The River Avon is a river in the southwest of England. To distinguish it from a number of other rivers of the same name, it is often called the Bristol Avon. The name 'Avon' is loaned from an ancestor of the Welsh word afon, meaning 'river'.
The Kennet and Avon Canal is a waterway in southern England with an overall length of 87 miles (140 km), made up of two lengths of navigable river linked by a canal. The name is used to refer to the entire length of the navigation rather than solely to the central canal section. From Bristol to Bath the waterway follows the natural course of the River Avon before the canal links it to the River Kennet at Newbury, and from there to Reading on the River Thames. In all, the waterway incorporates 105 locks.
The Kennet is a tributary of the River Thames in Southern England. Most of the river is straddled by the North Wessex Downs AONB. The lower reaches have been made navigable as the Kennet Navigation, which – together with the Avon Navigation, the Kennet and Avon Canal and the Thames – links the cities of Bristol and London.
The Holy Brook is a channel of the River Kennet that flows through the English town of Reading. While of considerable historical significance, the origin and nature of the brook is still unclear. It is probable that some parts of the channel are natural, while other parts were created in medieval times by the monks of Reading Abbey to supply water mills and fish ponds. John Speed's map of Reading (c.1610) shows the brook flowing in the open air throughout, but a map from 1835 shows the town centre section to have been largely culverted by then, as is the case now.
Caversham Lock is a lock and main weir on the River Thames in England at Reading, Berkshire. Both the lock and main weir are connected to De Bohun Island. The Thames Navigation Commissioners built the original lock in 1778. Additional sluices north of View Island and Heron Island form the whole weir complex. A footbridge, known as The Clappers, passes over the weir and all three islands to connect Lower Caversham to Reading.
Sonning Lock is a lock and associated weir situated on the River Thames at the village of Sonning near Reading, Berkshire, England. The first lock was built by the Thames Navigation Commission in 1773 and it has been rebuilt three times since then. There is a weir a little upstream at the top of the island where Sonning Backwater separates from the main course of the river.
Ufton Nervet is a village and civil parish in West Berkshire, England centred 6 miles (10 km) west southwest of the large town of Reading and 7 miles east of Thatcham. Ufton Nervet has an elected civil parish council.
Theale is a village and civil parish in West Berkshire, England. It is 5 miles (8 km) southwest of Reading and 10 miles (16 km) east of Thatcham. The compact parish is bounded to the south and south-east by the Kennet & Avon Canal, to the north by a golf course, to the east by the M4 motorway and to the west by the A340 road.
Foudry Brook is a small stream in southern England. It rises from a number of springs near the Hampshire village of Baughurst, and flows to the east and then the north, to join the River Kennet to the south of Reading. The upper section is called Silchester Brook, and beyond that, Bishop's Wood Stream. The underlying geology is chalk, covered by a layer of clay, and so it has the characteristics of a clay stream, experiencing rapid increases in level after heavy rain due to run-off from the surrounding land. It passes a number of listed buildings and scheduled monuments, including the site of the Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum or Silchester.
The Oracle is a large indoor shopping and leisure mall on the banks of the River Kennet in Reading, Berkshire, England. Partly on the site of a 17th-century workhouse of the same name, it was developed and is owned by a joint venture of Hammerson and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
County Lock is a lock on the River Kennet in Reading town centre in the English county of Berkshire. It is now administered by the Canal & River Trust as part of the Kennet and Avon Canal. Downstream from the lock is Brewery Gut, a particularly fast flowing, narrow and dangerous stretch of the river.
Aldermaston Wharf is a small multi-parish settlement centred 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north-northwest of Aldermaston in West Berkshire, England. The Kennet and Avon Canal passes through the settlement with Aldermaston Lock near the centre while the Great Western Railway passes at the northern side where Aldermaston railway station is also located. The A340 from Basingstoke passes through the village crossing the canal over a single file lift bridge and joins the A4 which runs just north of the village.
Burghfield is a village and large civil parish in West Berkshire, England, with a boundary with Reading. Burghfield can trace its history back to before the Domesday Book, and was once home to three manors: Burghfield Regis, Burghfield Abbas, and Sheffield. Since the 1980s the population of Burghfield has nearly doubled with the construction of housing estates, making it a dormitory for Reading, Newbury, Basingstoke and the M4 corridor.
Osney Bridge is a road bridge across the River Thames in Oxford, England, built in 1888 to replace a stone bridge which collapsed in 1885. It carries the Botley Road (A420) from Botley into Oxford. The Thames Path crosses the river on this bridge, just above Osney Lock.
The Swift Ditch is a 2 km (1.2 mi) long artificial channel that formed a short-cut for river traffic to and from Oxford, across a meander of the River Thames in England. It was formerly the primary navigation channel. With the main river, it creates Andersey Island on the left bank of the Thames opposite Abingdon-on-Thames. Within a poem published in 1632, the Water Poet John Taylor wrote:
At Abingdon the shoals are worse and worse
That Swift Ditch seems to be the better course
High Bridge, sometimes known as Duke Street Bridge, is a bridge across the River Kennet in the town centre of Reading in the English county of Berkshire. It links Duke Street, to its north, and London Street, to its south. High Bridge is the oldest surviving bridge across the Kennet, and is a grade II listed building. It comprises a single arch of vermiculated Portland stone, with a plain keystone of ashlar.
The Coley branch line (ELR:COY), also known as the Coley goods branch, was a single-track branch railway running 1 mile 61 chains from the Reading to Basingstoke line at Coley Branch Junction to Reading Central goods depot.
The following is a timeline of the history of Reading, the county town of Berkshire in England.
Newbury Bridge, also known as Kennet Bridge or Town Bridge, is a bridge across the River Kennet in the town centre of Newbury in the English county of Berkshire. The bridge carries Bridge Street, which links Northbrook Street, to the north of the river, with Bartholomew Street, to the south. The river channel under the bridge is also used by boats navigating the Kennet and Avon Canal. The current bridge was built between 1769 and 1772 and has three arches, although the two outer arches are now hidden by flanking buildings. It is a Grade II* listed structure.
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