A World War One Observer and a Surprise Visit from Jane.

Wednesday 22nd August 2018 in Pewsey.
A cloudy morning which gave way to a lovely afternoon.
The "no-plan plan" for today was to cruise the short distance to Wootton Rivers but, as with many "no-plans", fate intervened in the form of a broken pump at Wootton Rivers that pumps water into the summit pound of the canal. As a result, the summit was closed to all canal traffic while the C&RT fixed it. Anticipating that all the (scarce) moorings at Wootton Rivers would already be taken by boats waiting to go over the summit, we decided to stop at Pewsey and spend the day there.
On the way, we passed under this odd looking suspension footbridge, which is reputed to be the only one on the canals that still survives.

R filled up with water at Pewsey Wharf while M walked ahead to see if there were any free moorings.

Luckily, there was one mooring space, which turned out to be next to David and Kay on his beautiful boat "Silent Waters". M immediately recognised the boat as it was "Boat of the Month" in Canal Boat magazine about a year ago and the builders, Bourne, used it as their exhibition boat at the Crick Boat Show.

We remembered Pewsey from our previous visits as being a place that can't make up its mind whether it's a small town or simply a large village. A confusion probably not helped by the fact that in Saxon times it was known as "Pefisigge"!

It has some fascinating buildings, such as the Old Engine House, which was formerly the Fire Station but is now the headquarters of the annual carnival - the oldest in Wiltshire - since 1898.

Rush hour here was slightly more agricultural than at Wilcot yesterday! That is a seriously chunky disc harrow.

Not quite sure what a "Scarecrow Trail" is, but it certainly looks like fun.

It is hard to imagine that this small stream will soon become the impressive River Avon that we cruised on from the Severn Estuary to Bath. The water was crystal clear.

After some searching, we eventually found the local Heritage Centre. For such a small town it was excellent. It is housed in the old workshop of a local pump manufacturer and still has much of the old machinery in place. They were setting up an exhibition ready for the anniversary of Armistice Day in November, including this balloon Observer, keeping a beady weather eye on R below.

The statue of King Alfred in the centre of town has, bizarrely, nothing to do with him but was erected to celebrate the recovery from madness of King George III. (We're not sure that he actually ever did recover). As you can see, it's still the rush hour!

Wadworth Brewery appears to have more than one Royal Oak pub on its books. As with all its pubs, it had beautiful hanging baskets outside.

A lovely surprise - cousin Jane turned up on her way home from Malvern! And just in time for raspberries and cream.

Today: 2 miles, 0 locks and 1.9 miles.
Trip: 213 miles, 117 locks and 144.3 hours.