200 year old canal side cottage overlooking the Avoncliff Aqueduct.
Avoncliff train station is 5 mins across the Aqueduct, 5 mins BOA, 12 mins Bath, 40 mins Bristol

Price: £250k

• 2 bedrooms (1 small single)
• 1 main bathroom
• 1 En-Suite of main bedroom
• South Facing aspect
• Decked area with views down the Limply Stoke Valley
• Canal side aspect
• River Avon views
• Woodburner
• Oil Fired Bolier: hot water & central heating
• Large kitchen, range cooker, belfast sink

It’s that elemental approach to cooking that has captured people’s imagination, from top chefs and celebrities to customers wanting just a simple DIY oven to cook with in the garden. Its about heat, smoke and wood. Nothing else. Its all carefully controlled in an oven capable of taking what you throw at it and giving food whether its meat, fish, vegetables, bread or pizza, an indefinable taste created by the unique atmosphere of hot stone and brick.

There’s so much you can do in the oven that you’ll probably give up the kitchen altogether and move outside on a good day. In fact we also specialise in covered outdoor kitchens and gardens so now there’s no reason not to get some friends round, invite your neighbours and you’ll probably make friends you didn’t know you had.

Although based near Bradford on Avon, you’ll find us not only locally in Bath, Somerset, Wiltshire, Devon and Cornwall but regularly making trips to London and the South East to install ovens or give advice to budding restauranteurs, pizzerias and bakeries.

www.wood-firedoven.co.uk

This broad base of creative, design, branding, marketing and business knowledge means that Richard supported by a small team of experts can help businesses small and large, with insightful, strategic creative thinking.

So when a business for example, wants to have a website designed and built, Richard can offer professional expert guidance from creative, design, branding, marketing and business knowledge to ensure their project is a success and gives them all the tools and control to market themselves effectively and easily.

The Digital Partners is based just outside Bradford on Avon.

Phone Richard on: 07907570630
Email: rich(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)thedigitalpartners.co.uk
Website: www.thedigitalpartners.co.uk

Examples of local websites that we’ve created and helped.

• Johns Bikes in Bath
  Design, Product catalogue, Interactive maps,  Full Content Management and Newsletter Mailing System
• Hartley Farm in Winsley
  Design, Ecommerce, Full Content Management and Newsletter Mailing System
• Tinctoria in Bradford on Avon
  Design, Ecommerce & Full Content Management
• Ivy House Dairy Farm in Beckington
  Design and Identity, Point of Sale, labels, Full Content Management and Newsletter Mailing System
• Intelligent People Solutions in Bradford on Avon
  Design, full dynamic recruitment management system (Virtual Office), and Newsletter Mailing System
• DUO Boots in Frome
  Design, marketing and flash work

• cleaning
• gardening
• dog walking
• baby sitting
• shopping
• errands
• etc

Please email me babs(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)avoncliff.co.uk  or call me on: 01225 869140

A thoroughly researched, well written and truly fascinating account of this diminutive Wiltshire community situated on the River Avon, Kennet and Avon Canal and Railway between Bradford on Avon and Bath. Particularly strong on social and industrial history.

www.rebel-angel.co.uk

The railway station at Avoncliff is five minutes walk away with regular trains to Bath, Bristol, Bradford on Avon, Trowbridge and beyond.

www.avonvilla.co.uk

Bedrooms: Double: 1
Bathrooms: En-suite shower
Distance: 2 miles from Bradford on Avon Town Centre

www.railwaystudio.co.uk

Photography by Anthony J Stewart

Over the years that the canal has been in existence, its use has developed from the carriage of materials, the transportation of people on the ‘packet boats’ and, at the turn of the millennium, recreation and permanent residence.

In the year 2000, the number of boat dwellers based at Avoncliff varied but approximately 10 boats, ranging from the large double narrowboat ‘EMILY BRONTE’ to the tiny fifteen foot ‘URCHIN’ have become a regular feature of the hamlet.

www.troughsatavoncliff.co.uk

Avoncliff is a hamlet in the Parish of Westwood and comprises 27 homes (3 of which are actually in the parish of Winsley), several boat homes and a public house.

