The Oxford
Canal Walk follows the picturesque Oxford Canal as it meanders
slowly through 77 miles of classic scenery, much of which has
barely changed in centuries. Passing through the quiet rural
landscape of the south Midlands. It passes beside 43 locks,
numerous wooden lift bridges, cast iron bridges and through one
tunnel. There are few hills to speak of - the canal summit is only
400 feet above the start at Oxford. At one time it was the
main transport route from the midlands to the south of England and
it is now one of the most beautiful and popular cruising
canals.
FOXCAN's Proposed Redevelopment of the Basin
For 161
years Oxford had a canal terminal near the city centre, between
Park End Street and Hythe Bridge Street. A goods wharf branched off
the basin and ended opposite the junction of George Street. The
Oxford Canal continued beyond the basin, passing under the south
end of Worcester Street and ending in a long coal wharf opposite
Oxford Castle. The junction of the basin, the canal and the goods
wharf formed a distinctive Y-shape where narrowboats 70 feet long
(21.4 metres) were turned round.
The basin and wharves filled only a small proportion of the site.
The land around them was occupied by warehouses, canal offices,
coal yards and open wharf space. Much of the goods wharf was
enclosed inside a Georgian warehouse 80 feet long and three storeys
high. Smaller warehouses adjoined Castle Mill Stream and the bridge
carrying Worcester Street over the canal.
Canal traffic declined in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
In 1937 the Oxford Canal Company sold the basin, wharves and
surrounding land to the philanthropist Lord Nuffield. In 1951 he
had the site levelled and built Nuffield College where the coal
wharf had been.
Only a blue
brick pillar remains from the canal basin which was once a hive of
activity with barges bringing coal for the thousands of rooms in
Oxford's colleges. In 1821 the Park End Coal Company advertised
coal as being available in their wharf on the Oxford Canal. Park
End Street, now better known for its clubbing culture, takes its
name from the Park End Coal Company who were based in
Gloucestershire's Forest of Dean.
This cache is a Nano with only a small amount of room to
write your logs,
so could you please just sign the log with your initials and
date.
As my employer has decided that it would be a good idea to
move the whole organisation to Bristol, the Phillimore's (Mad H@ter
and Muddy Legs) will be moving on to pastures new and some fresh
caches. Unfortunately this will mean that it will become difficult
for us to maintain our Oxfordshire caches, so we will therefore be
gradually archiving the majority of them. We shall start our
program of collecting the caches and archiving them in the new
year, but as we have one or two caches out there this will not be a
five minute program! If you would particularly like to find this
cache before it is archived please get in touch and we will try and
hold off archiving it.