THE AQUEDUCT: 1819

The Aqueduct carries the canal over the River Avon and dominates the hamlet; unfortunately, its central arch sagged immediately after construction and John Rennie is said to have regretted using stone. The aqueduct consists of three arches and is 110 yards long. A stone at the top of the parapet in the bay on the railway halt side of the aqueduct bears the inscribed date of 1797. (There were vandals two hundred years ago!). 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.

View a plan of Avoncliff around 1800

INTRODUCTION

THE RESIDENTS

THE AQUEDUCT

THE MILLS

THE CROSS GUNS

ANCLIFF SQUARE

ANCLIFF DOWN

THE KENNET AND AVON CANAL

THE BOAT PEOPLE

THE RAILWAY