I take the 07:56 from Brookwood railway station to Ash Vale. The line runs parallel to the canal for a while (although I couldn’t see it from the train) then follows a pretty straight line across land that is mostly turned over to military use and therefore out of bounds to Sunday walkers.
But there isn’t much to see here, except what I’d describe as “heath land”. Then suddenly I am surprised to be in a railway tunnel. The map (an Ordnance survey map, of course) tells me that I’ve just passed under “Tunnel Hill”. (“Not imaginative, but accurate, Corporal. It’ll do.Write it down.")
I wonder what it was called before the railway was laid and before the military took over the land and mapped it out for themselves. An hour later, I will walk alongside the Deepcut Locks, a stretch of the canal that was named for the depth of its dug course. Later this name was co-opted by the military for the adjacent Army barracks. So it seems this is a landscape shaped by and named for human excavation. Which, on reflection, is almost amusing as this walk begins and ends next to the vast Brookwood cemetary..
Once at Ash Vale, the route begins by passing back under the railway bridge that we have just come over.
The Basingstoke Canal was completed in 1794 and ran 32 miles or so from Basingstoke to the River Wey and thence on to London
Along the canal it's still and quiet. Until about 8.20 am. Then the Army starts war-gaming on the nearby firing ranges. At this distance it sounds like a re-run of Friday's Guy Fawkes' Night. But as I am thinking hard about a novel I am reading called Matterhorn by Carl Marlantes, set during the Vietnam War, and having just bought a poppy as Remembrance Day draws near, it strikes me as a melancholy sound on an otherwise peaceful Sunday morning.
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The tow-path swaps sides at this point. So it's up and over the road bridge. I like this little picture: it's a quiet and mysterious scene. Maybe because the path we are on really does end just up ahead and there's only one way to carry on....over the bridge... to the otherside.
A little bit later, I am amazed to notice that the canal passes OVER the railway. This is an "aqueduct" on the map. A word I associate more with Romans and drinking water. But here it's an industrial canal passing over a railway line. Which came first? I really don't know. My guess is the canal.Was this a hill that the canal sliced across and the railway later burrowed under? However it came to be, it's amazing to look down to your right from the towpath and realise that you and the big fat canal you are following are suspended above the railway line.
And now we get to Deepcut. I was marvelling at how much digging - with shovel and spade, I am sure - went into cutting this canal. And then comes the flight of locks...
There are lots of locks. Fourteen of them, I think, taking the canal down towards Brookwood..
But several of them are broken and in places the poor old canal is reduced to little more than a puddle.
Still, on Sunday 7th November 2010, there was much evidence
of the robust efforts being made by The Basingstoke Canal Authority (
www.basingstoke-canal.co.uk ). Hats off to them!
On the far side of the canal, a sunken barge. I wonder when and why it was left here to rot.
Up ahead, the last lock of the day. And just beyond that Pirbright Bridge, Brookwood. I think that may be the old lock-keeper's cottage on the right. The towpath changes sides again at the road bridge.
But it's not long before we take this little iron bridge back over the water and leave the canal to head back to Brookwood station.
From the bridge, a final look back along the canal. Tidy gardens run down to the water.
A quick peek into Brookwood cemetary. It's far too big to explore today.
All in all a pleasant walk. But not many surprises. It's flat, of course. And you can always see what's up ahead. So no hills to scale and no big vistas to take in. But pleasant enough and interesting for a couple of hours on a Sunday morning.
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