The Kennet Navigation ends at Newbury

Wednesday, 18 May 2011 11:34

Newbury was a cloth making town - prospering since the Tudor times.

Gable end of C17th Cloth Hall

Newbury has a rich history of rise and fall and the River Kennet and the K and A Canal both played their part .......

Until the C11th, the Kennet Valley was a backwater. However, William the Conqueror began the change in the Newbury area by granting land to one of his soldiers as a reward for helping with the successful invasion in 1066. Ernulf de Hesdin divided the land either side of the road bridge (now Northbrook Street/Newbury Bridge) crossing the river into narrow plots renting them to traders and craftsmen. The "new burgh" was a great success. Two water mills were created at West Mills to grind corn and finish cloth, and a church was built.

Newbury Coat of Arms - forward together

Newbury grew to become one of the top towns in the country and as the years passed it became rich and prosperous. The town came crashing down when the plague struck. Recovery was slow, but by the late C15th Newbury was prosperous again, having weathered riots, a coup and the recession due to multiple wars. Textiles were in demand and many men arrived to seek work.

John Smallwood was one of them - aka Jack O'Newbury (read the legend of Jack here) - who apparently rose from humble worker to owner by marrying the widow of his boss! He turned the small cottage industry into the world-wide exporting business it became. This local hero built one of the first factories in the world.

Corn Store

Newbury Museum used to be housed in this Jacobean building which was the Corn Stores for the wharf in the C18th. Sadly, the museum is closed and the Tourist Information Centre is the only thing open in the building. Apparently West Berkshire hope to restore the building.

The wharf, opposite our mooring, became the terminus of the Kennet Navigation in 1760. Many types of  goods were imported and exported along the River towards the Thames  and London. The cloth trade had moved north to Lancashire and Yorkshire and the opening of the Kennet Navigation was most welcome.

Newbury Wharf

The wharf was once extensive, with two basins, moorings and wharf buildings. The Corn Store, or Granary, remains and the Stone Building is now used by the K and A Trust. The Kennet and Avon Canal was begun in the late C18th and finished in 1810 to facilitate further trade - linking Bristol, via the River Avon, to the Thames.

For a full and interesting history of Newbury from Saxons to the present day, click here.

For us, after this foray into history, it was time to move onto the canal "proper" and back to familiar territory!