Saturday 19th July 2014 Oxford Canal Walk Ramble 12: Thrupp to Oxford

Saturday 19th July 2014 Oxford Canal Walk Ramble 12: Thrupp into the centre of Oxford, which is about 7 miles.

Julie, Sue C., Jem, Dot, Margaret C., Ian and I walked the last of 12 rambles along the Oxford Canal. We started the 77 miles from Hawksbury Junction back in January and now have Oxford City in our sights. I was concerned that the weather might spoil the day, as everything from thunder to hail had been forecast, but the day turned out to be very sunny and warm, without a drop of rain. A bit sticky later on!

In Thrupp we noticed some yarn bombings or guerilla knitting around posts and road signs. The craze started in the US and it has spread across the world. Now Oxford newspaper editors can write headlines such as ‘Yarn bomber has town in stitches’.

Thrupp has been featured in the TV series Inspector Morse, so we were on the lookout for a body in the canal. We didn’t see any policeman, despite the notice.

The Oxford Canal skirts Kidlington, a large suburb of Oxford; it wasn’t possible to see a great number of houses and all was quiet, very green and overgrown. There seemed to be more moggies than usual, patrolling their territories around the houseboats. 

A few runners passed us and in places there was quite a bit of neglect and rubbish.

Quite a few boats were on the move and we stopped by the third lock along, Duke’s Lock for a picnic. Just beyond here, is Duke’s Cut, named after the Duke of Marlborough (major shareholder and landholder). It is the first of two ways that boaters can join the River Thames. We were amused by first a group of men heading northwards on their annual expedition.

Portaging their canoes around the lock was made harder as their beer supplies chinked inside. Then, a hired narrowboat with a group of ‘cockerels’ aboard, went through the lock. Another boat with ‘hens’ amused themselves by skipping with the mooring rope while they waited to enter the lock from the south.

  We had to move on and passed bridges of various kinds; small lift, large road (taking the A34 and A40), a disused railway and many small hump-backed ones, that now are so familiar.

Now into Wolvercote, for much of the time we had green parks, allotments and meadowland to our right (the west), a large part of which is Port Meadow, a conservation area and flood plain for the Thames.  The mainline railway runs close to the canal and then to our left, was housing. All along the canal are houseboats, many of which seem as though they were there for good. Some were smart but many others not. Along with bicycles, barbeques, mobiles, workmates there were many other interesting items in the small, associated gardens. Perhaps surprisingly we didn’t see too many people, even though there must be quite a few living there. From the boats we did hear classical music being played, first from a trumpet then cello, on the course of our walk.

 

After St Edward’s School playing fields, on the other side of the canal, we entered an area where gardens of large Victorian houses reached down to canalside. Many looked idyllic and contained mature ‘jungles’, play equipment, summerhouses etc.

 

Lucy’s ironworks operated for 150 years along here, the foundry casting anything out of iron you wanted. These days the manufacturing is done elsewhere but they have a property arm and manage new flats built on the site.

Next, St Barnabas Church tower came into view. John Betjeman and Philip Pullman have led campaigns to maintain the canal and associated life along here in Jericho. Oxford Council is looking for schemes to develop what was once a British Waterways boatyard. In the past various ideas have been rejected. 

Another way to the Thames from the Oxford Canal is via Sheepwash Channel. This route takes you through Isis (or Louse) Lock, once broad beam in width, and under a pretty iron turnover Bridge. We posed for a group picture in this wooded and secluded part of Oxford City and just after swore that a passing bearded cyclist must be a spy!

 

 A small community of boaters still live here at permanent moorings.

The canal opened in 1790 to great celebrations as the shortest route from coalfields in Birmingham to London. It terminated in a basin with wharves and warehouses around for coal, timber, sand, china etc. The last section and basin were built with help of labour from prisoners from the nearby Oxford Prison. A car park and Nuffield College is now where the basin was. The Oxford Canal now ends at Hythe Bridge Street and this is where we finished. Boats more than 35’cannot turn around here. There have been plans to restore the basin.

We visited Oxford Prison (now a smart hotel) and did a short walk around the highlights of the city.  One highlight turned out to be watching a newly married couple pose for photographs against various buildings. Ooh that dress, that corset, those shoes and was it going to last………….

