Walk & run
The Bridgmoor route
Forty-one miles, twenty-seven locks, one summit, and the best towpath baking on the system.
Milestones of the route
Kesselford Junction
Where the Bridgmoor leaves the main line. The first lock is the deepest and the wing wall deserves the respect it asks for.
Crooke village wharf
Water point, waste disposal, and a bakery that understands a towpath. The humbug pattern is named for the village stripe, not the sweet.
Lock 9, the passage turn
The passage boats turn here. The painted bench beside the lock has hosted more first dates than the parish register, on the register's own admission.
The summit pound
Twenty-seven locks up, the canal goes quiet: six miles of water fed by the Felly brook, sheep on the near bank, and the best silence in the county.
Felly woods landing
Where the oak comes down. Timber stacks season on the wharf in full view, which the towyard painters have used as scenery since 1911.
Bridgmoor Basin
Home water. The basin holds the yard, the towyard, the office, the tea urn and, most mornings, an argument about mooring etiquette that everyone wins except the swans.
Kesselford to Bridgmoor
The full forty-one miles, three days for most legs. Towpath pubs marked in the yard clerk's copy, on request.
The flight loop
Locks 1 to 9 and back by the towpath: six miles, two hours, and the full theatre of a working flight.
Summit there and back
Ten miles along the summit pound, flat as a promise. Start at the basin, finish at the tea room at Lock 14.