Tramping along the Exeter Canal

We have been going further afield to walk and today went on one of our old favourites, from Powderham Church along the Exeter Canal. Our planned stop at The Turf for coffee was thwarted- bookings only. Then we were unable to use the ferry to Topsham due to the tide. So we carried on to the next pub - the Double Locks and were able to order a meal, as it has a huge outside dining area. It became a long walk but very nice with the canal and river looking very picturesque in the sunshine.


Exeter Ship Canal was opened in 1566, and was built to bypass weirs that had been erected on the River Exe and thus enable goods to reach the port of Exeter—originally in barges, later in ocean-going ships. Following successive enlargements and extensions it reached its present form in the 1830s, when the canal basin was also built. As with canals elsewhere its commercial viability was undermined when the railways arrived.