Caen Hill

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Caen Hill is a steep hill at the western edge of the town of Devizes in Wiltshire, England. The hill probably gets it name from Richard of Caen, Bishop of Salisbury in the 12th century, who rebuilt Devizes castle in stone.

Caen Hill features a flight of locks, constructed to raise the Kennet and Avon Canal into Devizes from the west. The main flight of 16 locks forms part of a longer series of 29 locks. The total rise is 237 feet in just 2 miles (72 m in 3.2 km), making Caen Hill the steepest flight of locks in the world.

After the coming of the railways, the canal fell into disuse, and closed. From the 1960s there was a major clearing and rebuilding operation, culminating in a visit by Queen Elizabeth II in 1990 to officially open the new locks and the flight (although the flight had been navigable for a number of years before then).