BASINGSTOKE CANAL PHOTO GUIDE
CHEQUERS BRIDGE - DOUBLE BRIDGE
This looks like Reading Road bridge, but we are still at Chequers in Crookham. There is rather more headroom for both walkers and boats.
WW2 Army Defences: The whole length of the Basingstoke between Chequers Bridge and Tundry Pond is littlered with the remains of military defences. As well as the traditional pill box, there are also features such as tank traps - designed to stop enemy tanks from crossing the canal. The information board (above) near Chequers Bridge is by the first of these features (below) which are tank traps on the sides of the shallow cutting leading down to the towpath. |  |
Tank traps near Chequers bridge, Crookham
As well as tank traps, in the late autumn the canal is very colourful. Most of the canal was photographed in the late summer of 2002, but the section from Fleet to Greywell was done on a gloriously crisp, misty November Sunday, where the conditions were right for bringing out the full range of colurs seen along the canal. Above - a hire boat from Odiham makes its way west. Below - copper coloured fern lines the canal banks making spectacular autumnal scenes to remember.
Above - More tank traps. These are situated offside, opposite the pill box at the site of Coxmoor Bridge, in fact they are littered all around this particular site, whose crossing of the canal was obvioulsy of sufficient importance to warrant so much effort at defending it. As can be seen from the picture, some actually sit in the canal itself. On this section there was once a swing bridge. Its narrows now have a electric boat counter installed (picture right) in order to count the number of boats. Its not that they want to see how many boats come to visit the canal, but because of the sensitive nature of the Basingstoke Canal (which as we have already seen is a SSSI) the number of boats actually have to be limited to no more than 1300 a year - or about four per day. There is another of thse counters on the upper approach to the Deepcut Flight. |  Electric Boat Counter at Coxmoor Bridge narrows |
Double Bridge near Dogsmerfield
Double Bridge (its a misleading name for its just the one bridge.) It has a fascinating arrangement of iron straps and plates - on one side just the simple straps and ont he other the plates that hold these tie bars right through to the straps. Quite an unusual arrangement.
More tank traps by Double Bridge. These are some of the most impressive - and a tree even has managed to grow between these giant lumps of concrete set into a concrete plinth (below right.)
BASINGSTOKE CANAL PHOTO GUIDE:
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