Hold on, something here is very wrong, I press rewind and trace my footsteps backards. The train goes back to the station, I get out, I leave the sation, past the statue, past the busses, past the taxi ranks, past the camera shop, through the bustling streets lined with tall buildings, some very old and some new, some red brick buildings, some whitewashed plaster, some concrete, some stone. Everything is a big chain business apart from the sketchy phone shops.
I wait for the bus to pass and cross at the traffic lights.
I narrowly avoid a man in face-mask wearing burberry emerging from a cafe occupying part of a large half timbered building.
I turn cross the road and turn left at Jackson's corner towards St Laurence's, there were pigeons pecking at the floor, I almost ducked as they flew over.
Past O'Neils then the museum and the town hall.
More busses went past, I walked down to Forbury Gardens.
A middle aged jogger in a blue coat passed me swinging his arms to restore circulation.
I go down beside the stretch of dual carridge-way, past St.James's and the old prison. In the distance I could see a spire.
To the left one the other side of the road is building site, a couple of cranes are lifting blocks of concrete.
I go over the bridge.
Where was I going again?
Why should I tell anyone? I remember a poem by Blake:
Never seek to tell thy love,
Love that never told can be;
For the gentle wind does move
Silently, invisibly.
I told my love, I told my love,
I told her all my heart;
Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears,
Ah! she did depart!
Soon as she was gone from me,
A traveler came by,
Silently, invisibly
He took her with a sigh.
What can I tell you?
The Kennet and Avon Canal is 87 miles long and has a hundred and four locks, far from evenly distributed it must be understood. The maximum length for a boat to be able to navigate it is 72 feet, the width is 17 1", draught 3 7", headroom 7 10".
Work first commenced on the waterways which would eventually join to form the canal in 1718 and 1727, the first boats made use of them in 1723 and 1727, the work to join them commenced in 1794 and was completed in 1810. In 1852 it was taken over by the Great Western Railway, which reduced spending on maintainance and raised the tolls to encourage rail freight.
During the 1940's and 50's large parts of the canal became unusable, in 1962 the Kennet and Avon Canal trust was formed to restore the canal, the restoration was largely completed in 2003.
The partly ancient Bath Road was rebranded as the Great West Road at some point in history, then renamed the A4 in 1922, however I believe the current route and form of this particular section mostly dates back to around 1927, with the old route meandering around it.
Heathrow airport began as a small airfield in 1929, the expansion began in 1944 and it opened as London airport in 1946, once it had five run ways, but as they became too short or modern areoplanes, the number was reduced to two, it was renamed in 1966. One runway is 12000 feet, the other is 12800 feet, the site occupies an area of 3030 acres, every year it carries over a million tons of cargo and enough people to re-populate the enitre country and more.