Children celebrate Boats, bugs and a birthday

School children celebrate the Kennet and Avon canal's 200th anniversary

During a sunny week in June 2010 over 300 school children and adults helped to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Kennet and Avon Canal in Devizes. The children discovered that the side ponds by Caen Hill locks are a perfect habitat for a variety of wildlife including mayfly and damselfly nymphs, shrimps and water boatmen and even a water scorpion! The children also visited the museum at the wharf in Devizes, tested the echo under a bridge during a boat trip, dressed up in canal boaters’ costumes and learnt some new boating vocabulary from members of the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust. All the children now know how to ‘wind’ a boat and ‘cheese’ a rope. One teacher commented ‘The whole day was fantastic, well organised and had a much better educational focus compared with other school trips.’ For more pictures and information check out www.katrust.org.uk.