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Meet Tracy & Linda

Ladies by the canal

"Mum and I have come for a day out, it's been lovely!

We went to Avebury first this morning where I've been dressed up in Victorian clothes, then Georgian clothes and I even climbed into bed in a nightgown in the manor house! Now we're walking this canal in the time of the Industrial Revolution, so who says time travel is dead!

Mum saw Caen Hill on the television, so we thought we'd come and see it. We started near the top, at the tea shop of course, before we walked the flight. We've taken some wonderful photographs looking up from the bottom at all the locks. We saw a canal lock when we were in Scotland on the Caledonian Canal, but it's different to the Caen Hill locks. The Caledonian is busier with big, big boats and locks that take such a long time that everyone makes firm friends by the time a boat gets through. We were just talking to one of the boat crews on the Caen Hill and they said it was going to take them about four hours to work through the whole flight. I think it looks like really hard work, so they must want to do it for the experience!

Mum and I have been having a lovely day watching the boats go through the locks and in our heads we've been trying to work out the logistics of how many times the crew have to walk up and down, and up and down, to work the locks. It's fascinating to think that in the Industrial Revolution boats would have to get through these locks as quickly as they could because time was money!

It's stunningly beautiful here! And it's not just the canal, it's the amazing views as well."

Tracy and Linda, Caen Hill Lock Flight, Devizes, Kennet & Avon Canal

photo of a location on the canals
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