Lower Heyford

 Today's Canal - Oxford

As soon as we set off we passed through Kidlington Green Lock, which was then followed by Roundham Lock.

A little later we then arrived into Thrupp. Before the main lift bridge and services, the older cottages line a narrow road  very close to the canal, for about 300m. In the middle of the terrace we noticed one for sale. Later we looked up its details on the estate agent site. It is only the right half of the building in the photo. It has two bedrooms and downstairs the two main rooms have been knocked into one with a tiny kitchen to the rear. The front door opens directly into the living room. On the market for £400K!

We stopped at the service block for the usual operations. Whilst we were there, animated conversations took place on the lift bridge with local people and a member of CaRT staff. We are not sure what is happening but it seems that a car tried to rush over the bridge whilst it was being opened for a boat to pass through, causing the bridge not to operate for a while. Although it is a narrow lane, it is also very busy as.just over the other side is the very popular Annie's Tea Room. It also seemed that there have been an unusually high number of callouts regarding the bridge. The CaRT person's concern was to find a way of reducing the number of incidents.

The large control box next to the bridge has recently been decorated with a large number of knitted objects!

Shortly after leaving Thrupp the canal passes under the Oxford to Banbury line (it does this several times!)  Just before the bridge is this remnant of what appears to be another former railway bridge. Although we have been this way many times over the years we have not really taken any notice of it. Later we consulted the older OS maps and found that a branch line joined the main line here - the Blenheim and Woodstock Line. Wikipedia tells us that the four mile branch was built in 1890 for the Duke of Marlborough.Trains ran directly to and from Oxford. Seven years later the Duke sold it to he Great Western Railway. From the 1930's the line went into gradual decline with fewer and fewer trains being run. It closed in 1954.

Our final lock of this trip was Dashwood which in June suffered a catastrophic failure of the bottom gate balance beam. (The balance beam connects to the heel post of the gate with a mortice and tenon joint so it is inevitably the weakest point)  A temporary repair as been made that does feel somewhat 'delicate'. We are not sure how users are supposed to judge or moderate the force they use to open the gate.

During the day we passed nb Oleanna whose blog is listed to the right of this page. They were moored up but there was no chance for us to moor so we hovered mid channel (made more difficult by a quite strong wind) so that we could have at least a brief chat. In any event they had a date to keep so, all in all, no chance for a shared cuppa. But it was good to see for real, people that mostly we encounter via the internet.

As we came through Heyford Wharf, a couple boat people separately waved cheerfully and  called us by name. They were amongst the staff at the boatyard when we had a mooring there - and we left seven years ago! Memories are long on the canal -and always have been.

9.9 Miles - 7 Locks