Friday 16 th August 2019 For once the weatherman got it right and it rained the whole day, very heavy at times. We had a rest day and stayed on the boat with just the occasional outing for Harvey to have a quick pee, he doesn’t like the rain either. Brenda had an administration day, online banking and arranging visa’s and kennel’s for our holidays. Kennels are for the dog! I had got a long way behind with the diary and blog with the kids being here. It takes ages to catch up and this took up most of my day, still behind though. Late afternoon and evening was spent in front of the TV. It seems ages now since we had a day like this. Weather: rain all day. Heavy at times.
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Thursday 15 th August 2019 Today was a nice day with fine open views. There was a succession of well-spaced locks, but most of the characteristic, wooden lift bridges along this section are left open, which is just as well, there are so many of them and have been so many more that have now been removed but the bridge narrows remain in place. Manor Farm, at Upper Heyford, was situated just next to the canal. It still retains a working tithe barn within the farm buildings. All the locks were busy but luckily, in the opposite direction. There was a large party of Australians belonging to various cricket clubs doing a tour of Britain taking part in an over-60’s tournament. 72 people in total on board 11 Oxfordshire Narrowboats. At Somerton Deep Lock, 12’ deep, there were 8 boats all in a queue to descend, while we were the only boat ascending. Six of these boats belonged to the Aussies and a woman off a boat caught in the middle of them was complaining about them, all over...
Wednesday 14 th August 2019 After the heavy, overnight rain, we waited until 10am before moving off, after the rain had stopped. We passed a digger passing dredgings from a barge into trailers, the dredgings then being spread on the neighbouring fields, and the ominous looking satellite dishes of Whitehill Earth Station. Coming towards us was a dumb barge loaded with the spoil from the dredging operation, a stinking quagmire. Shortly after this we came to the dredger itself, a digger sat on a maintenance barge scraping the bed of the canal and loading it into another dumb barge. It must take some skill to orchestrate this, with the digger controlling the position of the barge when boats approach. At Pigeon Lock, we were as close to Tackley as the canal reaches. Tackley is a small Oxfordshire village that was the origin of the Hemmings branch of my family. The River Cherwel...
Tuesday 13 th August 2019 The Oxford Canal continues for about ¼ mile beyond Isis Lock to its dead end terminus that is just a stone’s throw from the city centre itself. Before setting off this morning, we reversed down the canal for about 600 yards down the very narrow channel, to the terminus itself so that we could say we will have travelled the full length of the canal. A lot of the boats we passed thought us crazy. But hey-ho. Oxford Canal Terminus The Oxford Canal was one of the earliest and for many years, one of the most important canals in the south of England. It was authorised in 1769 to join the Warwickshire coalfields on the Coventry Canal with Banbury and Oxford and also provide a link between London and the Midlands by giving access to the River Thames. James Brindley was appointed engineer with plans of a winding contour canal 91 miles long. Brindley died in 1772 and was replaced by ...
Monday 12 th August 2019 We spent the day in Oxford, mainly to open bank accounts for the kids, a thing we had wanted to do for a long time. Oxford is, unsurprisingly, extremely busy, with hordes of people crowding about. We were moored a few boats up from Quentin and Sue, who we met with a few times on the K&A Canal. The four of us went out in the evening for a meal. Starting with a drink in Wetherspoon’s, we went no further. Good beer and excellent, well priced food, why would we? We wish you both well for the future.
Sunday 11 th August 2019 The winds of yesterday had largely abated to give a fine morning. We would have liked to have stayed on this river mooring, but it is a case of onwards and upwards. There was a long lonely sweep to the river, with fine open views with the houses of Burcot being glimpsed through trees and their massive gardens coming down to the waterside. Clifton Hampden Bridge was said to be low and narrow but obviously, this is only for the cabin cruisers. Plenty of room for a narrowboat. Just beyond Clifton Hampden is the artificial Clifton Cut, the river itself is navigable for a further ¾ mile to the Plough Inn at Long Wittenham. Clifton Cut is narrow and takes the navigation to the picturesque Clifton Lock followed by the big weir. There is a sharp S-bend in the river at the weir and as we were approaching it, a large cruiser came fast around the bend on the wrong side. They are much more manoeuvrable than a narrowboat so we just held our course. The siz...
Saturday 10 th August 2019 While we had always planned to visit each canal, or river, in turn, and explore the whole length, we now find ourselves under a time constraint. We have to be at Streethay Wharf near Lichfield for the beginning of September. Therefore, we decided that we would do both the Thames and the Oxford Canal in a slow hire speed and leave the exploring for another time. We are only on a short section of the Thames anyway, from Reading to Oxford. The weather forecast was for winds. Normally, we would not move in wind, but being on the river, which is wider, the winds do not have such an effect on the confines of a narrow canal. We left the mooring to immediately enter Goring Lock. The location all around the lock is truly beautiful. The bridge, with ornamental, wooden beam supports, the huge weir, mill and surrounding buildings. Absolutely gorgeous. Not far from Goring Lock comes Cleeve Lock. After the lock, the river becomes quite narrow with steep...