Please note: Nearly all of the property the canal passes through is privately owned and has no Public Rights of Way. This article is solely intended to describe the route of the canal through the Branch's area. To help us maintain good relations with landowners please do not enter private property without prior permission from the owner.
At Lock’s Cottage the canal has been in-filled and is not immediately apparent. However, the cottage garden borders on the site of Longcot Top Lock, which has also been in-filled but is believed to still be intact. Although the Branch has been offered permission to excavate this lock (on the proviso that it was again in-filled and not left open ) this has not been acted on yet. The canal passes under Old Wharf Road at the tail of the top lock. The towpath crosses from the south to the north side of the canal at this point. The construction of this bridge is not certain and may have been either a lift bridge or brick arch. It has been filled in but the position of the invert can be traced on the road surface. The canal then passes through the garden of Talbot Cottage, which is thought to be the old wharfinger’s cottage, and the site of Longcot Old Wharf. Talbot cottage is being refurbished and extended with the present owners hoping to restore the short section of canal as a garden feature! Onwards to Longcot Bottom Lock (SU278894) where some remains are still evident but will need to be the subject of a major restoration project in the future. Again this section is on private land with no uncontrolled access permitted.
Longcot Arm - click for larger versionThe site of Forty’s Lift Bridge between the lock and the railway is lost although no intensive search has been made. The canal meets the railway embankment at SU282894 although the tunnel entrance is no longer visible or the immediate exit point on the south-eastern side. The bed of the canal remains obvious for a few hundred metres, crossing a large brick culvert, before disappearing having been ploughed back into the farmland. When built, the canal turned sharply north again at approximately SU285894 towards the embankment which it reached at SU291899 before turning east again to run parallel to it to approximately SU297902 when it turned sharply south east to meet the road at the site of Uffington Bridge (SU300897). Old maps show that there was a winding (turning point) at approximately SU295900 although nothing remains visible today.
Uffington Bridge
Unfortunately, nothing remains of Uffington Bridge, but on the east side of the road there is Wharf Farm which stands on the site of Uffington Wharf and a newer cottage that has its garage almost directly on the line of the canal. The canal bed is visible but dry for a few hundred yards to the east of the road until it reaches what is known locally as Rosay Brook (Jack Dalby refers to it as Woolstone Brook) flowing northwards (SU302898). This stream goes through a large brick culvert which is still intact. The canal bed has been holed here into the culvert to drain the bed into the brook. The canal has a causeway across it at SU305900, which is used by the farmer for access. This is believed to be the site of Thatchers bridge.
