Kennet and Avon Canal - Newbury To Reading

Newbury To Reading

The River Kennet is navigable from Newbury downstream to the confluence with the River Thames at Kennet Mouth, in Reading.

The stretch from Newbury to High Bridge in Reading is an improved river navigation known as the Kennet Navigation, opened in 1723. Throughout this navigation stretches of natural riverbed alternate with 11 miles (18 km) of artificial lock cuts and a series of locks that overcome a fall of 130 feet (40 m).

East of Newbury town centre the Kennet passes through the Thatcham Reed Beds a 169 acres (68 ha) Site of Special Scientific Interest, nationally important for its extensive reedbed, and species-rich alder woodland and fen habitats. The latter supports Desmoulin's whorl snail (Vertigo moulinsiana), which is of national and European importance. A large assemblage of breeding birds including nationally rare species such as Cetti's Warbler (Cettia cetti) make use of the reedbed, fen and open water habitats found at Thatcham Reed Beds. Thatcham's network of gravel pits, reedbed, woodland, hedges and grassland is rich in wildlife and has been made into The Nature Discovery Centre by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

Monkey Marsh Lock at Thatcham is one of only two remaining working examples of turf-sided locks on the canal today. It is listed as a Scheduled Ancient Monument by English Heritage.

Below Colthrop Lock in Thatcham the river leaves behind the built-up area of Newbury and runs in generally rural surroundings. It passes through the Woolhampton Reed Bed, another SSSI which consists of dense reed bed with smaller areas of tall fen vegetation and carr woodland. It is notable for the diversity of insects it supports and its nesting passerine bird populations, which include several uncommon species such as Reed Warbler (Acrocephalus scirpaceus), a species that in Britain nests almost exclusively in this habitat.

Aldermaston Gravel Pits consist of mature flooded gravel workings surrounded by dense fringing vegetation, trees and scrub, affording a variety of habitats for breeding birds and a refuge for wildfowl. The irregular shoreline with islands, promontories, sheltered eutrophic pools and narrow lagoons, provides undisturbed habitat for many water birds, including surface-feeding ducks such as Teal (Anas crecca) and Shoveler (Anas clypeata). The surrounding marsh and scrub are important for numerous birds including nine breeding species of Warblers, Water Rails (Rallus aquaticus), Kingfishers (Alcedoa atthis) and an important breeding colony of Nightingales (Luscinia megarhynchos). In 2002 English Nature bought Aldermaston Gravel Pits from the mineral extraction company Grundon and it is managed as a nature reserve by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust. The River Kennet itself, from near its sources west of Marlborough down to Woolhampton, has been designated as a SSSI primarily because it has an extensive range of rare plants and animals that are unique to chalk watercourses.

The village of Woolhampton and the canal settlement of Aldermaston Wharf are the only significant settlements until the river enters the built-up area of Reading at Sheffield Lock in Theale. Even after this, the river is isolated from Reading's suburbs by a wide flood plain surrounding the river. In this stretch is Garston Lock, the other turf-sided lock on the navigation.

Shortly after passing Fobney Lock and the associated water treatment works, the Kennet flood plain narrows and the river enters a narrow steep-sided gap in the hills forming the southern flank of the Thames flood plain. At County Lock the river enters the centre of Reading, where it formerly flowed through the centre of a large brewery. This narrow and twisting stretch of the river became known as Brewery Gut. Because of poor visibility and the difficulty of boats passing in this stretch, traffic has long been controlled by a set of maritime traffic lights. Today the Brewery Gut is a major feature of Reading's The Oracle shopping centre.

Immediately after The Oracle the river flows under the arched High Bridge, which forms a historical and administrative divide on the river. The last mile of the River Kennet in Reading below the bridge has been navigable since at least the 13th century. Because there is no wide floodplain, wharves could be built during the Middle Ages that allowed Reading to establish itself as a river port. Originally this short stretch of river, which includes Blake's Lock, was under the control of Reading Abbey, but today it is administered by the Environment Agency as if it were part of the River Thames. The Horseshoe Bridge at Kennet Mouth was built as a railway bridge in 1839, and the timber-clad iron-truss accommodation bridge was added in 1892.