Exhibition Extended - Wiltshire's Lost Waterway; Chippenham and the Wilts & Berks Canal
The Wilts & Berks Canal seems almost to have been literally
written out of the history of Chippenham. There is little mention
of it in local history books and if older residents remember it at
all, it is as the town tip!
The new exhibition at Chippenham Museum & Heritage
Centre hopes to redress that balance and also highlight the
work being done by volunteers of the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust
to restore the canal once again to a navigable waterway. The
exhibition concentrates on the Chippenham Branch of the canal and
how its building changed the town and affected the lives of local
people, in particular those who lived and worked on it.
The Wilts & Berks was conceived and built amidst intrigue
and litigation between 1795 and 1810. Not the least was the court
case of where it should terminate in Chippenham.
It was profitable only for a short before like many other canals
it was affected by competition from the railways. After a slow
decline it was formerly abandoned in 1914. Its only use in the
20th century was as a tip or WWII explosives
training.
Displays include objects such as a narrowboat rudder, the
milestone from the end of the Calne Branch, photographs and
original documents.
There is also a display on what a boatman would have seen on a
journey along the canal and what remains there today.
Further panels illustrate the work of the Wilts & Berks
Canal Trust.
In conjunction with the exhibition we shall be publishing the
next in our Chippenham Studies series of local books;
Chippenham and the Wilts & Berks
Canal, which tells in greater detail this often
turbulent, story of the canal in Chippenham.
There will be a guided walk along the route of the canal as part
of National Archaeology Festival in July.
Exhibition runs from Monday 16th May to Monday 31st August. Open
during normal museum opening times, 10.00am-4.00pm, Monday to
Saturday. Admission FREE
Now extended to 13th October due to public
demand.
01249 705020 heritage@chippenham.gov.uk
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