One of the wonders of early industrial engineering, the Caen Hill Locks are a flight of 29 locks on the Kennet and Avon Canal, between Rowde and Devizes in Wiltshire. Built in 1820, the locks enable canal boats to change 72 metres in altitude in barely 3 kilometres, with the stretch around this lock being much steeper.
After the coming of the railways, the canal fell into disuse and was closed. The last cargo through the flight was a consignment of grain conveyed from Avonmouth to Newbury in October 1948. From the 1960s there was a major clearing and rebuilding operation, culminating in a visit by Queen Elizabeth II in 1990 to open the new locks officially, although the flight had been navigable for a number of years before then.
In 1810, this was the last section of the 140 kilometre long Kennet and Avon Canal to be completed. The canal links Bristol and Bath with Newbury in Berkshire, and therefore to London as well as to key early industrial centres in Central Southern England like Reading. Nowadays, the canal carries a substantial tourist traffic of some economic significance to the towns along it.
This description incorproates text from the English Wikipedia.
