{"id":2407,"date":"2020-02-29T22:23:05","date_gmt":"2020-02-29T22:23:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/narrowboatingforbeginners.com\/wordpress\/?p=2407"},"modified":"2020-02-29T22:23:13","modified_gmt":"2020-02-29T22:23:13","slug":"caen-hill-lock-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/narrowboatingforbeginners.com\/wordpress\/caen-hill-lock-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"Caen Hill Lock Flight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\"  id=\"_ytid_11891\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"  data-origwidth=\"800\" data-origheight=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kyEsn8WjOM4?enablejsapi=1&#038;autoplay=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;cc_lang_pref=&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;loop=0&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;playsinline=0&#038;autohide=2&#038;theme=dark&#038;color=red&#038;controls=1&#038;disablekb=0&#038;\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  epyt-is-override  no-lazyload\" title=\"YouTube player\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/canalrivertrust.org.uk\/places-to-visit\/caen-hill-locks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Caen Hill Flight of Locks (opens in a new tab)\">Caen Hill Flight of Locks<\/a> on the Kennet &amp; Avon Canal is one of the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Seven Wonders of the Waterways (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/canalrivertrust.org.uk\/enjoy-the-waterways\/canal-history\/history-features-and-articles\/the-seven-wonders-of-the-waterways\" target=\"_blank\">Seven Wonders of the Waterways<\/a>, and certainly to anyone contemplating taking a narrowboat through the flight, it appears both wondrous \u2026 and awesome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>A lock flight is a collection of locks geographically close enough to be considered a unit. My personal definition is that if you can see one lock from another, it\u2019s part of a flight \u2026 and long as there are at least three locks.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s most awe inspiring sight is the straight line of 16 locks routinely photographed by visitors, but actually the entire flight consists of 29 locks spread out over 2.2 miles (3.5 km), lifting or lowering boats 237 ft\/72.2m. That\u2019s just one lock less than the largest lock flight, the Tardebigge flight on the Worcester &amp; Birmingham Canal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>Unlike the city in Normandy, the Caen Hill flight is pronounced \u201ccane\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The top lock is in Devizes, a market town in Wiltshire, and the bottom lock is at Foxhangers Wharf. The 16 locks mentioned earlier have large side ponds (or pounds) that help regulate the flow of water and a pump at Foxhangers returns some of the water to the top lock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An experienced narrowboat crew can negotiate the flight in four hours, five to six hours is more common, but many need considerably more time. You\u2019re generally not supposed to moor overnight within a lock flight, but mooring is permitted between locks 28 and 29 and between locks 44 and 45.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Access to the flight is limited and the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"schedule varies (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/canalrivertrust.org.uk\/notices\/2755-caen-hill-flight-opening-hours\" target=\"_blank\">schedule varies<\/a> according to the season, but during the summer months the locks are open from 8 am to 8 pm. The latest one can attempt the sixteen in a row is 5 pm. Locks 29 and 44 are padlocked at the end of each day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As with all the locks on the K&amp;A, these are double locks, meaning two narrowboats or one broad-beam boat can pass through. Narrowboats should share to reduce the amount of water lost each time a lock is turned. It also means more hands to open gates and raise and lower paddles. The etiquette of traveling a lock flight is a little complicated, but fortunately there are usually volunteer lockkeepers who will assist and advise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a caf\u00e9 and toilets between locks 44 and 45 and there\u2019s a small convenience shop at Caen Hill Marina below the bottom lock. You can also visit the Diamond Jubilee Wood, but as it was only planted in 2012 to celebrate the queen\u2019s 60th year on the throne, there\u2019s not a lot of shade yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s quite fun to be a gongoozler and stare and comment on boaters negotiating the locks, but if you see an overwhelmed crew you can alway ask if they need a hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On my next trip, we\u2019ll have to go up the flight first thing and of course go down it to return the boat. I\u2019m both looking forward to and dreading it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Caen Hill Flight of Locks on the Kennet &amp; Avon Canal is one of the Seven Wonders of the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p74kO9-CP","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/narrowboatingforbeginners.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/narrowboatingforbeginners.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/narrowboatingforbeginners.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/narrowboatingforbeginners.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/narrowboatingforbeginners.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2407"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/narrowboatingforbeginners.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2410,"href":"http:\/\/narrowboatingforbeginners.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2407\/revisions\/2410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/narrowboatingforbeginners.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/narrowboatingforbeginners.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/narrowboatingforbeginners.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}