Bradford-on-Avon
The town of Bradford-on-Avon is a little jewel box of a town that will delight you on your trip of the Kennet & Avon Canal and depending on your direction of travel, it’s either a reminder or a foretaste of Bath. Like Bath, Bradford-on-Avon has oodles of Georgian buildings faced with honey-colored limestone, but the town, unlike the city, has a much more relaxed feel with far less traffic.
Bradford-on-Avon is also known as Bradford on Avon and Bradford-upon-Avon, but shouldn’t be confused with Bradford in West Yorkshire. I believe Bradford-on-Avon is the preferred name because the town seems to be promoting a BOA branding.
It helps that the canal skirts the southern end of the town so that you’ll have to walk to see the sights, slowly introducing you to its charms. You’ll probably moor near Bradford Wharf (and lock 14) and then walk north on Frome Road/B3109. You’ll pass by football (soccer) and cricket pitches and also the Bradford on Avon Tourist Information Centre.
Frome Road becomes St. Margaret’s Street and crosses the River Avon over Town Bridge, first mentioned in the 14th century, although most of what you see today was built in the 18th century.
In contrast to the Pulteney Weir in Bath, the Avon in Bradford is slow and pastoral, dotted with tiny reed islands visible from the bridge, especially on the west side. The bridge is very distinctive thanks to the small building close to the southern bank of the river. It was used a tiny jail in the 17th century and may also have been a chapel previously. Look for the Bradford Gudgeon, a fish-shaped wind vane atop the lockup.
Near town bridge you’ll also find the Bridge Tea Rooms, a delightfully wonky establishment that looks as if it belongs in Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley. It’s Victorian themed but the building is dated to 1675 and is gloriously moss and lichen colored and the walls bulge out into the street as if the building is holding its breath. It’s delightful and over the top twee.
Just on the northern bank of the river, you’ll find a Co-op Food grocery store. It’s about a 0.4 mile/700 m walk from the wharf to the bridge, so you will have a little bit of exercise if you’re walking from the canal to get groceries. (There’s also a Sainsbury’s south of the wharf where the canal turns east.) You will, however, find TT Cycles very close to the wharf where you can a hire a bike for four hours or the day. It’s a convenient way to explore the town, especially if you opt for the electric bike.
Once on the northern side of the river, you’ll also find much of the town shopping on Market Street and especially along The Shambles, a pedestrian street that connects Market and Silver streets. Look for the former post office with its engraved Edward VIII dedication; one of the few public buildings built during his short reign.
If you turn right or south east after crossing the river on the B3107 (St. Margaret’s Street becomes Silver Street and then Woolley Street but it’s also the B3107), you can visit The Hall, which is an estate owned by the Alex Moulton Charitable Trust. The Moulton family in Bradford-on-Avon dates back to the nineteenth century and Stephen Moulton, who began production of vulcanized rubber in Britain. Moulton bought unused woolen mills, which had been the principle industry of the town, to produce rubber used primarily by the railways.
The Hall isn’t generally open to visitors, but the trust does offer walking tours of the estate and of the town. You’ll also hear stories about Moulton Bicycles, started by Alex Moulton, great-grandson of Stephen, and the original automobile known as the Morris Mini. Alex Moulton used the family’s engineering knowledge to produce the small-wheeled Moulton bicycle, still made in Bradford-on-Avon, and also provided the suspension for the Mini.
If you decide to forgo the walk to The Hall, you can instead follow Church Street from The Shambles to the southwest. You’ll pass by St. Thomas More’s Catholic Church, McKeever Bridge (one of the three bridges crossing the Avon if you don’t count the railway bridges), Holy Trinity Church and St. Laurence Church. The latter is a rare Saxon-era church that hasn’t been substantially altered, and may date from the 700s.
From here Church Street connects to Barton Orchard via a footpath and you can follow Barton Orchard to a footbridge over the Avon. This bridge crosses a little island on which you’ll find one of the World War II fortifications meant to stop a German invasion. More about this in another post.
Back on the east bank of the Avon, you’ll come to the medieval Tithe Barn, which was part of Barton Grange Farm. Tithe barns stored the tenth of a farmer’s rent produce, usually grain, offered to the local church. Barton Grange Farm was actually owned by the monks of Shaftesbury Abbey in Dorset. You’ll find many remnants of the grange buildings scattered about the town and maintained by the Bradford on Avon Preservation Trust or English Heritage.
The cruck-framed (meaning timbers made of naturally curved trunks and branches) roof of the tithe barn is very impressive and well worth a visit, although frankly it requires only a few minutes of oohing and ah-ing to take it in. There are, however, other attractions incluing The Granary gift shop and adjacent The Coffee Barn, and the Tithebarn Workshops and adjacent All Things Nice tearoom.
You may be surprised, while walking around the tithe barn, to discover that you’ve returned to the canal. It’s pretty easy to ignore the tithe barn while floating by on a narrowboat because the barn sits so far below the canal, but it’s a short walk back to the wharf to complete your tour of Bradford-on-Avon. If you’re lucky, the Floating Fayre will be operating during the summer months, and you’ll be able to buy produce or crafts from moored narrowboats.