Starting at Dukes Bridge I made my way East , on the southern side of the canal . I wasn’t planning to go far, just a few yards to see what the ducks and geese were doing, but I’d not walked down this way before and I got carried away – almost 2 miles away!
It’s a varied walk – ugly modern office buildings, sculpture (Reading Piece 2 by Peter Sainty 1982), older and prettier work buildings, a bridge by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Blake’s Lock, 2 nice pubs (The Fisherman’s Cottage & the Jolly Angler) and some countryside… and just a 10 minute walk away from the canal to one of England’s earliest garden cemeteries that contains a few listed buildings and monuments (and a small herd of Muntjac deer!) and is now, of course, made famous (in name at least) by Ricky Gervais’s latest film “Cemetery Junction”. You pass where the Huntley and Palmers factory was, now partly replaced by the Prudential, The Blake’s Lock Museum and a rather nice restaurant called ‘Bel and the Dragon’ (all of these are the other side of the canal).
Continued....................
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