Before I begin, I want to shout out to my Enactus Ryerson students who I met yesterday in London at the Enactus World Cup. Enactus is a global organization that promotes entrepreneurship by administering competitions between worldwide universities that encourages student involvement in projects related to all facets of entrepreneurship. While Ryerson’s team finished third overall at the Canadian national championship (our environmental entrepreneurship team won the national championship in this category), certain members of the team came to London to witness the global championship. After spending most of the day with them watching the presentations, I couldn’t help but feel so proud of them and their representing of our school. They are the finest of the fine.
However, let me take you through our Thursday this week. As we were to leave tomorrow we used this last full day in Stroud to make sure that, in addition to getting some work done, we would also endeavor to travel east on the Cotswold Canal along the beginning of the Thames Severn Canal portion (see my blog from two days ago to get re-acquainted with the history of the canal). We started again at the foot of the apartment building we were staying at and joined the canal towpath. As you can see from the photo, we had a glorious sunny day for this trek.
Turning east we came upon where the trainline from London crosses the canal into Stroud. This viaduct not only provided a way for the train to cross the canal, but also had integrated into it the actual mill. At this site there had been a mill from the 1500s using the water energy from a relatively fast-flowing River Frome. Eventually, the canal was constructed to move boats carrying wool cloth to larger markets. The integrated mill was known as the Capel Mill and the restoration had been completed a few years ago, including the large basin which would have allowed for numerous boats to dock and load as well as room for turning around.
Beyond the Capel Mill we came to the point where the restoration work had reached its furthest point at this end. The canal towpath continued along for use as a foot/cycle path, but the canal itself had been taken over by mother nature. It reminded me of the story where scientists believed that if mankind were to drop off the face of this earth, our cities would be engulfed by vegetation in a very short time. It raised in my mind questions as to whether restoration of the canal at the expense of removing natural habitats was warranted.
However, it also meant that before long the towpath itself disappears at certain villages such ad Branscombe Port, and what was likely the site of a mill, now expanded into an industrial building site, has covered over the canal. The canal continued beyond but as the Ship Inn pub in Branscombe was not opening until 6 p.m. I convinced Angela that it was time to return back the way we came so that a post-walk ale was in order.
Ale of the Day: Big Climb Ale, Prescott Brewery, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
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