Margaret and Hugh joined us for a celebratory meal, and we thought of all the people that we have enjoyed walking with along the Oxford Canal. Without their companionship it wouldn’t have been half as much fun.

Thursday 10th July 2014 Oxford Canal Walk Ramble 11: Lower Heyford to Thrupp

Thursday 10th July 2014 Oxford Canal Walk Ramble 11

Lower Heyford (Bridge 206) To Thrupp, which is about 7½ miles.

We, with Margaret B, Hugh, John, Julie, Sue C., Jem, Dot, Dave, Liz and Jean, set out from Lower Heyford and headed south along our route through rural North Oxfordshire at about 11am. 

Close to our start are the splendid gardens of Rousham House. They were created by William Kent and are rather special as they remain largely unaltered from the 1700s.

A stretch of the Oxfordshire Way long distance footpath follows the course of the metalled Akeman Street near here. This major Roman road linked Cirencester with St Albans and crossed the Cherwell River via a ford near to Tackley.

Alongside the opposite side of the canal there was once a limestone quarry near to Kirtlington (a small village, which has a thriving polo club with seven pitches and full programme of events).

This area is famous for its mammal fossils, and the quarry is the richest mammal-bearing site of the Middle Jurassic Age known anywhere in the world. Many bones and teeth found here are now in local and national museums.

The strip of land adjacent to the canal is now an important nature reserve. Small paths go along the steep sides, much of which is dense woodland. We spotted pretty tables and chairs under shelters and wondered if they were Jane's famous Cream Tea Garden that opens on alternate weekends during the summer. There is also a farm shop and wooden wheelbarrow maker there too; so unexpected in such a remote and hidden location.

Pigeon or Enser’s Mill Lock is where we stopped for picnic lunch and superb Eccles cakes made by Julie’s husband, Ian.

For much of the time as we walked along, we seemed to be in a natural green tunnel. At a low level and with lush vegetation all around, we could only occasionally glimpse through the screen to view the surrounding countryside. One thing that did stand out was the tall landmark chimney of North Oxfordshire at the abandoned Shipton-on-Cherwell cement works and quarry. Also, from a couple of viewpoints we could just see Whitehill Earth Station with several white communication dishes. It doesn’t appear to be a large complex, but seems to be rather important for metrological, air traffic and other satellite communications.

We knew that we were getting near to Oxford when we saw a Latin phrase Omnia causa fiunt (everything happens for a reason) written on a small blackboard in one of the small gardens, besides the more permanently moored narrowboats.

In a major railway accident at Shipton on Christmas Eve 1874, the crowded London to Birmingham express was derailed as it crossed the Cherwell just east of the village. Several carriages plunged down a steep embankment into the meadows between the river and the canal, killing 34 people and seriously injuring a further 65.

Shipton Manor House, again very close by, but well hidden, has had two well-known owners; William Turner, (a water colour painter not quite as famous as JWM Turner) and Richard Branson, (Virgin boss who used the house as a recording studio).

We had brilliant sunshine all the way; none of the predicted heavy rain.  At Thrupp Wharf at Annie’s Tearooms we enjoyed a nice cup of tea or two, and reflected on the fact that this must be one of the nicest stretches of canal in the country, certainly one of the greenest; one that is well-used and enjoyed.

I found this from an obituary in the Guardian -

In 1967 Jack Skinner, a local canal worker, helped to save the Oxford Canal from closure a second time. Treasury officials had recommended closing it down and filling it in, arguing that it was no longer commercially viable. Jack was asked to take Barbara Castle, the Minister of Transport, on a fact-finding trip from Thrupp to Lower Heyford. He took the precaution of going out the night before and getting the co-operation of the lock keepers en route, to ensure that there would be enough water in the pounds to give the impression that there was more water in the near-derelict canal than there actually was. ‘She never knew the difference – and it done the trick’, he recalled with pride many years later. Mrs Castle decided to save the canal, ultimately securing enough subsidy to keep open 1,400 miles of commercially non-viable canals for pleasure cruising. Everyone who now enjoys fishing in the Oxford Canal, or cruising on it, or walking along the towpath should remember with gratitude Jack Skinner and the trick that he played on the Minister of Transport.