The West Berkshire Historic Environment Record (HER) is the primary index of the physical remains of past human activity in the unitary authority of West Berkshire Council. Limited elements of the West Berkshire HER are available online via the Heritage Gateway, therefore it is not suitable for use in desk-based studies associated with development, planning and land-use changes, and does not meet the requirements of paragraph 194 of the National Planning Policy Framework (2021: 56). Please read the important guidance on the use of the West Berkshire HER data. For these purposes and all other commercial enquiries, please contact the Archaeology team and complete our online HER enquiry form.

Summary

Artificial inlet off the Kennet constructed before 1723 and completely infilled by the early 1930s

Associated Legal Designations or Protected Status

• Conservation Area: Kennet and Avon Canal East
• Conservation Area: Newbury Town Centre

Other Statuses and Cross-References

• Berkshire SMR No. (pre 2000): 01391.10.000
  

Monument Type(s):

• CANAL BASIN (18th century to Early to Mid 20th century - 1723 AD to 1932 AD)

Full Description

The wharf in Newbury was created alongside the river Kennet, with a long narrow adjoining basin present by 1723 when the Kennet Navigation between Reading and Newbury was opened. The Kennet Navigation Act received Royal Assent in 1715 so the work on digging out the basin may have started shortly after this, perhaps when John Hore of Newbury was appointed as the engineer in 1718. The area was further developed once the Kennet and Avon Canal had been constructed westwards of Newbury in the 1790s, with the waterway to Bath opened in 1810. However the rise of a competing means of transport, the railways, led to a decline in trade along the canal, and the basin was shortened and then filled in completely by the 1930s.

A TVAS evaluation in 1997 <1> recorded the basin, various revetments, a weigh house and a sunken boat. It was suggested that the basin had indeed been built on a former channel of the River Kennet, as marked on an 1815 deed, '"Ancient ditch or watercourse many years ago stopped up…" <9>. The full development sequence was recorded by Wessex Archaeology in advance of the construction of a library <2><3>. Eight phases identified including pre-construction alluvial deposits, initial basin construction and original timber revetments, replacement of timber revetments in brick, construction of a wharf side weigh house and replacement of brick revetment by a second timber revetment, shortening of wharf, extensions added to weigh house, demolition of weigh house and the infilling of the basin.

The GIS polygon for this dock is derived from Willis' 1768 map <6>, which shows the basin at its full extent of approximately 170m in length from the river to the rounded end. By the date of the First Edition Ordnance Survey <7>, the western end of the basin had been infilled, reducing its length to about 90m. This basin, and a southerly branch, were completely filled in around 1932, although a shortened Canal Basin of c 50m length turning into the southerly Canal Creek are still drawn on the 4th Epoch Ordnance Survey map of c1933-4 <11>. Apparently this anomaly is explained by the fact that the 1934 map was surveyed several years before publication <1>.

The basin is also depicted schematically with 3 boats on it on the Speen Manor Map of 1729-30 <13>, at the end of a stretch of water marked 'Now Cutt' (possibly New Cutt?). This refers to the recently completed Navigation, north of the course of the river Kennet.

Sources and further reading

Related Monuments

Associated Excavations and Fieldwork

If you have any comments or new information about this record, please email us.

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.