Oxford Canal Walk – Leg 4
30 August 2017
Access: Start – arranged lift from Leamington Spa to Marston Doles. Finish – leave canal, walk to Travelodge Rugby Central (opposite the railway station).
74 – 88 km Marston Doles – Braunston Junction
On a damp grey morning I was back at Marston Doles. Through the day the weather alternated between heavy drizzle and light drizzle, with a few brief periods when the drizzle stopped and the sun tried but failed to come out. I sat under the bridge at the lock and put on my waterproofs. This turned out to be a good decision; the overgrown towpath and overhanging bushes and trees made me wetter than the rain did that day.
The canalside flowers of May had gone, but the autumn fruits were abundant. It seemed a particularly good year for crab apples.
Having climbed to an elevation of 116m at Marston Doles the canal drops 16m through 9 locks to Napton Bottom Lock and the junction with the Grand Union Canal. It stays at this level as far as Rugby (Hillmorton), where three double locks fall another 6 metres. The only other lock on the canal is Sutton Stop Lock at Hawkesbury Junction, the end of the walk.
It’s only six kilometres to the Grand Union but there are two pubs on the way. The junction itself is unremarkable, with a middle-of-nowhere feel about it. A typical brick arch bridge spans the Grand Union, which comes down from Birmingham to join the Oxford Canal at the same level without a stop lock.
The southern section of the Oxford Canal is notorious for its twists and turns. For the rest of the walk the route is much straighter. With only one more set of locks to come I was looking out for other features. If you look at the OS maps for the area you will see the countryside is criss-crossed by a network of disused and dismantled railway lines. Two of these cross the canal not far from Braunston Junction, the first on an east-west line and the second north-south. The solidly-built bridge abutments are still clearly visible.
The first of these marks the site of the Nethercote railway bridge. This carried the Weedon & Leamington Railway1 over the canal. The second is the remnants of the Wolfhampcote Railway Bridge (sometimes spelled Wolfhamcote) which carried the Great Central Railway’s London extension2. I’ll leave the history of these lines to the railway historians, but the footnotes have some links to get you started.
Just after Wolfhampcote the path makes its second foray into Northamptonshire and arrives at Braunston Junction. This is where the Oxford and Grand Union canals separate again, the Oxford heading north for Rugby and Coventry, and the Grand Union heading south to London. Unlike Napton Junction, Braunston was bustling with activity with a chandlery and boat services station catering to a continuous flow of working and leisure boats. I stopped to eat my lunch.
88 – 102 km Braunston Junction – Rugby (Clifton Road)
North of Braunston the canal nips briefly into Warwickshire, back into Northamptonshire, and finally back into Warwickshire. Several long straight sections mean good progress with little to do but wave to passing boats and try to remember to take a picture of every tenth bridge. I chatted briefly to the boatmen of NB “Tug No.1” and NB “Opposite Lock” who were both going my way, but as they politely slowed down for oncoming boats I soon left them behind.
Further on a swan and her grown cygnets were grazing from bushes on the far bank, too far away for me to see what was attracting them. Blackberries? Hawthorn berries? Rose hips? The dismantled Great Central Railway ran beside the canal for a couple of kilometres just south of the prison at Onley. The only visible trace was a long, straight, narrow field.
Just here I hit a diversion across three fields, first on one side of the canal and then the other before finally being able to cross back over. There was a security fence with danger signs, “Deep Excavation”. From the opposite bank I could see why the path was diverted. It wasn’t anything to do with the prison as I’d first thought, but a vast new marina being built – Dunchurch Pools.
Then it was under the M45 and on to the outskirts of Rugby. Just after passing the Old Royal Oak pub and going under the main railway line at Hillmorton I passed the most easterly point of the whole Oxford Canal walk. The unusual Hillmorton Locks are a set of three pairs of locks in parallel, doubling the capacity of this short flight. The curious words engraved in the lock beam arms are from a series of brief poems called “Locklines” by Roy Fisher and others.
Another two miles with the company of the railway on my left got me to the Clifton Road bridge (no. 66) and the end of the day’s walk.
Here’s my Viewranger track of leg 4.
1. Weedon and Leamington Railway
- warwickshirerailways.com/lms/leamingtonweedon.htm
- www.leamingtonhistory.co.uk/
- discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
2. Great Central Railway (London Extension)