The hamlet lies in the bottom of the valley formed by the River Avon and is divided into 3 sectors by the Kennet and Avon Canal, the railway and the River Avon. Avoncliff is dominated by the Avoncliff aqueduct which carries the Kennet and Avon Canal over the River Avon and the railway and is bounded on its eastern edge by mill buildings and on its western edge by Ancliff Square, an imposing rectangular building formerly known as The Old Court.

Avoncliff is within the area covered by the adopted West Wiltshire District Plan. This Plan identifies the hamlet as Iying within the Cotswold’s Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Policy C2 of this Plan states that within this area the District Council will not permit development proposals likely to be detrimental to its special landscape character. The hamlet is also within an Area of High Ecological Value and policy C6 states that the District Council will not permit development proposals which are considered to be harmful to the ecological interest of these scarce habitats.

Avoncliff has a designated conservation area, within which there are additional restrictions on development proposals. The District Council supports proposals to maintain and develop the tourist and recreational potential of the Kennet and Avon Canal provided they do not detract from the character of the canal, its ecological value.

Now in 2011, we have 23 scheduled stopping trains (in each direction), two shelters, solar powered information points, rainwater butts, period seats , a salt/grit bin, cycle racks, a phone box…and mobile ‘phone reception, running in boards and a guaranteed plethora of passengers. There are so many passengers that the drivers often remark that the whole village must be having a day out! The station is a community in itself.

It hasn’t always been easy getting to where we are today but we’ve had great support along the way from the Heart of Wessex (take a bow Catherine Phillips!) and the various station managers. The halt represents what can be achieved and on more than one occasion has united the hamlet.

“In the beginning” the Halt was probably earmarked for closure – it was little used, the service was poor and the station had a neglected air. Indeed it had been scheduled for closure in the Beeching era together with Freshford and Limpley Stoke. Avoncliff and Freshford survived – in our case due to the lack of good road access – which is why there was a Halt here in the first place.

As readers will know, the single track line through the valley was opened on 2^nd February 1857. In June 1872 it was converted to standard gauge, 4’8^1/2”, and finally to the present double track on 17^th May 1885. However, the station itself wasn’t built until 9^th July 1906. What prompted its construction? Rumour has it that the GWR Chairman was staying at the Hotel and demanded a station be built, but the hotel (The Old Court) didn’t arrive for another 20 years. Was it perhaps that the stone yards serving Westwood Mine on the other side of the aqueduct may have contributed to its origins?

Whatever the reason – anyone got further thoughts? – it was originally built as low wooden platforms to be used by autocoach or railmotor operated trains. An occupation crossing was provided for farmers (still used in the 21^st century even though the crossing has long gone!), but passengers were expected to cross the line by the aqueduct.

Steam at the Halt in the ‘50s

Following  a request from GWR to the Board of Trade in June 1906, the station was inspected by Colonel Yorke on their behalf who reported “I have inspected the new Halte at Avoncliff on the Bradford Branch of the GWR…two platforms…14” above rail level, no shelters but the platforms are provided with lamps and name boards. The Halte is suitable only for, and should be used only by special rail-motor cars fitted with folding steps”. The platforms were subsequently raised to standard height and shelters were provided.

Back in 1989, the first green shoots’ for the Halt were when some residents asked if we could have some wooden barrels for flower tubs – to our surprise the answer was Yes. (One of these was to be subjected to a great indignity when I chanced upon a young Japanese gentleman relieving himself in the tub! “I had accident” he explained. “I can see that,” I said, “now get your trousers on, the train’s coming”).

The shelter on Platform 1 was blown down in the 1987 storms and its demise was followed by that of Platform 2 in the gale of 1990. We were shelterless for a year or two but eventually the one on Platform 2 was replaced in 1992 and a campaign was started to resurrect that on Platform 2.

