Basingstoke Canal You Will Need Plenty of Careful Planning to Tackle This 31-Mile Route but It’S Worth the Effort to Discover a Beautiful and Interesting Waterway
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CRUISE GUIDE -Page PU8ll-OUT CRUISEGUIDE YOUR COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO THE WATERWAYS AROUND THE Uk Easy-to-follow map • information for boaters • ten top pubs guide basingstoke canal You will need plenty of careful planning to tackle this 31-mile route but it’s worth the effort to discover a beautiful and interesting waterway WORDS anD pictuReS Derek pratt canalboat.co.uk Canal Boat February 2019 47 8-page PUll-OUT Basingstoke Canal WATERSIDe 10pUBS Canal Boat’s pick of great pubs on the Basingstoke Canal Station Station Road, West 1 Byfleet. 01932 336353. five mins south from Lock 3 and left. Large modernised town pub with real ale, food and garden Victoria Woodham Lane, 2 Woodham. 01932 345365. five mins north from Lock 3. Local pub with real ale, lunchtime food and garden Bridge Barn Woking. 0870 3 197 7276. at arthur’s Bridge. 16th century farm greatly extended, with real ale, food (part of Beefeater chain), garden, moorings rowbarge St John’s Road, St 4 John’s. 01483 761618. two mins south from Woodend Bridge and right. Family-friendly modernised pub with real ale, food, children’s play area and garden MUSt SEE Swan ash Vale. 01252 5 325212. By Heath Vale Bridge. chef & Brewer modernised traditional pub with real ale, food, garden Fox & Hounds church 6 crookham. 01252 663686. canalside near coxheath Road Bridge. Refurbished pub with real ale, home-made food, canalside garden and live music kING JOHN’S CaStLe on Friday evenings King John’s Castle dates back to Barley Mow Winchfield. 1207, and reputedly King John 7 01252 617490. By Barley rode from there to Runnymede to Mow Bridge. Modernised sign the Magna Carta in 1215. The family-friendly pub, real ale, castle, which took seven years to food, board games, garden complete, had a two-storey stone Waterwitch Odiham. 01256 keep and a square moat. Today 8 702778. By colt Hill Bridge. the ruins are very attractive and chef & Brewer chain pub well worth a visit. with emphasis on food. Real ale and garden Mill House Hook Road, north 9 Warnborough. 01256 702953. Five mins north of he Basingstoke Canal is a lovely The canal opened in 1794, linking the town Swan Bridge. 17th century watermill with restaurant, real wooded waterway for most of its 31 of Basingstoke to the River Wey Navigation. ale, garden miles. It requires a bit of effort and There were plans to link up with other planning to reach it, and you may waterways to extend the navigation to the Fox & Goose The Street, 10 Greywell. 01256 702062. 2 Tneed to time your journey to avoid the canal south coast, but these did not materialise. It mins from tunnel, up path running short of water (see boaters notes), but was never a huge commercial success but for into village. 16th century inn with it’s well worth it because once you are there many years it did carry cargoes including real ale, food and garden. you will enjoy a beautiful and interesting coal, brick and agricultural produce to Details are likely to change: you are waterway. London. advised to phone to be sure Journey Planner Follow the route with our map showing distances, locks and pubs to guildford 1 2 Distances/locks Direction Tunnel Waterway Our top ten pubs woodham between pins of locks junction see panel to weybridge 48 February 2019 Canal Boat canalboat.co.uk CRUISE GUIDE Climbing the flight of 14 locks at Deepcut The last regular commercial cargo followed by their neighbour in Surrey beneath the graffiti besmirched concrete was timber to Woking, but the trade eventually took over the ownership of pillars of the elevated M25 motorway ceased around 1949 after which the the waterway in 1976. Much of the and a busy railway towering over the canal began to decay and became restoration was achieved by volunteer River Wey Navigation. Don’t be put off, unusable. In 1966 the Surrey & labour, and the canal eventually for as soon as you leave the junction Hampshire Canal Society (now renamed reopened in 1991. It is now administered behind you begin to tackle the six to the Basingstoke Canal Society) was by the Basingstoke Canal Authority on Woodham Locks which are fringed by formed to restore the canal back to behalf of the two county councils. woods and greenery. There are lines of navigation. Hampshire County Council The canal has an inauspicious start moored houseboats, and a pumping woking brookwood 4 miles / 6 locks 3 4 4 miles / 5 locks to weybridge canalboat.co.uk Canal Boat February 2019 49 8-page PUll-OUT Basingstoke Canal