Thursday 3rd April 2014 Oxford Canal Walk Ramble 5.

Thursday 3^rd April 2014 Oxford Canal Walk Ramble 5.

Starting from  Napton Marina (Bridge 109) and going to Priors Hardwick (Bridge 124)

6 miles (+ about ¾ mile walk into Priors Hardwick village)

Sadly, I was laid low with a cold and was unable to join the walk along this section, but I am going to attempt to write the blog, with Ian’s pictures and information from others (thank you).

I know that Margaret C was also disappointed not to be able to walk too, but glad to hear she is feeling better. That left ten - Dot, Margaret, Hugh, Peter, Sue, Julie, John, Ian, Jem and Sue – to enjoy a rural bus ride from Priors Hardwick through Napton-on-the-Hill village to the marina on the once a week service.

Amusing signs were seen by The Bridge PH, said to be haunted, inviting you to leave husbands there in the pub crèche! I hope that they don’t scare easily.

 

It wasn’t a clear day, but murky, due to unprecedented high levels of pollution combined with Saharan dust that appears as a mist in all the pictures. This must have reduced the visibility of the surrounding landmarks. The windmill near the top of the 120m high Napton hill is something boaters look out for and can just be made out in the picture from near to Brickyard Bridge (No 112). The windmill is a private residence now but it is thought that one has been there from 1543.

A picture of the windmill was stamped onto bricks and tiles that were made (at the rate of 35,000 per day at one time) very close to this spot by the canal. The brickworks (Nelson, Watson and Co.) started in 1910 and closed in the early 1970s. Clay was dug locally and fired in the longest kiln in Europe, before being transported along a small tramway to the canal wharf where boats took the bricks to London, to the local railway station and elsewhere.

Now there are plans to redevelop the area and build homes and smaller industrial units.

Near here today were sheep in a variety of colours from white to black, some of them Jacobs perhaps. Nearer to lock 12, water buffalo were grazing in the nearby field, where they are kept for Mozzarella cheese or burgers? Or both? 

Altogether, I think, three pill boxes (of the Stent FW3/26 type) were seen along this stretch of the canal, all built using prefabrication construction methods. Also, by bridge No. 116, two octagonal anti-tank traps are still in good shape and their huge size is obvious from the picture. These defences were built during WW2 as part of a stop line across the countryside, in case of invasion.

Spring has certainly sprung and more than 13 species of flowers were spotted blooming along the towpath including celandines and cowslips. Plenty of birds were seen too along this rural stretch of the canal, including ducks, a willow warbler and Canada geese.

Now on the southern section of the Oxford canal, where no ‘straightening’ has been carried out, there are some tight bends (boaters are warned by a notice at one). Also, starting from The Folly PH (formerly the Bull and Butcher PH and a farmhouse) there is a series of 9 locks. The canal rises and near here is the short Old Engine House arm where once, in an attempt to improve water levels at the summit, coal was delivered to a stationary steam engine that pumped water back up to the top pound.

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Nearing the end of the walk, more industrial buildings and works were seen at Marston Doles, once a wharf and a boat sped past before we left the canal to walk back into Prior’s Hardwick.