Oxford Canal Walk - Murals & The Trap Grounds
Part of my series of caches from the terminus of the canal up to Kidlington. See GCBJD99 Oxford Canal Walk - Not The Terminus or GCBQRNH Oxford Canal Walk - Kings Bridge 230 for suggested parking and transport options if doing the series.
This area once saw a lot of industry formally a clay pit and brick industries but subsequently part of the old Osberton Radiators plant for Morris Motors (Later Austin Morris). The site to the west of the towpath was bought by Lord Nuffield in 1926 with the former clay pit now a pond which was retained (now off Elizabeth Jennings Way). During the 2nd world war the plant built radiators for Rolls Royce Merlin engines and other parts for Spitfires. At the factories height over 3,000 people worked there day & nght. After the war and the sunsewquent mergers of Austin & Morris into BLMC the factory became part of Unipart.
After its closure in the late 1990's the Waterways housing estate was built and two new bridges were built in 2001/2 to provide access. To help stop the grafiti that used to plague the area a series of murals and paintings was commissioned in 2016/2017 by the Oxford Canal Mural Project which is what you can see here today.
For more info on the Murals see https://oxfordcanalmuralproject.wordpress.com/
The Trap Grounds
To the South and West of the new housing is what was a rubbish dump but since 1995 it has been transformed into a wildlife habitat and was formally adopted as a Town Green in 2006 with the whole area a Local Wildlife site in 2015. It harbours diverse wetland habitats and trees and is important to wildlife in the local area,
Sightings include rare birds like the Water Rail but also the more common Blue Tits, Wagtails, Kingfishers, Woodpeckers and numerous others. Mammals incluse Water Vole, Foxes, Deer, Bats and more.
For more info on The Trap Grounds see their website at https://www.trap-grounds.org.uk/
To find out more about the heritage of the area including a downloadible map and a aufio guide visit Oxford Canal Heritage Trail
As always, whilst the towpath is well surfaced please be careful near the water edge and keep all children under close supervision. Keep dogs on a lead due to the number of cycles and pedestrians who use this popular path to reach the city center and Jerico.
If flood warnings are in place please exercise caution as the adjacent Castle Mill stream and Thames can be both fast flowing and deep, although the canal towpath itself rarely floods.
The Cache
Limited parking is available outside of school hours in Aristotle Lane for 2 Hours or park at Walton Well and walk along the towpath
The cache is a small magnetic Nano
Congratulations FTF - crypticCynic