WILTS & BERKS CANAL TRUST

When is Swindon's long strip of jaded and evil smelling green -and black-waterway to be improved?.Or better still be obliterated in so decisive a manner that it will leave no room for the many offensive remarks which are now made upon everything in general with regard to Swindon by newly arrived visitors, who evidently hasten to the conclusion that the laxity of the "canal" is a hint of similar lethargic methods on the part of those looked upon to have the interests of the town at heart.

Running as it does directly through the principal business thoroughfare of Swindon, the presence of such a stagnant, weed-grown and evidently keenly sought and popularly-utilised receptacle for decrepit tins and dilapidated earthenware, the impression created is one which cannot cast a pleasant reflection upon the community in general.

Numerous are the suggestions which have been put forward for the improvement or absolute deportation into obscurity of this one-time busy water-way.

It is not an age since the canal was busy serving the objects of the promoters, and there are many respected inhabitants who can boast of a vivid recollection of the barges which plied, heavily laden-or with the object of being heavily laden-up and down the canal, the rollicking mannerisms of the gay bargee, and the measured tramp of the massive horses, which were urged -ayo, and even guided -along the tow path by the deep voiced directions of the said gay bargee.

At the same time he lolled listlessly on the tiller, engaged either in domestic discussion with his better half, or in rolling over and over with his naked feet a collection of motley -clothed grinning little elfs who would dash out at him in fiendish delight from the rear of oily barrels or tarpaulin-covered stacks.

One may still hear the laughing children at play along the banks of the canal, but not as in those days of quaint and pretty scenes. Then they run along the tow-path cheering on the horse to renewed effort, found abundant amusement in watching the white-topped wavelets which were churned up by the flat-nosed craft, exchanged childish greetings with the bargee's bairns whom they watched with envious eyes-oh for a home on the water! Until a curve in the canal or a rapidly-descending misty veil hid them prematurely from view.

Still the present juvenile generation make pleasure(?) along the banks- in manufacturing mud-puddings, or fishing with all the patience of job for glistening and highly coloured tins. Which were once the oily homes of so many small fish, or of another species of meat-food reduced to paste.  Surely pleasure or business on a much more extensive and useful scale could yet be derived from our "canal".An imaginative or inventive brain will assuredly some day enlighten our dim resourcefulness as to the modus operandi which should be adopted either to improve or bury- the only alternative - this old commercial connection. Now visitors from the land of the big things seem to be blessed with extensive and observant minds, and things, great or small, good or bad, are seemingly viewed by them through exaggerating glasses.

A few day's ago the writer of these lines was interested in the opinions expressed by an American visitor as to what "they should do over there". If there was no possible chance of successfully reviving this dead commercial "concern" they --always speaking collectively -would no doubt with all the hurry and bustle with which such operations are carried out in America "proceed to drain away the concoction of mud and water and I guess everything which is not wanted at home" and fill in the vacant water-bed with concrete, thus providing a most desirable footway through the town. A very amenable way of covering somebody's sins I replied. Another suggestion which this over-seas tourist put forward was even more elaborate. It was that the canal should be cleansed, avenues of trees planted along its banks by the various members of the ruling body, and members of their family and relatives, and that pleasure boats should be floated.

He felt assured that they would be well patronised, and followed this up by unburdening himself of a most extensive and vivid design for a delicately arranged boat-house, with a suburbia fashioned lawn sweeping down to the water. I again assured him that his American ideas were good and well meant, but pointed out that there was one little obstacle to such a delightfully effective scheme, even if the Council approved of the idea, and that was that the municipal authorities were not entitled to speak the last word in the matter.

The Yankee sighed and looked over the bridge at the tins, jars, weds, and floating spars of one time gaily painted barges, and the skeleton-shapes of several which are lying high and dry on the banks.Then with an easily perceptible tone of regret and reproach he turned to me and said, "what a great pity".

With this statement I fully and firmly concurred.