england #20- the barge, another horse, marlborough in The England Chronicles - October 2010

Part ten zillion, five hundred and twelve of The England Chronicles. After sadly leaving Avebury, we headed to The Barge. Baker B kept telling us we HAD to go see The Barge. The Barge is a pub on a canal outside Alton Barnes, and is a hotbed of UFO and Crop Circle activity – so of course we were not about to miss that! We drove south from Avebury — it’s not very far at all, and our BFF the GPS took us pretty much right there. I think we did actually think to put the zip code in after we’d wandered around the teeny town of Alton Barnes, and that took us to a point where we spotted a sign directing us to The Barge. It’s very much out in the middle of nowhere. Gorgeous lovely Nowhere, like all of WIltshire.

Here’s a very weird thing I have JUST discovered: the 200 year old barn beside The Barge burnt down the night before we got there!! Something had obviously just happened, as there was a fence up right beside it and Police signs, but we didn’t realize it was “just” as in THE NIGHT BEFORE. But we were there on October 28, which is when the barn was vaporized by a UFO!!!! Or something.

{update from the future- I’m posting this on Prosebox in March of 2019, having realized my other two England trips are on both OD and PB, but this one was pre-PB. The Barge’s webpage currently says it’s for sale - it changed hands after our second trip in 2013 and then tragically closed after a very unsuccessful stint as an Italian restaurant run by French people who downplayed the UFO/Crop Circle connection - NOT a good idea. The community has been trying very hard to save it but couldn’t get enough money together. However, just in the last few days there’s been very exciting news- someone local has bought it and is reopening it soon, campground and all! This is very exciting as we spent lots of time there on our second trip and fell in looooove with it}

It was also not open for lunch, to our ENORMOUS disappointment. We were totally planning on eating there. It may have been winter hours — according to the home page, we just missed it. Very sad. But I’m totally going back. We still walked all around and took pictures and admired the view. And the Alton Barnes White Horse. Which is right there, across the canal from The Barge.

I’m SO sorry we didn’t get to go inside. It was built in 1810, burnt down and was rebuilt in 1858.

The canal runs right beside it, and is a very popular spot. There’s also camping spots available, I presume during the warmer seasons. Sadly they don’t still rent rooms, or we’d have tried to spend the night there.

SO obviously Baker B and I have to go back. He must investigate the UFOs and the Crop Circle mysteries —

Well, I don’t know why I can’t embed it, but here’s a

Sadly again, we set off in search of another pub. We headed back up toward Marlborough, but en route we got to see the Alton Barnes horse from another perspective —

And with other horses!

A whole horse family, eager to let us pet them – well, one was. The other two, not so interested.

This one really liked us, though.

As we drove away, he kept staring after us, so hopefully —

Awwwww. But we had to forge onward. We were trying to get back to Clevedon before TOO late, although at that point I figured I would just have to drive in the dark, since it was probably 4 by then and we still had to find somewhere to get some dinner. On the way back up towards Marlborough which is not far from Swindon and the M4 back to Clevedon, we saw one more White Horse – the Pewsey horse. I’m sorry to say I did not get a photo of the Pewsey horse. We were trying to hurry, and we couldn’t find anywhere to stop and get a good picture of it. Now I wish we’d tried a little harder, since of course I ended up driving back to Clevedon WAY past dark, and of course it was perfectly fine. But noooooo, we were still paranoid! And so we just saw the Pewsey horse in passing. After Kim nearly gave me heart failure by gasping at the sight of it. It was quite a distance off the road, unlike Hackpen Hill, but still impressive.

We had to go all the way back to Marlborough to find a place to eat dinner, but that was fine. Marlborough is yet another amazing little old town. And yet another place I’d LOVE to spend some more time.

It was actually a pretty good – sized place.

And VERY pretty. Unfortunately none of the pubs served food till six, and we were about to keel over and could not wait around till six. So we ended up eating at a French restaurant. Where I had what may have been the best hamburger I’ve ever had in my entire life.

And then we headed off once again for Clevedon. And our last evening in Wiltshire. Next stop…. the Glasontonbury Tor! And Stonehenge!

Last updated March 13, 2019