After Network Rail quoted £16k for a steel and glass structure (which we all thought was out of place in a Conservation Area), we designed one ourselves in timber at a quarter of the cost, replicating the original and yet meeting Health & Safety requirements. A fundraising campaign was initiated but as if by magic and very much like a Tardis the new shelter appeared one weekend in 2008.

Of course that was a cause for celebration and special ale was brewed by the Box Steam Brewery (named Turpin’s Shelter for some reason) and the firkins were consumed before nightfall!

In all the years that the Halt was ‘on request’ only once did a train fail to stop and that was when a 158 hurtled past my outstretched hand before it squealed to a stop beyond the aqueduct. I was all for running along the track to climb up into the rear carriage but the guard wouldn’t have it so the driver ran back to the signal – and here I fantasise – and brought the whole rail network to a standstill while he reversed the train on to the platform.

The coming of the 158s caused an amazing problem one morning when they were first used. We boarded the overcrowded 8.10 as usual when the driver noticed that the front carriage had settled on to the platform edge. A passenger announcement asked us all to move to the ‘offside’ of the carriage with passengers sitting on each other’s laps. I watched in amazement as the carriage gently rose from the platform and allowed us to set off. We had to maintain these positions for the approach to Freshford – who knows how many relationships were formed that morning! One encounter that did endure was the early morning 6.15 gang who met each morning and travelled to Bristol. One of the women is the choreographer of the Hippodrome at East Woodlands so every year a party from Avoncliff deck themselves out in Victoriana for a truly old fashioned evening – highly recommended!

The whole village dressed in 1906 costume for the 100^th anniversary in July 2006, together with silver band, refreshments and marquee – even Mr Brunel came to unveil our celebratory Running in Board!

Villagers celebrate the Halt’s centenary

Whilst we’ve had to campaign for the ‘facilities’ that we have today, there have been occasions when we’ve had to object and make our feelings known to the ‘authorities’ one such instance was when the lamp standards were to be replaced. Allegedly, if a bulb had to be replaced on the traditional style standards, the whole line had to be closed to traffic whilst a ladder was procured; a Network Rail man climbed the ladder to change the bulb. New modern standards had to be provided to avoid this crazy situation. The village didn’t like this plan and we campaigned against them and the plan was withdrawn; the bulbs still get changed somehow!

Before the telephone box and then the information point (previously inconveniently sited at the top of the steps – always a decision whether to run up the steps to see if the train’s late and risk missing it because you’re no longer on the platform to wave it down) and long before mobile ‘phone reception, we had to shout across to the Millers at The Stables and they would ‘phone Bradford to check if the train was coming!

There’s always been a reciprocal relationship between train crew and villagers – nowadays its ‘we stop, you get on’ – but allegedly in the days of steam, there used to be an arrangement whereby the fireman would drop off some choice Welsh coal and collect half a dozen eggs in return.

The Halt is now resplendent ….but sadly it is no longer a halt – as I write this in April, the timetables say its ‘on request’, the departures boards say on request, the announcement at Bath says on request…but the train crews advise us that they always stop. This has led to existential discussions amongst the ‘intelliegicia’ that is the Avoncliff Halt community “how do we know it stops if we’re not here? Does a tree falling in the woods make a noise if there’s no one there?” perhaps an Avoncliff Passengers Philosophy Group Lounge should be the focus of our next campaign!

Trevor Turpin   www.trevorturpin.co.uk
Passenger for only 23 years

The Kennet and Avon Canal was carried over the railway line by a timber trough on brick abutments. lsambard Kingdom Brunel, who was responsible for building the Great Western Railway, considered the section of track at Avoncliff one of the most difficult on the G.W.R., because of the hazard of burrowing under the canal.

There was originally no station at Avoncliff, though there were stations at Freshford and Limpley Stoke. A platform was constructed at Avoncliff in 1906. It must have been really busy because the quarry firm at Westwood had tracks running from the quarry, behind Avonvilla, across the aqueduct to a stone-yard between the canal and the railway line on the Bath (west) side of the aqueduct. Trucks, carried stone to the stone-yard, where 60 men worked cutting stone; the stone was then transported by rail, from the railway sidings in the yard.

