200 yards. Turn left at m for Knook crossroads along a track which becomes a path.. Beyond the field on the right is a sewage farm for Knook Army Camp.This,then called Heytesbury Camp, was one of those opened in World War 1 in the Wylye Valley when huge numbers of soldiers were encamped in the Wylye Valley with quick rail connections to Southampton. The present buildings are all later.The camp has heavy use by British and NATO troops exercises on Salisbury Plain. You may hear explosions and see helicopters and Hercules planes. You will come to a bridge across the Wylye River on the left. This is a well known trout stream, carefully managed to maintain the stock.
In the corrugated iron shed by the bridge there is still machinery (see below) for pumping water. A company called Dutch n Warminster provided much of the machinery for the local schemes which led to the false notion that the Dutch were involved - admittedly their specialty.
The sluice created a pool which was used for swimming until the 1950's . The photos below show a similar pool near Crockerton further up the Wylye with bathers before World War.
The remains of the sluice remained as a precarious plank across the river until the 1970's like this one further down stream in 2015 which in that year was replaced by a new sluice.
The water meadows were flooded deliberately in the early spring to make the grass grow for the sheep. The view across the water meadows would have looked something like this but this was natural flooding in January 2014 after months of heavy rain created ore or less a continuous lake in the meadows to Salisbury and beyond
Just beyond the bridge you will see the remains of a sluice that was used to control the water supply to the meadows. Nowadays it is usually dry. This image was taken as the one above in January 2014 From the bridge continue along the path above the river. Continue along the path above the river.
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