Saturday 17th May 2014 Oxford Canal Walk Ramble 8

Saturday 17^th May 2014 Oxford Canal Walk Ramble 8

Cropedy (Bridge 153) to Banbury Centre (Bridge 168) which is approximately 4.5 miles.

In glorious sunshine we, that is Nigel, Glynis, Margaret, Clive, John, Julie, Margaret, Hugh, Dot and us set out from Cropredy to walk south on the mostly shady towpath of the canal. It is very close to here that on 29^th June 1644 during the English Civil War, Oliver Cromwell, (who based his operations in Banbury), attempted to open a way to Oxford. The Royalists, despite being less in numbers, thwarted this attempt scattering the army and protected Oxford. A plaque recalling this, the Battle of Cropredy Bridge, is on the nearby bridge over the Cherwell River. Cropredy is nowadays, perhaps, more well-known for the annual Cropredy Folk Festival, featuring Fairport Convention, when the village has 17,000 + visitors.

 Right from the beginning of the walk, we were aware of the canoe/running races taking place and worked out that they were from Cropredy (Banbury Canoe Club’s base) to Little Bourton Lock and back. At one point we passed 30+ canoes and kayaks left alongside the towpath (many pushed into the hedge) and at Slat Mill Lock we watched as the competitors portaged their boats around the lock. Runners from Cherwell Joggers were passing us many times (with us standing well back, not quite in the hedge!), too. It was all very busy and entertaining for an obviously very rural and picturesque section of the Oxford Canal. 

At Little Bourton lock we watched as a boat with two dogs (and owner) aboard went through. A little cottage stands close by and is not in a good state of repair. For 20 years, until 2006 when she died, a lady called Irene lived there. The cottage has no road access, no electricity or running water but could be so pretty and I guess was so once upon a time.

We carried on, passed under the M40 and into the environs of Banbury, which people know so well for the Cross (the surviving one, neo-gothic and 52 feet high, was built in 1859 and commemorates the marriage of Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter) and local traditional cakes similar to Eccles cakes. In Banbury now, Kraft processes coffee and custard powder on a large scale. We could smell the coffee and woke up to the fact that Kraft must employ a large number of people! As do Fine Lady Bakeries (with its name from the nursery rhyme) and, until recently, Alcan (aluminium working). 

In Spiceball Park, opposite Fine Lady Bakeries, and running alongside the canal, we stopped for a picnic and then made our way into the centre of Banbury. Here much has been made of the canal with museums, an art centre and railway station on one side and shopping centres and bus station (built where the canal wharf once was) on the otherside. Banbury lock, another lift bridge and Tooley’s Boatyard are right in the middle of this area and it all attracts many people, especially on a nice sunny day.  Tooley’s historic boatyard has been retained from the old Banbury canal docks etc. and looks slightly out of place now. It will always be associated with Tom Rolt and the narrowboat, Cressy, which was refitted here before going on an inland cruise in 1939. Tom Rolt wrote about this journey in his book, Narrowboat which became a classic and the basis for the movement to revive, restore and promote the use of canals again, after a neglected period when many had fallen into disrepair. Plaques commemorate Tom Rolt and a bridge is named after him. We also saw Heron another narrowboat that, I have since found out, went on a cruise retracing the Rolt’s original route as part of the Centenary celebrations in 2010.

We carried on the short distance to Bridge 168 and finished our walk here and went various ways. One couple went to a party and some others went ten-pin bowling in Banbury before returning to our cars in Cropredy using the bookable bus service (County Connect).

Thursday 1st May 2014 Oxford Canal Walk Ramble 7: Fenny Compton Wharf to Cropredy Wharf Bridge (153)

Thursday 1^st May 2014 Oxford Canal Walk Ramble 7.

Fenny Compton Wharf to Cropredy Wharf Bridge (153), which is approximately 6 miles.

We set out, in light drizzle, the ten of us (John, Julie, Jean, Margaret, Hugh, Jem, Sue, Margaret and us) and passed Fenny Marina where the canal bends beside the mainline railway. Just beyond here the canal was built within a tunnel, over 1 km long with passing places, in the late 1700s, in a gap between two hills. It is still called the ‘tunnel’ but it was opened up in stages about a hundred years later and is now a steep, wooded cutting. A graceful, cast iron roving bridge takes the towpath across the canal now and more recently a new road bridge has been constructed nearby to carry the A423.

Shortly, by the next bend, we heard and saw trains depart away from the canal route. Once a branch of the railway crossed the canal here but is now disused; a large embankment remaining but the link across the canal dismantled.

 We stopped to see the outfall from Wormleighton reservoir. The water from here and from Boddington Reservoir helps to maintain sufficient water levels in the summit pound of the canal during drier spells.

 Also near here, Ian stood by the Boundary (Oxfordshire/Warwickshire) lifting bridge with its heavy counterbalance beams that were renewed in 2005. Between Banbury and Oxford we are to see many similar bridges of this distinctive design.

 All around the meandering canal the fields looked lush and, today we saw more cows than sheep, some with calves. The ones at Top Lock were particularly curious and interested in us looking over the wall at them! Many long-distance footpaths pass or cross the canal near here including Macmillan Way, D’arcy Dalton Way and the Battlefields Trail.

 Top Lock is the first of the series of five locks at Claydon. They mark the start of the decent of the canal through the Cherwell Valley to Oxford. The locks are one boat wide and seem just long enough to accommodate the narrowboats. There is one top gate and two bottom gates.

Next, we stopped briefly opposite Clattercote Wharf to look at the old buildings with farm equipment and curiosities. A cargo boat was moored there and, apparently, the aim of the farmers at the nearby organic pumpkin farm is to transport their produce to London restaurants in the traditional way. Leaning and appearing to be looking into a nearby building was a group of large scarecrows, presumably soon destined 
for the fields.

So, we finished by entering Cropredy, described in the Waterways Guide as ‘a sleepy village that only bursts into life when the Folk Festival is on at the beginning of August each year’. It is a very picturesque village with many thatched red-bricked and stone houses with well-tended gardens. It has won Best Kept Village awards and has road names such as Cup and Saucer and Creampot Lane.

The weather wasn’t as good as we would have liked, but the rain didn’t dampen our spirits. After a drink in the café in Cropredy, we caught the Number 277 bus and went through some narrow lanes and the quaint villages of  Mollington, Claydon and Farnborough, back to the Wharf Inn, Fenny Compton for a meal.