Newbury, Berkshire - Kennet & Avon Canal, locks - local postcard c.1980s

• Postcard

   

• Picture / Image:  Kennet and Avon Canal, near Newbury [Berkshire]
• Publisher: local Womens Institute - photo by M. Pearce at Twyford & Ruscombe
• Postally used: no
• Stamp:  n/a
• Postmark(s): n/a
• Sent to:  n/a
• Notes / condition: 

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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Newbury is a market town in Berkshire, England, which is the administrative headquarters of West Berkshire.

The town centre around its large market square retains a rare medieval Cloth Hall, an adjoining half timbered granary, and the 15th century St Nicolas Church, along with 17th and 18th century listed buildings. As well as being home to Newbury Racecourse, it is the headquarters of Vodafone UK and software company Micro Focus International.

In the valley of the River Kennet, 26 miles (42 km) south of Oxford, 25 miles (40 km) north of Winchester, 27 miles (43 km) south east of Swindon and 20 miles (32 km) west of Reading. Newbury lies on the edge of the Berkshire Downs; part of the North Wessex Downs Area of outstanding natural beauty, 3 miles (4.8 km) north of the Hampshire-Berkshire county boundary. In the suburban village of Donnington lies the part-ruined Donnington Castle and the surrounding hills are home to some of the country's most famous racehorse training grounds (centred on nearby Lambourn). To the south is a narrower range of hills including Walbury Hill and a few private landscape gardens and mansions such as Highclere Castle. The local economy is inter-related to that of the eastern M4 corridor, which has most of its industrial, logistical and research businesses close to Newbury, mostly around Reading, Bracknell, Maidenhead and Slough.

Together with the adjoining town of Thatcham, 3 miles (4.8 km) distant, Newbury forms the principal part of an urban area of approximately 70,000 people.^[2]

The Civil Parish of Newbury consists of the town and the suburbs of Wash Common, the City, West Fields, East Fields and Speenhamland. The modern conurbation of Newbury, however, with close bus and road links and almost contiguous development, may be taken to include the surrounding villages of Speen, Donnington, Shaw and Greenham.^[17] Speen, which is now a suburb of western Newbury, is roughly equidistant between Bristol^[18] and London.^[19]

Elevations vary from a minimum of 72m above mean sea level to 122m at Wash Common. Elevations reach 150-200m in the directly adjoining hills.^[17]

The River Kennet and the Kennet and Avon Canal flow east through the centre of the town to reach the Thames at Reading, while the River Lambourn (beside which is the country's largest horse-training paddocks in the Valley of the Lambourn Downs) partly forms its northern boundary, ending in the town. A tributary that is smaller still, the River Enborne, forms the southern boundary (and also the county boundary with Hampshire). Adjoining the town's south-eastern border is Greenham Common and the famous Newbury Racecourse. Newbury is surrounded on three sides (north, west and south) by the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The downland to the south rises steeply out of the river valley providing scenic views, including Watership Down (made famous by the novel of the same name), Beacon Hill, the southeast's highest point Walbury Hill, and Combe Gibbet.

The Kennet and Avon Canal is a waterway in southern England with an overall length of 87 miles (140 km),^[1] made up of two lengths of navigable river linked by a canal. The name is commonly used to refer to the entire length of the navigation rather than solely to the central canal section. From Bristol to Bath the waterway follows the natural course of the River Avon before the canal links it to the River Kennet at Newbury, and from there to Reading on the River Thames. In all, the waterway incorporates 105 locks.

The two river stretches were made navigable in the early 18th century, and the 57-mile (92 km) canal section was constructed between 1794 and 1810. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the canal gradually fell into disuse after the opening of the Great Western Railway. In the latter half of the 20th century the canal was restored in stages, largely by volunteers. After decades of dereliction and much restoration work, it was fully reopened in 1990. The Kennet and Avon Canal has been developed as a popular heritage tourism destination for boating, canoeing, fishing, walking and cycling, and is also important for wildlife conservation.