Riverside Walk, Sarum

Continuing the digression of the previous post into non-navigable waterways, I recently visited the Riverside Walk in Salisbury, once known as Sarum. Here's the map, which is less linear than normal, and pretty small:

Salisbury, like Canterbury, is an old medieval town centered on a cathedral. Unlike the Canterbury Cathedral, Salisbury was begun and finished in the mid-13th century, so it doesn't have the same ad hoc approach and mix of different styles. 

But like Canterbury, it has still had enough time to accumulate plenty of graffiti.

An experiment with the panorama feature. I think the graffiti actually adds something.

 The Riverside Walk--the standard name for such paths in the UK--runs along the West edge of the medieval town.

Facing North, to less interesting parts.

Facing South, toward the cathedral.

Headed south from here, the Walk runs down through a line of shops. As usual, the British do an excellent job of integrating old infrastructure with modern. I was pretty surprised by the incidence of swans.

Like many waterways, this one has become a waterfowl refuge.

The waterway continues South, to an old mill which it passes under and the approximate town center of Salisbury.

The tower in the background is the top of Salisbury Abbey, which remarkably still has its original wooden ceiling:

Another experiment with the panorama feature. The spine isn't as crooked as it appears here.

The towpath then passes through the mill, and the water emerges on the other side in two channels on different levels, shaded by large, old trees. The water is crisscrossed by several bridges, and concentrates again under the main road. The mill, no longer in operation, is now a restaurant that overlooks the water.

After collecting, the waterway moves along the edge of the old town. Evidence makes me think this was navigable for punting from this point on, but there was no traffic.

Mid-summer is a rainy, cool season in the British Isles, and with it the vegetation becomes very lush. The towpath enters a small park, and switches sides across an old stone bridge which passes along the North edge of the city's old wall.

Gardens lined the opposite bank, and backed right up to the water, producing some amazing overhanging plants.

Traces of the retaining wall are still visible in this tree's roots:

It reminded me of a print I picked up at Castle Market in Oxford last year. 

"Footbridge, Grasmere," by Gus Mills, 2009.

The waterway joins another one here, and heads South into the countryside, passing another old mill visible on the left bank. The towpath then swings North, following the other waterway, which is the left track taken on the map.

The end (of the land).

Although some of it was under (re)construction, the path, appropriately called Water Lane, runs past a row of comfortable-looking houses.

This concludes not only my trip to Salisbury, but my time along towpaths in the United Kingdom- for now. So many good towpaths left untrod! Yet there are also many miles of them in America, and I intend to find them.