Canal Ghost

This green sward runs from near St Helen's Wharf on the Thames in Abingdon through the post war housing and ends in an industrial estate. It's one of those streets that doesn't make a lot of sense, its proportions are all wrong - this wide green belt running down the off centre of the street, squeezing a narrow access lane into the front of the houses. Running along the grass is a regimented lane of trees. A critical eye might notice that these trees are older than most of the houses, in fact they are orphans, they and this green lane are all that's left of the final section of the Wilts & Berks Canal. The trees were planted long ago to line the towpath and provide shade to the boat people and horses who once hauled coal, bricks, clay pipes, crops and passengers along this vital artery of the industrial revolution. Completed in 1810, having taken 15 years to hack through the landscape with shovel and pick, its glory days were in the 1830's when it carried the iron, stone and brick to feed the building of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's mighty GWR which follows a similar route.