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.