Avoncliff and Turleigh a beautiful and scenic morning walk

This video was filmed on 15th October 2021, my kit list is after the description below.

My iPhone has recently been damaged so please excuse any glitches in the video.

Thank you for watching. Take care and be kind to others. Adam

The text below is captioned within the start of the video if you enable CC (subtitles).Hello and thank you for joining our early morning walk. It is 8:30 am. Today we are walking in Wiltshire, in the south-west of England. Our walk today takes us from the small village of Avoncliff to the hamlet of Turleigh… and back. We start at Avoncliff where the Kennet & Avon Canal crosses over the River Avon and the railway line via the Avoncliff Aqueduct. The aqueduct is Grade 2 listed and was constructed between 1797 and 1801. John Rennie was the Chief Architect and Engineer, he also designed Waterloo Bridge in London. Mr Rennie built the aqueduct to avoid using the more commonly known canal lock system for going up and down hills. The aqueduct has had a troubled history, with numerous leaks and petitions to close it during the 18th and 19th century. In 1954 after a major leak the aqueduct was drained. In 1956 a petition was presented to the Queen to re-open it. In 1980 restoration work began. The Kennet & Avon Canal Trust and British Waterways completed the work in 1998. In the 1840s Isambard Kingdom Brunel constructed the Great Western Railway between Bath and Westbury. It must have been a site to see here at Avoncliff as they had to bore (dig) under the canal to build the track. Avoncliff Halt station opened along the track in 1906, and was originally only a wood structure. We’ll visit the platform towards the end of the video. It is the only aqueduct to have it is own railway station. Trains from the platform go to Bradford-on-Avon, Trowbridge, Westbury, Weymouth, Bath Spa, Bristol and Gloucester. A train to London Paddington would take about two hours, changing at Bath Spa station. Originally you had to wave the trains down to stop for you on the platform, since 2011 it has become a regular stop. If you ever make it here the pub and tearoom are lovely. Do check the opening times before you make a trip though. In a while we will leave Avoncliff, walk down the road a little and head down a bridleway. Bridleways can be used on foot or on horseback, quite often the ground is a little more uneven than a normal footpath. The bridleway will take us to the hamlet of Turleigh. Traditionally in Britain hamlets are smaller than villages and do not have churches. Turleigh Manor was established in the 17th and 18th century and during this time prospered. People living in the hamlet would have been the likes of quarrymen, stonemasons and tanners. Turleigh is now residential only. The pub closed in 1952, the bakery in 1957 and the post office in 1970. There is however a library, see if you can spot it later on. For such a small area Turleigh has some lovely unique period buildings. If you were going to visit either Turleigh or Avoncliff I would recommend walking, cycling, canal or train the roads are very small, mostly single car width, with many tight bends. This was one of my favourite morning walks, I had never been to Turleigh or Avoncliff before. I felt a lightness and happiness in my step knowing that I was going to share this with you. I hope you enjoyed finding out some information about the area also. Please like the video and subscribe. Do leave a comment, it is lovely to hear from people all over the world. I feel fortunate to be making friends in lots of places. It gives me great pleasure to make places like this accessible to people. I hope you enjoy the rest of the walk.

I used an iPhone 12 to film this video:
https://amzn.to/3D5vxHZ

Mounted on DJi Osmo gimbal:
https://amzn.to/3zP50fI

There has been minimal editing of the video using LumaFusion:
https://luma-touch.com