[1] With your transport secured, walk back down Britten’s Hill and turn right at the crossroads. Walk with care as far as the Somerset Inn (now closed), then cross to a kissing gate opposite. Beyond, follow the track down the field going through the kissing gate ahead then going half-right to a further kissing gate on the right.
(A) You are following the course of a tramway serving collieries to the south; the grassy embankment can be clearly seen ahead.
Go through a further kissing gate at the bottom of the field and continue to another on the right in the far corner. Beyond this, go left and walk down the edge of the field to cross a metal footbridge over the Cam Brook, then go half-right to the remains of the canal.
(B) Before you is Paulton Basin. Along with Timsbury basin, these formed the canal’s terminus. There is also a dry dock here that could accommodate two boats. Paulton Basin served six collieries to the south, all linked by tramways. Timsbury Basin took coal from seven pits scattered around the countryside to the north. All these pits had closed by the 1860s.
Construction of the canal began in 1794 as a cheaper means of transporting Somerset coal to the markets in Bath and surrounding areas. The canal was to have two arms, with connecting tramroads to the pits. Starting at Dundas Aqueduct on the Kennet & Avon, the Paulton arm passed through Monkton Combe, Midford, Combe Hay, Dunkerton and Camerton, ending at Paulton. At Midford, the other branch headed towards Radstock via Wellow and Writhlington. The canal was one of the most successful in the country, carrying over 100,000 tons of coal per year by the 1820s. However, this prosperity was soon to be halted by the coming of the railways and the working out of the coal seams. The official liquidator tried to sell the canal as a going concern in 1894 but to no avail, and closure came in 1898. In 1904 the abandoned canal was sold to the Great Western Railway, who in 1907-10 built the Camerton to Limpley Stoke railway over much of its course. By 1951 the GWR branch line had also closed, losing out to road transport.
[2] Turn right and climb the stile , then walk ahead, passing the site of the dry dock on your left. Continue for a short distance with the Cam Brook to your right, then go left over a stile. In front of you was the entrance lock to Paulton Basin. Now go right, go through a kissing gate and walk ahead with the canal bed to your left. Go through two further kissing gates, after which you find yourself walking in the canal bed with the tree-covered Withy Mills colliery tip up to your left. At the end of the canal bed (where trees have been planted) pass on the left a wigwam and other "hippy" dwellings and take the walkway and go through the kissing gate.
(C) Over to your right is the site of Radford Colliery wharf. Radford Colliery, to the south, opened in the 1790s and closed in 1847. The final stretch of the canal between Radford and Paulton opened in 1799. It was this section that was the first to suffer from lack of maintenance and fall into disrepair.
[3] After around 100 metres, cross the farm drive and proceed alongside an electric fence to a gate. Go through and follow the surfaced path, noticing the railway embankment above the canal. Go through another gate to reach a lane. The car-breaker's yard covers the canal here. There is an information board about the mines.
[4] Turn right and follow the lane, passing Radford Mill on your right. Keep with the lane as it turns right, then continue to the road where you turn left.
[5] Follow the road into the village of Radford, passing the first turning right ((If you require refreshment, the Old Malthouse Hotel is a short walk up this road), then taking the second one (Durcott Road but no sign). Continue along the road, and beyond the fencing on the left, you pick up the course of the canal, which ran parallel to the road.
[6] When you reach bungalows on the right go left at the footpath sign and through a dismantled railway bridge. Beyond this, you enter a garden through which the Right of Way passes, so please take care here! Follow the footpath sign sharp left up to a garage, then half-right on a grassy path with the garden to your right. At the top, you come to a tarmac drive.
[7] Directly in front of you is a gate in the field boundary, don’t take this, but turn right and proceed towards the house on the obvious path – this was the towpath, the canal is down to your left – and walk behind the house keeping very much to the same line across the garden and passing through several gates. You now follow the path into the village of Camerton, where much has changed since the days of the waterway. Beyond the line of modern bungalows on the right, a flight of steps leads down to the road. Ignore these, but notice the large house following, almost obscured by trees.
(D) This was the Jolly Collier pub (originally the Camerton Inn). It faced the canal when built but later turned its face to the road. It closed around 1991 and is now a private house.
[8] The path emerges into Canal View, continue to the main road, cross, and go through the gate opposite.
