first, some hard facts about the famous Caen Hill flight of locks:
1. it’s one of the longest continuous flight of locks in the country - a total of 29 locks with a rise of 72metres in 3.2 km (237 feet over 2 miles) - on the Kennet and Avon canal - if you want to head west past Devizes towards Bath or Bristol, you can’t avoid it
2. The flight of locks opened in 1810; by 1818, seventy 60-ton barges were working on the canal, mostly carrying coal and stone
3. A back pump at Foxhangers is capable of returning 7 million gallons of water per day to the top of the flight. That’s one lockful every 11 minutes.
4. people actually hire narrow boats to ‘climb’ the locks for fun
5. the locks have opening hours; in summer, they open at 8h00 and close at 17h00 which allows the last boats through to clear the top lock by 20h00 - you’re told to allow 5 to 6 hours to go through all the locks
6. the pounds by the side of the locks (they store excess water from opening and closing the gates) are teeming with wildlife - herons, swans, ducks
Now, some fun facts:
1. last year, going down the locks on our own (it was the middle of winter and noone was travelling) I walked almost 15km doing the 3.2km of locks. This year, on a busy summer day with another boat next to us through the flight, it was the much more sensible distance of 6km
2. there are volunteers there to help where needed…one was a man on a mission opening and closing paddles, another enjoyed patrolling on the quad bike in between greasing the mechanisms
3. the man on the boat in front of us was on the vodka and coke at 10am
4. swans will happily hitch a ride with you through the locks
5. there are lots of visitors to Caen Hill, mostly enjoying the spectacle of slightly out of shape people wrestling with stiff lock gates and saying, ‘‘call that a holiday?’ (my cringing reply towards the end of the day - ‘it’s not a holiday, it’s my life’ oh, the embarrassment)
6. there is always one more lock than you think (around the bend, where you’re slowly heading)
7. it really is great fun
there can only be one recommendation for refreshments…the Black Horse Inn, canal-side at the top (almost) of the flight into Devizes. We arrived 20 minutes before afternoon closing time, were warmly welcomed and enjoyed recovery drinks in lovely surroundings. Thoroughly recommended. At the moment they close mid-afternoon to deep clean before re-opening for the evening session, serving good food and a decent range of beers and if you’re on your narrowboat, you can tie up right next to the pub and settle in for the night.
