Canals

2007-07-15T13:01:00.000-07:00

I like canals. A simple statement, but one I've only recently grown to appreciate. After the endless ups and downs of the rolling hills of Somerset, the level terrain of the Kennett and Avon canal comes like a draught of cool water to an exhausted cyclist. This was my first sensation riding from Bradford on Avon to Bath, happily coasting for miles interrupted only by the occasional hoot of a passing train or the sounds of overactive holidaymakers on a narrow boat. The same route connects to my childhood and forced runs from Bathhampton, ostensibly in the name of charity, but practiably in the name of some heretical goddess of pain. With a decades separation, I see the same stretch of land in a radically different way. Where else can one slip backwards in time to see the Industrial Revolution laid out in front of you, yet always intermingled with the present? 19th Century locks and pumping stations, geared towards the transport of coal, intermingled with the Route 24 National Cycleway, which speaks of the need for quite routes in a car dominated nation.

Its a really beautiful route, quiet and peaceful. As a cyclist every few miles you have to stop and ask for pedestrians indulgence as you force them off the path. Always in the distance are the green rolling hills of the south-west. For occasional distraction are the miriad different boats that pass you by. Most are local, but once I saw a boat from Groningen in the Netherlands moored to the side. How such a small boat crosses the Channel I can only guess? Carefully perhaps!

In the greater context of history, this was part of the enterprise that led William Smith to realise the geographical structure of England. In cutting canals across the country, he realised that he kept seeing the same pattern of soil types in different places. Clay above mud above dirt with fossils or some such. As someone that paid attention he realised that the structure he saw was important and it led him to produce the first geological map of the United Kingdom. This revolutionised the search for coal and mineral deposits. He was perhaps the first serious geologist, though his peers screwed him out of well deserved financial success. The story of this is related in Simon Winchester's excellent book "The map that changed the world".

I ramble though, after a Sunday afternoon's fine lunch. :)

ciderjon

Canals