In the early hours of the 8th of February 1998, a goods train was derailed at Avoncliff; fortunately there were no injuries. Rail workers worked continuously for 3 days to clear the line and to repair the damage to the tracks.

In the year 2000, the line through Avoncliff is part of the main South Wales to the South coast of England line and trains stop on request. At those times when the main line is under repair, the track is used by High Speed trains to London, via Westbury. Occasionally, the Orient Express passes through the hamlet and, even more rarely, steam trains. Both provide a contrast to the regular commuter trains and the high-speed Inter City Expresses.

Few records remain of its origins as a Weavers Residence: it was reputed to have been built around 1762 by a clothier, William Moggeridge, owner of the Dunkirk Woolen Mill at Freshford, to house between 14 and 17 families (there is evidence of 17 doors) of hand-loom weavers. The men used the top of the building, which gave them the best and longest light, to weave broadcloth, while the women and children spun and carded the wool on the other two floors, which were also the living accommodation. When completed the cloth was dyed and dried in a domed drying house, which still stands behind the main building.

With the introduction of machinery into the Weaving Industry, hand-looms became redundant and the traditional hand-weaving woollen industry declined. In 1836, the building was brought and converted into the Bradford Union Work House which subsequently housed 240 inmates. A chapel extension was added which also contained the dining halls and kitchens.

The 1851 census recorded that on 30 March there were 249 occupants of the Bradford Work House – 13 officers and 236 paupers. Twelve of the latter were identified as weavers or clothworkers including one Ezekiel Troyford, aged 81, probably one of the many of the buildingÕs previous inhabitants unable to adjust to the Machine Age. Another clothmaker, Theresa Love, aged 19, may have been responsible for the faintly discernible inscription ÔLOVEÕ inside the beehive-shaped stone building used as a drying house for the woollen cloth. In Workhouse days, it was used as a lock-up and mortuary. In a report by the Poor Law Inspectors dated 1864, the inspectors cited the following observations among many: “ÉTwo wards are fitted up on each side of the house exclusively for infectious cases É.. The adult inmates are supplied with flock beds, the children with straw beds. Washing troughs are provided in all wards É.. The men are employed in garden work and breaking stones; the women in washing and needlework É.. There is a paid nurse É.. assisted by pauper nurses É.. There is a chaplain É..”

The building ceased to be workhouse in 1914 and, during the First World War was used briefly as a convalescent home for wounded soldiers. The wards were named after districts around Bradford, the people of each district being responsible for the social welfare of the men in the ward of its name. The wounded were brought to Avoncliff by rail, and daily a Red Cross boat ran along the Kennet and Avon Canal, into Bradford, taking convalescing men into the town. Mr. Ted Powell, of Bradford-on-Avon, has told me how he and his sister ran from Bradford to Avoncliff with a horse and led the horse, pulling the boat back to Bradford, before they went to school. In Mr. Powell’s words, “In summer it was fun, but in winter it was a terrible job!” One of the former patients recalled that patriotic inn keepers in Bradford would often provide the soldiers with free beer and, returning by barge along the canal they were greeted by sympathetic nurses with stretchers to carry the legless back to their wards.

Its conversion in 1922, when it became The Old Court Hotel, saw the chapel converted into a ballroom and restaurant and later, during the second World War, valuable artifacts from the British Museum were stored for safety in its basement. The Hotel had a fine porter’s lodge, with a bell tower and a clock, which was sold for £16 when the lodge was demolished, and later resold at Sotheby’s for £16,000. There was no need to go outside Avoncliff for entertainment – the hotel provided for all tastes; tennis, croquet, table-tennis, and billiards, as well as having a fine dance floor. It was called “A Gem in the Avon Valley”.

