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| | | From Shetland to the Scilly Isles, Open Country travels the UK in search of the stories, the people and the wildlife that make our countryside such a vibrant place. Each week we visit a new area to hear how local people are growing the crops, protecting the environment, maintaining the traditions and cooking the food that makes their corner of rural Britain unique.
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 | | Nynehead Court Icehouse | |
Helen Mark visits Devon and Somerset to trace the course and history of the Grand Western Canal to meet people who live on its banks today and to hear about who built it.
Begun in the first half of the 19th century, the Grand Western Canal was part of an ambitious plan to link the Bristol Channel at Bridgwater on Somerset's north coast with Topsham on Devon's south coast, what the M5 does nowadays. This would have saved barges from making the hazardous voyage round Lands End, but the plan was never completed.
Helen starts at Tiverton in Devon, boarding the horse-drawn barge which nowadays is the only real traffic on this stretch of the canal. While the barge's captain talks about the men who built the canal, Shaun Jackson, a local poet, describes the coming of the railway, which spelt the beginning of the end for the Grand Western. Horse-Boats
Grand Western Canal information
A visit with local historian David Rabson to Nynehead Court near Wellington, now a private residential home, gives Helen an insight into 19th century society and the role local gentry played in the canal's construction. The icehouse, built during the mini-Ice Age of the 19th century, fell into disuse once the railways came along - it was easier to bring in ice, imported from Canada and Scandinavia and brought by rail from Bristol, than pull it from the local river.
Nynehead Court Icehouse
Only the 13-mile Devon section of the Canal, from Tiverton to the border with Somerset, is in water today - the Somerset half is dry for most of its length, with the original machinery removed by order of Parliament when the railway came along. At Wharf Cottage near Nynehead, Helen meets the owner Denis Dodd, archivist of the Grand Western Canal Trust, and finds out why the canal lift on his land is so important to canal historians. Denis' vision is to restore the lift to its original condition and continue the work which he has already started, bringing the Somerset end of the canal back to life.
Helen next visits a local lime kiln close to Burlescombe in Devon. While Richard Fox explains the role played by the canal in this important local industry, Josie Grant remembers the hard, hot work endured by people like her husband, whose job it was to stoke the kiln and load the resulting powder ready for spreading on local fields.
John Grimshaw, an engineer, is the founder of Sustrans, the sustainable transport charity which encourages people to cycle, walk and use public transport. He pedals to meet Helen on the towpath, where the National Cycle Network which was his brainchild, follows the canal for some distance.
Sustrans
Birdlife, if not exotic, is plentiful on the canal, and Ray Jones gives Helen a crash course in telling her coots from her moorhens. Although the zola weed which grows on the canal surface is disliked for the way it looks, Ray explains that it does birds no harm and is a rich source of nutrients for them.
Finally, a clamber for Helen onto a disused mineral line high above the Grand Western Canal at the Devon end. She goes in search of the fine-leaved sandwort and succeeds with the help of local Countryside Ranger Vicky Thomas. The area is an environment in miniature, nourished only by the ballast lying between the sleepers.
This week's competition
Which plant, easily confused with hop trefoil, is distinguished from it only by a tiny spike on the tip of the leaf? The prize is a copy of the Reader's Digest Guide to Britain's Wildlife, Plants and Flowers.
Last week's competition winner is Mr H Rowlands of Sutton Coldfield, who correctly said that a medieval knight's underpants were called braies.
Submit your entry by emailing [email protected]
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RELATED LINKS
BBC Radio Bristol
BBC Radio Devon
BBC Holiday Category
BBC Countryfile
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Z to Z Britain
Open Country looks back 2003
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