BASINGSTOKE CANAL PHOTO GUIDE

FLEET - CHEQUERS BRIDGE

Readaing Road bridge again- with a boat this time - how little headroom there is - steerers just about manage to see over the top of the boat to see where they are going. Perseverance had to navigate this bridge several times and only just managed to scrape though with a hairbreadth's width.

The Basingstoke Canal meets the road from Fleet to Crookham briefly by the Fox and Hounds, so offically this is Crookham, even though the Fox and Hounds is nearer to the centre of Fleet than Crookham. The Fox and Hounds is quite unusual for its name and does not really have a waterways link, but they've managed to do a nice pub sign with a picture of a narrow boat showing two hounds and a fox apparently dancing together (below right.)

    
The Fox and Hounds, Crookham

Below: The first of four bridges on the Crookham stretch. Its known as Coxheath Bridge and despite its modern appearance, was built around 1900! (bridge dating sources are from the Basingstoke Canal Towpath Walks Guide published in the 1970's but now out of print.) This must be the only 'modern' bridge on the entire canal that can ever claim to have seen boats actually heading for Basingstoke.

    
Coxheath Bridge, Crookham

Zebon Copse - The canal crosses an embankment here and houses are well below the level of the canal. There is a swing bridge (built 1951 but unamed on the Basingstoke Towpath guide of the 1970's. However it is actually known as Crookham Swing Bridge.) It is very unusual to find a new swing bridge built at a time when canals were in great decline. Joan Marshall's New Basingstoke Canal Company actually made a profit in the early 1950's and these were used to repair and build new lock gates, and general improvements. This swing bridge was part of these new improvements. Mrs Marshall, being a local resident herself, obviously felt that the canal through her own locale looked its very best. Crookham Swing bridge has the distinction of being the only swing bridge left on the canal's Hampshire length, out of a total of six that once existed. There were no swing bridges on the Surrey length - but that has now changed with the small one installed adjacent to the Basingstoke Canal Centre.

Crookham (or Zebon Copse) Swing Bridge

Scenes around Poulters bridge, Crookham, in Jubilee Year 2002. This was one of the earlier bridges to be restored on the canal, in the previous Jubilee Year of 1977. The large country house makes an attractive reflection in the canal, and Poulters bridge forms an attractive backdrop through which the large house can be seen. The plaque is rare in that it has a Basingstoke Canal seal represented.

    
Poulters bridge, Crookham

The River Hart, Crookham

Above: The gushing water of the River Hart is a result of heavy rains that morning and the previous day. This is one of the culverts through which local streams or rivers passed under the canal. It did not have any aqueducts at all to begin with, merely using large diameter culverts instead. Frimley and Ash aqueducts are of course later additions (the Whitewater aqueduct at North Warnborough is technically a siphon and so not a true aqueduct.)

        
Scenes at Chequers Bridge, Crookham

The Basingstoke Canal skirts Crookham Village and Chequers bridge is the last of four in the vicinity. It is built on the site of an earlier one, whose remains can be seen underneath the 1953 bridge. The right hand picture shows Crookham Wharf, which was quite a substantial brick lined section of canal. From Chequers Bridge all the way to Tundry Pond the canal is littered with very unusual military relics, as we will see in the next sections (Chequers Bridge - Double Birgde - Tundry Pond.)

BASINGSTOKE CANAL PHOTO GUIDE:

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