BASINGSTOKE CANAL PHOTO GUIDE
DOUBLE BRIDGE - DOGSMERFIELD
Beyond Double Bridge there is another attractive country house and those towpath trees still keep coming!
Blacksmiths Bridge, Dogsmerfeld
Two views of Blacksmiths bridge. There is a winding hole and onthe far side one can see yet more of the wartime defences. As discussed previoulsy they were designed to stop tanks crossing the canal, but if they were only at strategic positions surely tanks could have just entered the canal at other places. It really doesnt make sense. Suppose some defences were better than none.
Tundry Pond, Dogsmerfield
This is Tundry Pond. Its a large lake with an ornamental bridge at the end furthest away from the canal. Opposite the pond are yet more defences. But this is the last lot. And what looks like an ordinary pill box is certainly not what it seems. Its level with the canal but in order to get in it one has to go down the embankment and then clamber through a very low entrance and up a narrow flight of steps into the main part of the box. As a rule pill boxes look over the waterway (or railway) they are defending and the entrances are at the rear. This particular arrangment was fairly common on the railways, but I do not recall having seen such an arragnement on the canal system. Beyond here the canal enters Dogsmerfield Woods, which is a very attractive stretch. Along this section was a wharf, known as Sir Henry St. James Mildmay's, the only private wharf on the entire canal. It was marked as being 25 miles from the River Wey, and oddly enough in a very comprehensive list of wharves of the Basingstoke Canal, Sir Henry's is mentioned only once.
Old wartime pill box south of Dogsmerfield
Just before the canal enters the woods and cutting past the village, its Country House and other buildings such as this attractive square church tower can be seen across the fields. The stacked hay is of interest because in the area it seems common to stack hay this way, but just round the corner a different farmer rolls the hay instead. Certainly its down to personal preferences.
Dogsmerfield House and church from the canal towpath
Above: The first view shows the Great Wall of Dogsmerfield. Well it doesnt look anything like a wall, but it is there under the foilage. It was built by volunteers as a means of stabilising this section of Dogsmerfield cutting, which is almost right by Dogsmerfield House. The location can be identified by a copse of young trees on the towpath side and the wall can just be discerned running behind these trees.The second view looks south and is a general view of the cutting at Dogsmerfield, looking to the narrows in the middle distance where Chatter Alley Bridge once stood.
The Wharf at Barley Mow Bridge. This was the busiest boating scene I had ever seen on the Basingstoke Canal (a private boat heading east and a hire boat moored up for lunch, and it soon headed west as seen below in the view of Barley Mow bridge.) Winchfield Station is about one and a quarter miles from here. The Barley Mow Inn is about 100 yeards from the canal.
Barley Mow bridge, Winchfield
BASINGSTOKE CANAL PHOTO GUIDE:
R. Wey - Scotland Bridge Scotland Br - Woodham Top Woodham - Chertsey Rd Woking St. Johns - Hermitage Brookwood - Pirbright Deepcut Locks Deepcut - Frimley Aqueduct Frimley - The Canal Centre Through Ash Vale Ash Aqueduct - Eelmoor Eelmoor - Norris Hill Norris Hill - Reading Road Fleet - Chequers Bridge Chequers - Double Bridge Double Bridge - Dogsmerfield Barley Mow - Broad Oak Bridge Colt Hill - North Warnborough N. Warnborough - Greywell Main Page