Great Western Coffee Shop

Pub lunch near this location:

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Limpley Stoke Valley area perchance?

I'd say warm. More specific?

You're on the canal towpath. Maybe Dundas aqueduct, maybe a different one.

We're getting warmer...

Avoncliffe aqueduct with lunch at the Cross Guns, which my gran used to keep a long time ago.
It is a pleasant walk from Bradford on Avon, we used occasionally wander all the way to Bath. The good thing about the K & A is that there are pubs every four miles!

Very nice little tea shop and garden next to the aqueduct.

Correct. Well, there's a redundant 'e' in your answer. Avoncliff.

Lunch was indeed partaken in the Cross Guns. I drove down the lane to the pub. Losing my passenger side wing mirror in the process. A partially fallen woodeb fence post hidden by greenery took out the mirror.

But what a fantastic location to have lunch and leisurely shandy. I sat by the riverside, watching the trout in the shallows. With barges crossing the aquaduct and trains passing through Avoncliff Station across the river.

Another location I'd highly recommended. And whilst I drove there, I'd suggest taking the train and then doing the walk along the canal to Bradford-on-Avon.

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It's a nice garden but I wasn't that impressed by the cheese and stuff sandwich I had there last Sunday. Probably should have gone to the pub instead!

This is an interesting read about Avoncliff

Avoncliff – The Secret History of an Industrial Hamlet in War and Peace, by Nick McCamley

Oh dear. Sounds like standards may have slipped. Mind you it was more than two years ago since we last ate there.

The K and A lends itself to railway linked walks. Train to Trowbridge, walk to Devizes, bus to Bath.
Train to Pewsey, walk to Devizes and bus to Bath.
Pewsey to Bedwyn is another
Nice level walking with plenty to see.

There are certainly some very attractive parts of the K & A.  I do one day a week as a volunteer lock keeper at Seend.  Lovely location, 5 locks and a nice canal side pub.  Another nice pub a few hundred yards up the road into the village of Seend Cleeve.  Very busy at times. Not just boats but cyclists and walkers(dogs optional).

Unfortunately I didn't spot this thread before someone else came up with the right answer, so I'll go off on a tangent and respond to this instead  ;D

I have cycled the complete length of the K&A towpath from Bath to Reading, and walked a fair bit of it as well. Going east it is reasonably well-surfaced from Widcombe locks at Bath to the eastern outskirts of Devizes (although even on that section there is a dodgy length around Seend). From Theale into Reading it is also reasonably well surfaced, although part of the "towpath" is nowhere near the canal as it passes by the M4 Reading Services. There is a bit of private land there that causes the diversion.

Between Devizes and Theale it is generally only surfaced at the locks and wharves, and the rest of it is grass. Or mud... You can have excellent walks along it as long as there has not been any substantial rain lately, which tends to preclude the winter months because it won't dry out much even if it hasn't rained for a week.

One particularly lousy section is between Froxfield and Hungerford, where it essentially runs along the edge of a field. This field usually contains cattle and, when they want a drink, you can guess where they go to get the water from. Heavy buggers, cows...

There is also a tunnel at Burbage and the towpath leaves the canal for a bit and starts again on the other side.

In case anyone is interested, here s the the view that Streetview gives of that bit of railway at Avoncliff: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.3391305,-2.283005,3a,53.4y,244.92h,86.44t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s3RFZGUu3H-tFey_KUmYMuw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

My choice today was pub or... pub. Despite the opening times sign saying to the contrary, the tea shop wasn't open today.

But then, folks who know me would know it was always going to be the pub!

Yes, it has gone through a few changes of owner in the last few years, and food standards have changed accordingly. It used to be wonderful, but last time I stopped there I wasn't impressed.

From experience, I wouldn't recommend going along it out of Bath in icy weather. It can be a sheet of ice and absolutely treacherous.

Any other time, though, it is a wonderful cycle or walk.

So annoying, I thought I had a head start on one of BNMs fiendish quizzes and I had to go out before the solution was revealed. It's an area I've walked a lot. I do salute your choice of day out location though, it's almost unreasonably lovely there.

Been there: done that.  ::)


It's an aqueduct, and they are narrowboats, not barges.  ;D

The picture is a narrowboat (width just under 7 foot) but there are also some barges (width just under 14 foot) that will pass across Avoncliff Aquaduct on the Kennet and Avon canal.  The majority of canals in the UK have locks and other structures just 7 foot wide, hence the prevalence of narrowboats even on broad canals such as the K&A; narrow boats can pass through locks side by side on such a broad beam canal.

It's also a do-able walk from Avoncliff to Iford (although with a bit of climb out of the valley) where one can experience the delights of the Peto Italianate Gardens. It's a real gem, even from the outside with the ornate bridge over the river at the front. The Iford Estate is also home to Iford Cider but at present it seems to be online ordering only although I first came across it at the Bath Christmas Market. It's rather nice! 😁

I'm impressed that you've cycled the whole length. I've cycled it from Bath to Devizes and also odd bits around Hungerford, but those were so bumpy and muddy it put me off trying the rest. West of Devizes it's great. Slow progress but speed is not what canals are about, either on the water or the tow path. I love seeing the herons which stand impassively as you pass a couple of feet from them!

Cycled Hungerford to Newbury last Saturday. Better than last time I did it. Seem to have solved a particularly bad bit of "surface dressing" i.e. filling a hole with two inches of gravel (which the Brompton didn't like). Rest of Newbury to Reading is reasonable, but the detour round Burghfield Mill is not very attractive as you say.

Did you spot the bit of broad gauge rail being used for bridge strengthening at Kintbury?

No I didn't, more attention being paid to looking for the horse barge.