The original route went through the centre of Melksham, and is now built over to the extent that its recovery would be prohibitively expensive.
Several years' effort has gone into finding an alternative route, and many possible routes have been examined, walked, and surveyed; the best solution found is the one known as "modified Route G", which is shown on the map as a series of blue dots.
This route involved one lock of about 4' drop from the Kennet & Avon Canal, and gave a level pound up to the main line below Queenfield Lock, with very little engineering difficulty.
Unfortunately this route proved unpopular with the Local Authority and with the landowners through whose territory the route passed.
A route has now been defined which appears to satisfy the Local Authorith and has been accepted in principle by the Environment Agency (purple dots).
The route runs from a point to the west of Semington Road Bridge (A350 before the bypass was built) nd descends by a flight of locks into the River Avon; north of Melksham the Canal leaves the Avon and climbs by another flight of locks to rejoin the original line, probably south of Melksham Forest Lock.
This route has the advantage that the waterway passes through the centre of Melksham.
However it has the disadvantage that it will be vastly more expensive to build - it involves, among other things, removing the Town Weir and building a new weir further downstream, to adjust the level of the river; and probably 8 new locks.
From the boaters' point of view, the increased lockage will make the route less attractive; and the river part of the passage will be difficult, if not impossible, in storm conditions - the Avon is an unruly river, which is presumably why the original Canal builders did not use it in the first place. |
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