Old Canal · Romsey Walk the towpath
51° 00′ N · 1° 30′ W — Romsey, Hampshire

A canal
closed in 1859.
Walked today.

The Andover Canal opened in 1794 — twenty-two miles of water, twenty-four locks, a fall of one hundred and seventy-nine feet from Andover Wharf to Redbridge. Today its towpath runs quietly from the Plaza to Timsbury: a waterway walked into a stream, a stream walked into life.

Trace the route → Read its history
The surviving stretch of the Old Canal near Romsey, Hampshire — still water, overhung willows, low mist
Pl. 01 — Towpath, looking south Andover Canal · Romsey stretch
§ 01

The story of a lost waterway

Inland waterways have always offered an alternative to roads for the transport of goods, and to a lesser extent people. Some rivers are well suited to the purpose; others can be made use of with a certain amount of civil engineering. The Test valley was neither — and so, in 1794, the Andover Canal was cut.

It ran twenty-two miles from Andover to Redbridge through Stockbridge and Romsey, parallel for much of its length to the River Anton and the River Test. Twenty-four locks lowered boats a hundred and seventy-nine feet over the full course. Traffic was thin. Profits were thinner. The canal never quite paid.

In 1859 it was closed. Much of its course through Romsey was built over for the railway, the locks were dismantled, and the water — left to its own devices — slowly turned the old cut into a stream.

“As the historical character has diminished, so the wildlife interest has increased. The canal is visible today as a waterway from the Plaza to the A3057 at Timsbury — and the route of the old towpath can be walked for the whole of this stretch.”
§ 02

A chronology in nine entries

1759

The canal age dawns

The Duke of Bridgewater's canal opens at Worsley. Within a generation, every market town in England imagines its own waterway to the sea.

1789

An Act, a survey, a plan

Local landowners and merchants petition Parliament for a canal linking Andover — a thriving corn market — to Southampton Water at Redbridge.

1794

The Andover Canal opens

Twenty-two miles, twenty-four locks, three aqueducts (including one over the River Anton and one over the Test). Barges carry coal, slate, timber and salt inland; corn, malt and timber out.

1802

A branch that never was

The Salisbury & Southampton Canal scheme aims to join Salisbury to the Andover Canal at Kimbridge — and so give Wiltshire a water route to the sea. The scheme fails within a few years.

1840s

The railway arrives

The London & South Western Railway reaches Winchester and Southampton. Barge traffic on the canal collapses almost overnight.

1859

Closed, sold, and built upon

The canal is formally abandoned. The railway company purchases much of the route; the line to Salisbury is laid along the old canal bed through Romsey.

c.1900

A stream, quietly

The remaining open water — Plaza to Timsbury — loses its locks, its banks soften, willows self-seed along the towpath. The canal becomes, functionally, a stream.

1970s

Rediscovered by walkers and naturalists

The Romsey & District Society begins to document the canal's history, its surviving earthworks, and the wildlife that has colonised the cut.

Today

Walked, watched, written about

The towpath is a public footpath. Herons, kingfishers, water voles and the odd otter are recorded along the cut. Our work continues — autumn bird walks, gallery evenings, the next newsletter.

§ 03

From the Plaza to Timsbury

Nine miles of walkable towpath survive through Romsey. The canal's course is visible as water for the entire length; the old towpath runs beside it. Below: a sketch of the surviving stretch, with the railway marked where it overran the original cut.

River Test — original canal course — built over 1859 — Plaza ROMSEY · KM 0 Rooksbury KM 1.4 Fishlake KM 4.2 Timsbury A3057 · KM 5.8 N Schematic — not to scale
0 km
The Plaza, Romsey
Southern end of town · start
1.4
Rooksbury Mill
Old mill site · weir
4.2
Fishlake Meadows
SSSI · wetland reserve
5.8
Timsbury · A3057
Northernmost visible water
§ 04

What the canal became

With the locks gone and the water left to find its own level, the old canal has become something its eighteenth-century engineers would not recognise. It is, today, one of the richer wildlife corridors in the lower Test valley.

The still, slow water suits kingfishers; the overhanging willows suit herons. Reed canary-grass and yellow flag iris crowd the banks. In a good year, water voles are recorded along the cut, and the autumn bird walk — a fixture of the Natural Environment Committee's calendar — turns up everything from little egrets to mandarin duck.

  • Kingfisher Alcedo atthis
  • Grey heron Ardea cinerea
  • Little egret Egretta garzetta
  • Water vole Arvicola amphibius
  • Mandarin duck Aix galericulata
  • Brown trout Salmo trutta
“
The towpath between Romsey and Timsbury is one of those rare places where a working industrial relic has been quietly handed back to its inhabitants — feathered, furred and otherwise.
— Natural Environment Committee, Autumn Walk 2022
❄Winter
Snipe · Teal
✿Spring
Heronry · Iris
☀Summer
Dragonflies
🍂Autumn
Bird Walk
§ 05

Walk with us

The towpath is open year-round.

Access is free. Footwear can be muddy after rain — the canal is, after all, a stream now. The most rewarding stretch, for both history and wildlife, runs from the Plaza in central Romsey north past Fishlake Meadows to the A3057 at Timsbury.

We lead walks each season — the Autumn Bird Walk in particular is long-standing, and the Fishlake Walks run through spring and summer. New walkers are always welcome.

  • Allow 2–3 hours for the full Plaza → Timsbury stretch (one way).
  • Pick up the towpath behind the Plaza, Romsey, opposite the bus station.
  • Dogs welcome under close control — ground-nesting birds in spring.
  • The walk is flat throughout, on a soft earthen path.
Get in touch

Old Canal Romsey

Where Romsey, Hampshire
SO51 · Test Valley
Hours Towpath open daily, dawn to dusk
Post c/o Romsey & District Society
Telephone 01794 000 000