The Old Court Hotel closed in 1948 and the building remained empty until 1952 when it was bought by the Dell family who started converting it into 14 flats to house themselves, their eight grown-up children and their families their plans were abandoned before completion. Following 2 more brief changes of ownership, the property was acquired by Anthony & Prudence Dunsdon in 1971. They took residence in 1972 with their 7 children (Isabel, Aidan, Julia, Alice, Thomas, Phillip and Edmund) and spent the next 18 years, using mainly re-claimed materials, to improve the interior of the building. In 1987 they decided to return the flats into individual homes based on the original weavers cottages. They commissioned Bath architects Tim Organ & Hans Klaentschi to carry out the project which involved gutting the interior without altering the character of its grade 2 listed facade. Builders PRC took nearly 2 years to complete the development, depositing huge quantities of soil on the 2 acre plot (originally the work house gardens and site of the school for the children of its inmates).

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1851 – Work House
The 1851 census recorded that on 30 March there were 249 occupants of the Bradford Work House – 13 officers and 236 paupers’: Twelve of the later were identified as weavers or clothworkers including one Ezekiel Troyford, aged 81, probably one of the many of the buildings previous inhabitants unable to adjust to the ‘Machine Age’. Another clothmaker, Theresa Love, aged 19, may have been responsible for the family discernible inscription LOVE inside the beehive-shaped stone building used as a drying house for the woolen cloth. In Workhouse days, it was used as a lock-up and mortuary. The building ceased to bea workhouse in 1914 and was used briefly as a convalescent home for wounded soldiers. One of the former patients recalled that patriotic inn Keapers in Bradford would often provide the soldiers with free beer and, returning by barge along the canal they were greeted by sympathetic nurses with stretchers to carry the legless back to their wards.

1922 – The Old Court Hotel
Its conversion in 1922, when it became the ‘Old Court Hotel’, saw the chapel converted into a ballroom and restaurant and later, during the second World War, valuable artifacts from the British Museum were stored for safety in its basement The Old Court Hotel closed in 1948 and the building remained empty until 1952.

1971
It was then brought by the Dell family who started converting it into 14 flats. Following 2 more brief changes of ownership, the property was acquired by Anthony & Prudence Dunston in 1971. They moved in in 1972 with their 7 children and spent the next 18 years, using mainly re-claimed materials, to improve the interior of the building.

1987
In 1987 they decided to return the flats into individual homes based on the original weavers cottages. They commissioned Bath architects Tim Organ & Hans Klaeutschi to carry out the project which involved gutting the interior without altering the character of its grade 2 listed facade. Builders PRC took nearly 2 years to complete the development, depositing huge quantities of soil on the 2 acre plot ( originally the work house gardens and site of the school for the children of its inmates).

1993 – Underground House
It was on this piece of land that Anthony Dunston had the idea of using the redundant stone reservoir (which used to supply the workhouse with water) as a possible site for an underground house. He asked Hans Klaentschi, responsible for the Ancliff Square conversion to draw up plans for the project. An application to build it was submitted to the West Wiltshire district Council in November 1993. though it received widespread local support, final planning approval was not given (following a public enquiry) until February 1995.

1995
Construction of the underground house by local builders: Shelland & Winter, began in April 1995 and was completed in august 1997. The Dunston family moved in the beginning of September and began the process of landscaping the huge mound of soil left over from the excavation for the underground dwelling, now named Ancliff Down. Many of the materials used in the re-making of the landscape were stones and pavings from the former workhouse school and from the old reservoir – specifically the stone steps up the banks ( slabs from the floor of the reservoir). Flagstones which had originally paved workhouse floors and the staudary stones, dug up when the site was excavated.

Click here to view the Bradford on Avon’s Museum Article about Ancliff Square

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The central, twin-gabled, portion of The Cross Guns is the oldest part of the building, though its exact age is not known. The Deeds, dated 1712, state that it was built 100 years earlier, as an inn, but the fireplace has been dated by several people at 1550. It was probably used by quarrymen, mill-workers and people using the ford across the river. Beer was brewed on the premises, and brewing “holes” have been found in the stable floor. Earth and stones from the canal bed were piled against the back of the Cross Guns during the construction of the canal, which necessitated the brick-ing up of all ground floor windows at the back of the pub.

