Abingdon to Kidlington

Before leaving we had a good nose at the bridge built by the Wilts and Berks Canal company. The canal used to enter the Thames near here once, a link from the Kennet and Avon canal at Semington near Melksham. Sadly the canal was never very profitable and was abandoned in 1914. There is a long running restoration project to restore it, which if completed would create a popular and no doubt lucrative cruising ring. There is, however, the small snag that Swindon has been built on top of it. But there's nothing wrong with a bit of vision.

Where would we be if Isambard Brunel or Thomas Telford had said "Oh I'm not doing that, that'll take years and anyway whose going to pay for it? It can't be done!" More vision is what we need in this country if you ask me.

For once we had managed to get away early, it was not yet seven o'clock and the river was quiet. The early morning sun lit up swarms of damsel flies hovering like a mist above the water. There was no sound except the chugging of the engine. Except for Mick, of course, saying, "isn't it time you made another cup of tea?"

Coming into Oxford, we passed the boathouses of the various colleges and Christchurch Meadow after which we had a minor panic at Folly Bridge, a low balustraded bridge, where a channel went off to the left of the bridge.
"Which way, which way?" I yelled.
Mick shrugged. "No idea," he said.
As it turned out, either way was ok, we headed under the bridge and past the pub, The Head of the River.

It is possible to join the Southern Oxford Canal at its start, via Sheepwash channel, or further up the Thames at Dukes Cut. We reasoned the Thames would probably be quicker so ignored the right hand turn onto the Oxford and continued up-river. At Port Meadow the river becomes wide and shallow, we saw one boat left high and dry.

Port Meadow is an ancient area of common land to the west of Oxford. Less frequented than Christchurch Meadow it feels very rural, despite the presence of the railway and the suburbs of Oxford beyond. The meadow was given to the Freemen of Oxford by Alfred the Greta in gratitude for help he received in defending the area against the Danes. Their right to graze animals on the meadow was recorded in the Domesday Book on 1086 and has remained ever since, we saw plenty of horses and ponies grazing alongside the river.

One summer day in July 1862 Charles Dodgson, Deacon at Oxford, and his friend Rev'd Robinson Duckworth took the three daughters of the Dean of Christchurch on a rowing trip up through Port Meadow to Godstow. On the way Charles entertained the girls with a story about a girl who fell down a rabbit hole. Ten-year old Alice asked if he would write the story down for her. Three years later Alice's Adventures inWonderland was published under the pen-name Lewis Carroll. The relationship between Charles and Alice is of course the subject of of much controversy and speculation, and not one I   want to delve into here. Whatever the truth, Alice in Wonderland was one of my favourite books as a child, and I still love it.

We tackled Godstow Lock and Kings Lock, after which I knew we should look for a turning into Duke's Cut. When we found it, we did not initially realise that it was the turning, after all the river is full of little creeks and inlets. We almost went past it before Mick yelled "Turn, turn, that's our turning!"
"All right!" I said, crossly. "How was I to know?"
The signing on the junction was pretty crap, you could only see it having practically gone past. Presumably it is assumed that upstream boat traffic will take the junction further down the river.

Duke's Cut was constructed in 1789 on the orders of the Duke of Marlborough, who owned much of the land through which the canal had been cut, finally being completed that year. By then linking the canal to the Thames, coal could be brought from the Warwickshire Coalfields down to London,and for the next fifteen years it became a major transport link until it was superseded by the wider and more direct Grand Junction Canal.

At the end of the cut was a lock, which after the K&A and the Thames locks, appeared almost miniature. This was Duke's Cut Lock, our first narrow lock, letting us down around a foot to the Oxford Canal. Immediately after turning left we had another little lock to negotiate. These were lovely, the paddles could be wound up in a few seconds, rather than the endless winding you have to do  on the K&A. We pottered slowly up the canal for an hour or so before mooring up. We had to get back to Bristol for a couple of days, so we cycled back into Oxford and caught a train to Reading and then cycled back to where I had left my car a few days before and quickly joined the M4 back to Bristol. Boat, bike, train and car in the space of two hours......