There’s something magical about stepping onto a canal towpath. The moment your feet touch that well-worn track, you enter what feels like a parallel universe—a gentler world where time moves at the pace of narrowboats and the most pressing concern is whether the lock ahead is in your favour.

My recent visit to Wiltshire’s most famous canal attraction, the Caen Hill Locks on the Kennet & Avon Canal, reminded me exactly why English waterways make such perfect settings for cozy mysteries. Here, connecting charming villages like Devizes, Seend, and Seend Cleeve, this engineering marvel and community gathering place revealed once again the authentic village charm that inspires Lucy Harford’s adventures aboard The Curious Cat.

A Marvel of Engineering and Community

The Caen Hill flight of 29 locks is one of Britain’s most spectacular waterway achievements, lifting boats 237 feet up the Wiltshire hillside in a staircase that took over a decade to build in the early 1800s. This remarkable feat of canal engineering now serves as a perfect waterway tourism destination, connecting the market town of Devizes with the peaceful villages of Seend and Seend Cleeve along the towpath. But what struck me most wasn’t the impressive engineering—it was the community that has grown around it.

As I watched from the bustling canal-side cafe halfway up the flight, the locks revealed themselves as a perfect microcosm of English village mystery life. Canal holiday-makers on tourist narrowboats moved through with excited enthusiasm, learning the ropes of lock operation, while weathered canal veterans navigated with the easy confidence of those who call the waterways home. Local volunteers shared knowledge and lent helping hands, their stories and expertise woven into every interaction—just like the close-knit communities in my Lucy Harford mysteries.

Where Every Journey Tells a Story

The cafe itself buzzes with the energy of a village hub. Cyclists pause between exploring the towpath, families with children watch in fascination as boats rise and fall in the locks, and boat crews share tales of their journeys. Everyone has a story—where they’ve come from, where they’re heading, what they’ve discovered along the way.

This is exactly the atmosphere I try to capture in Lucy’s world. In cozy mysteries, it’s not just about the puzzle to be solved, but about the web of relationships and stories that connect a community. The canal provides a natural crossroads where different lives intersect, creating the perfect backdrop for both friendship and mystery.

A Pub Where Two Worlds Meet

A short walk west along the towpath there is one of those perfect canal-side pubs where the waterway world meets the road. Here’s where the genius of canal communities really shows itself—while cars park discretely around the back, the real “front door” faces the water. Narrowboat moorings line the bank like a welcoming committee, and the pub’s heart clearly beats to canal time rather than road time.

Over lunch, I watched the constant flow of canal life: narrowboats arriving and departing, towpath walkers discovering the route for the first time, cyclists following the waterway’s gentle gradients. Each arrival brought new conversations, new connections, new stories—the kind of intersecting lives that drive the plots in Scarecrow Secrets and Hidden Secrets.

The Parallel Universe Effect

What fascinates me most about canal life is how it reveals a completely different dimension of existence running alongside our everyday world. Roads rush past above, carrying the urgent business of modern life, while down on the towpath, canal walking and cycling follow a more measured rhythm. Here, you notice things: the heron perched motionless in an overhanging tree, watching kayakers glide silently beneath its branch, the volunteer explaining lock mechanisms to curious children, the way narrowboat communities look out for each other.

This “parallel world” quality is what makes canals such rich territory for cozy mysteries. The waterway connects the nearby villages like Devizes, Seend, and Seend Cleeve in ways that roads simply can’t match. These Wiltshire communities exist in both worlds simultaneously—accessible by car and bus, yet also part of the timeless canal network where narrowboat breaks bring visitors who arrive by water rather than tarmac. Each village reveals different faces to road travellers and canal wanderers, creating the perfect dual identity that English village mysteries love to explore.

Lucy’s narrowboat The Curious Cat becomes not just transportation, but a bridge between these worlds—allowing her to observe and understand communities from a unique perspective that even local residents might miss.

Research for Lucy’s World

As a mystery writer, I’m always gathering inspiration from real places and real people (suitably anonymised, of course!). The locals and the visitors, those who arrived by water and those who came by road, village folk and narrowboat inhabitants – all remind me that every cozy mystery needs characters who are genuinely passionate about their world. The mix of holiday-makers and full-time boaters provides the perfect blend of insider knowledge and fresh perspectives that drive good mysteries.

Finding the Cozy in Real Life

What struck me most about my day around Caen Hill in the glorious sunshine, was how naturally it embodied everything readers love about cozy mysteries. The sense of community, the slower pace that allows for real observation, the way strangers become temporary allies when working the locks, and the underlying feeling that this waterway world operates by gentler, more generous rules than the rushing world above.

For Lucy Harford, and for all of us who find solace in cozy mysteries, places like Caen Hill prove that such communities aren’t just fictional fantasies—they’re real, they’re thriving, and they’re waiting just a towpath away from our everyday lives.

The next time you’re seeking inspiration for cozy mystery settings, or simply need a reminder that slower, kinder worlds still exist, find your nearest canal. Step onto that towpath, and discover the parallel universe that’s been flowing quietly alongside our hurried world all along.

What’s your favourite “parallel world” place? I’d love to hear about the communities and settings that inspire your own sense of cozy mystery in the comments below.