KNOWLE HERITAGE WALK TWO
Cottages & Locks
2 – Kixley Lane and the Canal
ROUTE:
After a third of a mile along Kixley Lane, you will reach a canal bridge. After crossing it, turn through the gap in the hedge on the right which leads down to the towpath. Turn left there and walk along the tranquil canal for half a mile to reach and explore Knowle Locks.
PLACES OF INTEREST:
4 Yew Tree Farm – Currently being refurbished, the farmhouse itself was built in about 1900 but its outbuildings are believed to date from the building of the nearby canal in the late 1700s.
5 Far End – A private house for much of the last century, and subsequently a guest house, this was once the Kixley Tavern. It provided for the navvies, building the Grand Union Canal beyond, and after that for boatmen (or bargees) plying the waterway with their cargo.
6 The Cottage – Originally a pair of cottages, also from the canal building years, now modernised and combined into one.
7 Bridge 72, Grand Union Canal – Once the site of a bustling wharf for goods, particularly coal, to be unloaded for transfer up the lane to the village. A few indications of the old wharf can still be seen on the towpath.
8 Knowle Locks – A flight of six locks came into use here in 1799. Reconstructed as six wider locks in the 1930s, side ponds were added as a water saving innovation, and are an interesting feature. They were unpopular with boatmen, because they doubled the work of passing through locks.