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Kennet & Avon Canal - Semington Dock Goes Solar Powered

Semington Dock is a canal boat dry dock facility, situated between locks 15 and 16 on the Kennet and Avon Canal in Wiltshire

As part of its ongoing major redevelopment, Semington Dock on the Kennet and Avon canal has had nearly 15kW of Solar Panels installed on the roof. This will provide all the power needs for the dock, as well as the nearby home of owners Ian and Liz Williamson, and provide surplus power to feed back into the national grid. “We are ideally sited on a south facing slope to take advantage of this renewable energy source” explains Ian Williamson. “We are keen to run the dock on a sustainable basis wherever possible”.

The ambitious redevelopment plans were granted planning permission just before Christmas, and include constructing a brand new covered dry dock alongside the current dock, adding a long wet dock with slipway, and building a workshop designed for maintenance and repair of GRP trailer boats. Work started on the first phase of the build 2 weeks ago, coinciding with the winter stoppage programme on this section of the Kennet and Avon.

Ian and Liz, who live with their young family in the Lock House next door to the dock, took over the property just over a year ago, following the death of Harry Bell. Harry ran the dock under the name “Tranquil boats”.

The original dry dock was built in the 1970’s as a boat house, and has been adapted to provide covered repair and maintenance facilities for boats up to 70’ long and 14’wide. Ian says “we have been very pleased at the number of bookings in our first season since re-opening the business, and feel there is ample scope for increasing the capacity of the facilities here. We aim to offer everything a boat owner needs – from simple dry dock space for DIY blacking, to a full painting and repair service.”

For further information please contact

Semington Dock, Lock House,
545 Canal Bridge, Semington, BA14 6JT

Tel: 01380 870654

Email: info@semingtondock.co.uk

Website: www.SemingtonDock.co.uk