During the lifetime of the canal the bargees frequented the pub, often staying overnight, stabling their horses in the stable adjoining the pub and in the stables behind the railway halt. which have recently been converted into a house. A landlord in Bradford found old records stating that a landlord of the Barge Inn took “ladies of the town” to the Cross Guns for the bargees general amusement on Saturday nights. But the bargees did not rely entirely on the ladies for amusement they bet each other to climb up the inside of the chimney when the fire was lit. Having reached the top they were prevented from returning down by their fellows who had stoked the fire!

One former landlord of the Cross Guns also owned one of the mills and wages of mill-workers were partially paid in his own tokens, which had to be spent in the pub. In 1981, the landlord still had one of these tokens which, it is believed, dates from approximately 1805, when coins were in short supply. Millworkers Token Ale is still being sold in the Cross Guns in the year 2000.

On 31 December 1999, the local residents of Avoncliff and the surrounding area gathered in the Cross Guns to celebrate the new millennium. The festivities were organised by a small committee of residents and included the Pantomime ‘Cinderella’, produced and acted by residents, and a fireworks display launched from the tow-path on the north-western edge of the aqueduct.

Click here to read reviews from beerintheevening.com a website where customers write reviews on pubs across the country

In 1880 it was used as a flock mill, and was used in the same trade until the Second World War, when it was owned by William Selwyn, who lived in Avonvilla. The present mill is dated 1883.

The mill on the Westwood side of the river was also originally a corn mill, and there are records of a mill standing on the site at the beginning of the eighteenth century. In 1763 it was converted into a fulling mill. In December 1791 an inquest was held on William Gibbence, aged 12, “who with many others, younger as well as older, was employed at Ancliffe Mill in Westwood in managing and working the late improved machines and engines for cloth making, and having inadvertently, in his playtime, buckled one part or end of a long strap of leather round his waist the other end was taken hold of by a large upright piece of timber, called the mainshaft, constantly going round, turning and working the engines, whereby he was whirled round with great force, his body bruised, his limbs shattered and beaten off, so that he was instantly dead”. In the year 2000, the residents and owners of that part of the Mill, now known as Weavers Mill, state that despite its name, the house has never, in fact, been used for weaving and that the ghost of William Gibbence does not trouble them.

The mill has had many owners over the years and, at one stage, appears to have been occupied by the miller, an agricultural labourer and three prostitutes. It was, eventually, bought by William Selwyn, of Avonvilla, and residents of Avoncliff can remember both mills being used as flock mills. Flock was made from old clothes, stripped and washed – local children searched the pockets of the clothes for money and objects of interest. The two mills were connected by a length of wire, above the weir, to which a boat was attached to carry things from one mill to the other.

In 1901, a disastrous fire resulted in the almost total destruction of the Mill, which was known then as the Avoncliff Rag and Flock Mills. After the 1939 – 45 war, the mill on the Winsley side was first used to manufacture chlorophyll and, later, firelighters. It has stood empty for many years.

The mill on the Westwood side was more fortunate – it became a tea garden, with boat~rides on the river. It is now an entirely private residence and still has the mill workings under the house. The mill race is regularly visited by kingfishers and is home to a variety of aquatic life including pike, eels, and tiddly fish of all kinds.

The aqueduct has a central elliptical arch of 60ft span with two side arches each semicircular and 34ft across, all with V-jointed arch stones. The spandrel and wing walls are built in alternate courses of ashlar masonry, and rock-faced blocks. The cutwaters are continued up as graceful splay-sided buttresses, and across the top is drawn a Corinthian entablature, not a slavish copy of some Roman original, but a simplified version, Rennie’s own design. The abutment walls have the attractive concave batter and are terminated by square buttresses and wing walls. The marks of the stone masons who have worked on the aqueduct over more than 200 years can be clearly seen; the ancient alongside the modern.