Attractive tree-lined canal at Woodham locks station at the foot of the locks (built by inset). Also look out for Bedser Bridge the Canal Society to improve the canal’s with life-size statues of the cricketing water supplies) helps maintain levels. Bedser twins, Alec and Eric, who lived in West Byfleet Station and shops are the town. Public trip boat Kitty now accessible from Lock 3. operates from the Town Wharf. Woking is the only large town you will There is a large pub with restaurant at encounter on the entire route. At present Arthur’s Bridge, about half a mile from there are some big building Woking’s town centre. Five locks on the developments in the town itself, but St John’s flight soon follow, then there these do not intrude too much on the are good moorings with nearby shops canalside. Be sure to visit the waterside and pubs at Kiln Bridge at the top of the The canal skirts the back gardens of Sheerwater Lightbox museum and gallery (see locks. brookwood ash 7 miles / no locks7 miles / 17 locks 5 50 February 2019 Canal Boat canalboat.co.uk CRUISE GUIDE SEE aLSO tHe lightbox museUM The Lightbox museum and gallery is situated by Woking’s Town Wharf. There are galleries of modern art and sculpture, and displays of local history including Woking’s Story, plus a cafe and gift shop. Closed Mondays. St John’s locks, another wooded and rural-looking flight on the outskirts of Woking Flashback to the 1970s: volunteers begin restoration of Deepcut locks Hermitage Woods has housing on one side and woodland concealing a busy railway line on the other, with the handy Brookwood Station close to the canal above the three Brookwood Locks. A gate from the station leads to Brookwood Cemetery which was established in the mid-19th century following the deaths of thousands of Londoners from cholera at a time when burial space in the capital was already running out. The cemetery had its own station and sidings for Walkers enjoy the towpath, close to where the canal widens out to form Mytchett lake fleet 7 miles / 1 lock canalboat.co.uk Canal Boat February 2019 51 8-page PUll-OUT Basingstoke Canal funeral trains arriving from the London Necropolis Railway station at Waterloo. Brookwood Cemetery is one of the largest burial places in Europe with a quarter of a million permanent residents. The railway now runs parallel to the canal all the way to Deepcut where there are 14 locks. Pirbright Army Camp and the Bisley shooting ranges are just to the north and sounds of gunfire can at times persist as you proceed up this beautiful flight. The locks are situated in mature woodland throughout and the scenery gets better as you reach the top of the flight. Above the top lock the navigation enters the wooded Deepcut Cutting which gave this locality its name. At Frimley Green the canal crosses the Approaching Deepcut Bottom lock. Below: a modern aqueduct spans the A331 main road near Ash railway on an aqueduct and turns to the south; soon afterwards comes the residential gardens. At Ash Vale the canal to its present terminus at Greywell Basingstoke Canal’s Visitor Centre at route bends back to the west, crosses an Tunnel. This is very much a military area Mytchett (see inset) with moorings and embankment and a modern aqueduct and there are three military museums summer boat trips. over a main road to reach Ash Lock near the canal soon after Ash Lock. The canal continues southwards where there is a canal depot. Continuing towards Fleet the canal alongside Mytchett Lake and on passing The lock marks the beginning of a passes through more woodlands, some through woods, heathland and by 15-mile summit pound that takes the with nature reserves. At one point SEE aLSO CaNaL visitOr CeNtre Canal Visitor Centre, Mytchett, is a good place to start for those exploring the canal by car, bike or on foot. There is free parking and information about the canal and easy access to the towpath, plus a café, picnic site, public trip boat and small boat hire – including canoes, pedalos and rowing boats, a simple camp site and even a yurt for hire. fleet winchfield 6 7 5 miles / no locks 8 52 February 2019 Canal Boat canalboat.co.uk CRUISE GUIDE The canal runs along a hillside at Ash Vale Farnborough Airfield, which stages the food and a garden, can be found by the Farnborough Air Show, is close to the canal a short distance west of Reading canal. Road Bridge. Occasionally, the John Pondtail Bridge, at the approach to Pinkerton II trip boat does public return Fleet, has a useful supermarket close to cruises from this location. the canal. There are more shops in the Fleet is left behind as the canal centre of Fleet with moorings near reaches Crookham Village, which has a Reading Road Bridge.