple and sometimes shabby rust. The walk is dominated by a flotilla of eccentric living. Some boats are expensively bought, others are budget or shoestring, and some are blatantly home-made and could be confused with stage props for a Robinson Crusoe production – but all are fascinating to the passer-by and home to someone.

This is a towpath walk blending cream-stone charisma with leafy Avon waters. It's close enough to town for the possibility of hearing duos of joggers panting office politics, and far enough away from town to meet leisurely walkers. Narrowboats laze around, oblivious to anything but the peace and quiet of their world.

Words: Phillippa greenwood
Photography: martine o’callaghan