Sydney Gardens

Today's the day ........................ to go to Bath

The route of the Kennet & Avon Canal through the city of Bath takes it through Sydney Garden, Bath's oldest park.

The gardens were regularly visited by members of the royal family, and also by Jane Austen who live locally for a while. The canal cuts the gardens in half and the two sides are joined by two ornamental ironwork bridges. They were built at the expense of the Canal Company and, in addition, a hefty 2,000 guineas was paid to the landowners as compensation.

The canal runs through a tunnel under the elegant building in the distance, Cleveland House, the former headquarters of the Kennet and Avon Canal Company. Legend has it that a trap-door in the tunnel roof was employed to exchange paperwork between clerks above and barges below but in fact it was a refuse chute allowing waste from the basement kitchen to be deposited into the canal.

That is, unless a boat was unfortunate enough to be passing underneath at the time .........................!