Oxford Canal
With the Trent and Mersey, the Staffordshire and Worcestershire and the Coventry, the Oxford Canal formed the original network of narrow canals promoted by a group including Wedgewood, the Gilbert brothers and Brindley. It received its act in 1769 and was completed as far as Banbury in 1778. Brindley died in 1772 and most of the engineering was carried out under Samual Simcock. It has been speculated that it was Simcock who was responsible for the excessively wandering course of the canal. The canal was completed to Oxford in 1790. By the mid 1840s the circuitous route of the canal was hindering competition with the emerging railways, and the company shortened the northern part of the canal. Many of the old loops can still be seen, although none remain in water except for the branch to Rugby Wharf.
The navigational authority for this waterway is Canal & River TrustRelevant publications — Waterway Travels:
Relevant publications — Waterway Maps:
Relevant publications — Waterway Guides:
- Collins Nicholson Waterways Guides No 1 - Grand Union, Oxford & the South East
- Pearson's Canal Companions: Oxford & Grand Union; Upper Thames
Relevant publications — Waterway Histories:
- Oxford Canal Walk - Part One - Oxford to Thrupp - YouTube — associated with this page
- A walk along the Oxford Canal (Southern Section) from Oxford to Thrupp Wide
Wikipedia has a page about Oxford Canal
The Oxford Canal is a 78-mile (126 km) narrow canal in central England linking Oxford with Bedworth (between Coventry and Nuneaton on the Coventry Canal) via Banbury and Rugby. Completed in 1790, it connects to the River Thames at Oxford and is integrated with the Grand Union Canal—combined for 5 miles (8 km) close to the villages of Braunston and Napton-on-the-Hill, a canal which soon after construction superseded much of its traffic.
The canal was for about 15 years the main canal artery of trade between the Midlands and London; it retained importance in its local county economies and that of Berkshire. Today the canal is frequently used for weekend and holiday narrowboat pleasure boating.
The Oxford Canal traverses Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire and east Warwickshire through broad, shallow valleys and lightly rolling hills; resembling the bulk of the Grand Union Canal and its branches, much of the landscape is similar to the those of the Llangollen and Lancaster canals. It has frequent wharves and public houses, particularly if including the parts of the Grand Union Canal immediately adjoining. North of about a third of its distance, namely from Napton, the canal's route northeast and then northwest forms part of the Warwickshire ring. At its southern extremity it forms a waterway circuit within Oxford known as the Four Rivers.