Oxford Canal Walk – Leg 2
5 May 2016
Access: Start – Drive to Banbury, park, bus to Tackley (Rousham Road stop), walk-in to canal. Finish – car parked at Banbury.
21 – 33km : Dashwood Lock – Aynho Wharf
Any thoughts from the first leg of the walk that the canal might be heading into tranquil rurality were quickly dispelled. Just half an hour into today’s walk brought me to the ugly steel and concrete of Heyford Station. For the whole day the railway would never be far away. There was more traffic on the canal too – I met the first boat heading south after only 15 minutes, and there were plenty more. But it’s quicker on foot – the boat heading my way at Allen’s Lock never caught me up.
The following kilometers were uneventful. I stopped at the 25km point for a mid-morning break about 11 o’clock. On the opposite bank oak tree buds had broken into early leaf and rooks were making a din further up the field.
Above Allen’s Lock there’s a stretch of a few hundred metres either side of bridge 198 where the canal-side towpath is completely overgrown with brambles and hawthorn scrub. For part of the way a narrow muddy path weaves through the bushes but it soon gives up and you have to follow the canal along an embankment 6 or 7 metres above the water and 15 metres to the left.
I boldly negotiated a herd of cows with calves as I approached Somerton, reassuring myself with the folk wisdom that even with calves, cows aren’t a problem when there’s a very big bull with them. It worked this time.
At Somerton Deep Lock a woman was fiddling with the sluice mechanism. I assumed she was from the lock house and doing some routine maintenance until I heard a man’s voice calling from behind me. Somerton Deep Lock is so deep I hadn’t noticed there was a boat at the bottom.
The rest of the morning was rather dull, with the canal passing through flat countryside with no particular features. I decided to press on at a pace that would get me to Aynho Wharf for a 1 o’clock lunchtime break at the canal-side pub. A kilometre from Aynho I first became aware of the noise of the M40 motorway. It and the railway noise were to stay with me for the rest of the day. At the Great Western Arms at Aynho Wharf I sat outside with a pint of Old Hooky and surreptitiously ate the cheese and tomato sandwich and banana I had brought with me for lunch.
33 – 44km : Aynho Wharf – Banbury
Just north of Aynho Wharf the railway lines heading for the Midlands from Marylebone and Paddington respectively join together. Passenger and freight trains go by every few minutes and are never very far from the canal.
I’d seen on the map that about here the canal and River Cherwell switch sides. It happens undramatically at Aynho Weir, not with an aqueduct as I’d imagined but by the river flowing into the canal from the right (facing in my direction of travel) and disappearing over a weir to the left. The canal ignores this little bit of geography and keeps straight on.
The towpath seems committed to staying between the canal and the river, and at Nell Bridge it changes sides. Having got used to walking without interruption it seemed strange to have to wait for a break in the traffic to cross the road.
Another lock, another bridge or two, and then the first crossing of the M40. Glance over the side as you drive past the “River Cherwell” signs on the motorway (there are two of them), and you’ll glimpse the canal. The second crossing is 4km further on, after another two locks. The most memorable feature on this stretch was the remains of a burnt-out narrow boat, still with a few ragged ends of blue and white police tape nearby.
Then it’s “Welcome to Banbury”, but you wouldn’t know without the sign. I reckoned there was another 3km to go. Gradually you notice houses high up on your left, then quite suddenly there’s a park on the opposite bank, then factories with their fire escape doors opening onto the towpath, then a jumble of bridges and footpaths until suddenly there you are in the new commercial development of Castle Quay.
Here’s my Viewranger track of leg 2.