Caen Hill Flight

The Kennet & Avon canal near Devizes, Wilts.
At Caen Hill, Devizes, a flight of 29 locks was built to lift the Kennet and Avon canal 237 feet over a distance of two miles from the Avon Valley to the Vale of Pewsey. It is one of the major engineering feats of the canal era: the gradient is 1 in 44.
The middle section comprises 16 locks in a straight line. It was the last section of the canal to be built and was completed in 1810. For 30 or 40 years, the canal flourished, but the coming of the railways eclipsed its usefulness and it fell into a state of neglect.