(E) This nature reserve was the site of Camerton Old Pit (opened in the 1780s, closed 1898). From here, the first coal-laden boats were loaded for the inaugural trip to Dunkerton on October 1st 1798. The fibreglass statue of a miner once stood in front of the Jolly Collier pub, and the metal hatch in the ground nearby caps the mine shaft. The canal wharf, which stood only a few yards away was filled in long ago.You may want to spend a little time in the reserve, climbing the batch before returning to the road.
Back onto the road, walk up the hill for a short distance, then go right, through the metal gates of ‘Woodside’. Go through this new development and on, along a track – the course of an old tramway that connected the two Camerton pits – with the canal visible down to your right, below the spoil tip.
(F) You soon reach more mining relics – the bungalow on the right was the canteen for Camerton New Pit (opened in 1794, closed 1950), and this levelled area was the site of the colliery workings.
[9] When you reach a cross-track, go ahead through the wooden gate into the garden of the house, then pass to the right of the house and outbuildings, going through a metal gate into a field. The canal is again on your right, with the spoil tip of Camerton New Pit beyond.
You begin your return route now, by heading up the hill across the field to a fence. There are stiles at both ends of the fence, you need to head for the top left one. If the gate is open, pass through, otherwise climb the stile and turn immediately left, then take the track up to the left to reach Sheep House Farm.
[10] Go through the metal gate and on, through a second one. Now walk down to the bottom of the track and continue diagonally up across the field passing close to the middle (brown) electricity pole. On reaching the top right corner, climb the stile and turn hairpin left uphill, going along the field edge with the boundary to your left. As this boundary bears left walk ahead over the field (if this has crops, blaze a trail and be aware of the drainage ditch), skirting the end of the hedgerow on your right. Head across the field aiming to the right of the whitewashed houses, and exiting the field via a gate in the far boundary.
[11] Cross the road and turn left into Meadgate, which, as you keep left, becomes Weekesley Lane. Beyond the last of the cottages the road begins to descend more steeply. Ignore first "slow" sign on road and continue down to near the bottom of the hill, to a kissing gate on the right, just before another ‘slow’ sign and yellow markers painted on the road.
[12] Go through the gate and follow the path between wire fences, with the spoil tip of Lower Conyger Pit, (opened 1858, closed 1916) up to your right. The path leads you beneath the tramway incline; at the far side go right, with a stream on your left, to reach a stile. Climb the steepish field beyond going quarter right to a further stile by a gate in the far boundary, go over and turn left along the track to reach a road.
[13] Turn left and walk for a short distance, then go through a kissing gate on the right. Walk down the field, to the bottom left, through two kissing gates and continue down the meadow to cross a brook. Now turn left to a further gate that gives access to a lane. Go through the gate opposite and cross the field with the hedge to your left, then pass through the left-hand of a pair of gates to pick up a track through a market garden.
[14] Here, you are walking above your outward route with the railway at the bottom of the field. Ignore paths left and right, and continue into the farmyard, passing to the left of the barns. Follow the track up to the right, keeping to the right of the farmhouse, and go through the metal gate ahead, keeping to the track with the railway embankment clearly visible at the bottom of the field on the left.
Now look for a gate ahead, go through and continue ahead along a path that becomes a driveway with a house on your right. Continue on, ignoring a track joining from the right.
[15] Pass Withy Mills colliery on the left (opened 1815, closed 1877). and further along as a track joins from the left, climb the stile ahead to enter a field.
(G) Across the bottom of this field ran two tramroads serving the northern collieries. As they reached Timsbury Basin, they split into four, to facilitate unloading onto the waiting barges.
Head downhill towards the bottom left of the field (which may be cropped). You can see the railway embankment and the gap where the bridge was, with Timsbury basin beyond. Go through the metal gate by the remains of the bridge; Paulton Basin is to your left, Timsbury Basin is ahead.
[16] Go round to the right of Timsbury Basin and head for the trees where you go through a gate and cross the stream via the only remaining original tramway bridge. Follow the path ahead with a spoil tip on the left to reach a tarmac drive by water treatment works, the site of Paulton Engine Colliery. Go left along the drive, picking up a footpath with wire fence on your right, then pass through a kissing gate.
[17] Spend a few minutes reading the information board, then go ahead to a driveway and follow it, bearing right up the hill. Keep on the drive, going left at all junctions and eventually reaching a roadway. Follow this to the main road and cross into Britten’s Hill to retrieve your transport.