Thursday19th August

This morning we went to see Bath Abbey which we could see from the boat. The first King of England, Edgar of Wessex, was crowned at Bath in 973 AD. During the past twelve and a half centuries, three different churches have occupied this site, an Anglo-Saxon Abbey Church dating from 757, pulled down by the Norman conquerors of England soon after 1066; a massive Norman cathedral begun about 1090. It was larger than the monastery could afford to maintain and by the end of the 15th century was in ruins and the present Abbey church founded in 1499, ruined after the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539 by order of Henry VIII, was completed in 1611. A great deal of restoration has been undertaken in recent decades. We knew that rain was coming in and we wanted to get down towards Bristol before it did so we set off down the Avon. On our way down we passed the remnants of the former Kelston Brass Mill which date from early in the 18th century. Just below Swineford Lock we came to a nice pontoon just under a railway bridge for the Avon Valley Railway where we moored for the night