Saturday 27th July 2019



We had a rare lay in. Brenda left with Gary and Lisa for Devizes at 11:45 leaving myself on the boat on my own, another rare occurrence.

Along with the dog I went to visit Crofton Pumping Station which we had already passed on the canal but couldn’t stop because of the restrictions. I had visited twice before, once when it was in steam, so didn’t pay the admission fee.

Crofton is a fascinating place, especially for somebody with an engineering or an industrial past leaning. The site consists of two steam powered beam engines that each drive a pump which takes water from an artificial lake, Wilton Water, and delivers it through a feeder channel to the summit pound above Crofton Locks.

What makes Crofton special is that, although the single, Scotch Boiler is not original, the remainder of the plant is. One of the beam engines dates from 1812, prior to the Battle of Waterloo, and the other from 1842. Timing of the live and exhaust steam valves is arranged through an ingenious system of links, cams and levers. To see the Crofton pumps started and running is absolutely spellbinding. 



 

The busy, main railway line runs right alongside the canal at Crofton with the pumping station on the opposite side of the tracks. It is a surreal sight, with the canal on one side, the old pumping station the other, and both intersected by fast moving trains.

I had wanted to see the working Wilton Windmill in the neighbouring village but hadn’t bargained on Harvey. We forget he is getting old and doesn’t like the heat anyway. We got within a few hundred yards of the windmill before he gave up and we had to turn around for the very slow walk back.

On returning to the boat I found she had moved back a few feet, dumped the gangplank into the water and was leaning at quite an angle, grounded.



Brenda returned at 6pm after having spent 5 hours walking around Devizes waiting for Lisa to finish work. She did however, complete her prescription and put a strongly worded complaint in to Boots about the staff in Devizes and their service.



Weather: hot again.








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