Our June walk takes us around Great Bedwyn in NE Wiltshire and highlights some fine historical features and industrial heritage.

Our leader for this new walk is Dianne Billing + we hope the magnificent Hamilton. We meet at the Wharf in Great Bedwyn (to the side of Brook Street) on the Kennet & Avon Canal at 10.30. (Satnav SN8 3PB). For additional parking try the other side of the canal and railway bridges at the Bedwyn railway station. If parking elsewhere in the village please do so sensitively.

Our walk takes in short stretches of the Kennet & Avon canal mixed with open fields and light woodland. We will walk along a Roman road (predictably straight!) and pass the Crofton Beam Engine Pumping Station at the highest point of the canal which still has it's original beam engines from when the canal was constructed. We will walk past Wilton Water (the ‘header tank’ for the canal system) and then through the pretty village of Wilton to The Swan public house. The pub has a small beer garden so we thought it might make a welcome watering hole half way round!

After lunch we climb the hill to Wilton Windmill and admire the stunning views. Following the tracks through Bedwyn Brail we walk though lovely mixed woodland and finally emerge back at the wharf.

The walking and the pace will be gentle with plenty of stops to admire the views and great spaces for your hounds to run and snoot. All in all no more than six gentle miles.

There is no easily accessible water on the route so please carry plenty for your hounds.

Queries? Email Dianne here.

The historic Crofton Beam Engine

Along the canal