Ride a Cock Horse

 

To Banbury Cross

 

 

To see a fine lady upon a white horse

During the period of the Reformation Banbury had three crosses. The High Cross, or Market Cross, was just off the Market Place. This was a focal point used for public proclamations. It had a flight of eight steps with a single shaft of carved stone 20 feet high on top, and was probably referred to as far back as 1478.
The Bread Cross was a large, covered cross, made of stone with a slate roof so that the butchers and bakers who had their market stalls there could keep dry in wet weather. This cross was associated with the distribution of bread to the poor each Good Friday.

The White Cross lay on the western boundary line of the old town borough, it was first mentioned in 1554 but little is known about it.
In the late 16th century Banbury's inhabitants were recorded as being "far gone in Puritanism". Consequently the ruling clique of the council ordered that at least two of the town's crosses, the High Cross and the Bread Cross, be destroyed.

Sunday was a lovely sunny and warm day, I was up and about early with Jumble for a walk around Spiceball Park where we are moored alongside.

 

On our walk I was enjoying the delicious smell of fresh bread coming from the Fine Lady Bakery just across the canal.

 

 

 

 

Later, on our way to church we spotted some of the very old buildings in the town, some of which we have noted on our blog before.

Ye Olde Reindeer Inn, with its heavy, wooden doors, leading through to the yard at the rear, bearing the inscription "Anno Din 1570".

For centuries the townspeople traded in wool, ale, cakes and cheese. Wool was first referred to in the year 1268, and cheese was manufactured from the 15th to the 18th centuries.

And this shop is now an estate agents, so not trading in any of these either.

Banbury is one of those towns which has embraced its canal and it passes alongside the shopping centre with a footbridge across to the car parks and sports centre. 

A lift bridge and a lock are often surrounded by gongoozlers watching the process of working the boats through. And of course the historic boatyard, Tooleys is here too, they are open for tours round the yard on Fridays and Saturday afternoons.

We have enjoyed stopping here each time we have passed through, 4 times now over the last 2 years.

 

Last night and this morning the town was filled with the aroma of roasting coffee from the Kraft food factory in the town. Banbury is pleasing to one’s senses in more ways than one.

 

This morning Bob and June invited us for coffee on board Autumn Myst before we set off.  We will soon be travelling in different directions so may not meet up again. Once again its been good to make new friends on the cut and we shall follow their journeys with interest, enjoying Bob’s super photos on their blog.

 

So today we passed through Cropredy again, blogged about many times before, and we didn’t stop for long. Just a walk to the shop for newpaper and milk.  We had been warned that C&RT were working on Broadmoor lock, but all was finished as we got there, but there was a bit of a queue…..

 

good for us though, plenty of people to help with the lock!

 

 

 

 

We passed the site for the new Marina, opening Summer 2013 according to the sign……..

                                                                   but I don’t think it will be!

 

 

Claydon flight of locks had their gates open in welcome for us, we got up very quickly.

 

 

 

Enjoying the springness (it should be a word!) all around despite the gloomy weather today.

 

 

Boundary bridge marking the boundary of Oxfordshire and Warwickshire.

 

 

 

Wormleighton Reservoir, a feeder for the summit pound of the South Oxford canal.

A long windy stretch round the ancient medieval site of the old village of Wormleighton.  We shall walk over the fields and to today’s village tomorrow!

 

 

11.5 miles, 12 locks

On the King’s Estate

 We had a choice of villages to visit today, on the way to Banbury.
Ayno, Adderbury or Kings Sutton, all about a mile from the canal.
Ayno has a wharf with services and lots of boats moored along the canal. And another weir lock. The river Cherwell crosses the course of the canal above the lock.  The towpath is raised up on this impressive bridge over the river.






After Nell Bridge lock there is a small-holding, with pigs, chicken and I’m sure other things.  There is a farm shop selling their home-grown produce, and curiously Buffalo milk ice-cream!










Kings Sutton lock is very attractive and the village can be seen behind it, with the tall slender spire of the parish church in view for a long while from the canal.






This was the village we decided to walk to today. Kings Sutton means the King’s South Estate and is actually just in the south western corner of Northamptonshire, just squeezing into Oxfordshire.


 

But to get to the village from the canal is not easy, first there’s the river Cherwell to cross………



 




then the railway line………




















and through the swishy swashy grass.






Local legend says that St Rumbold was baptised here in 662 AD. St Rumbold lived only three days, but in that time was said to have spoken holy words, declared himself a Christian and was baptised.
This church is famous for its 198ft spire built 1400 to 1450.







 

 




King’s Sutton also has its own Bog Spring, opened in 1749, in the days when St Rumbold’s Well was said to have possessed great healing properties.
 
 
 

The oldest part of the village is centred around a green, and is very attractive.

There is set of village stocks, though as they are behind railings I don’t think they have been in use recently.
 
 
Back at Twyford wharf, the number of old canally buildings show what a busy place it must have been when the canal was a working place.





And finally……..
One of the many Oxford lift bridges, this one fixed open….easy.











7.5 miles, 5 locks, 1 bridge

Tranquil Waters

Thursday

It’s so nice to be back on a narrow canal, especially the pretty South Oxford.  Leaving Oxford itself is slow going, passing many long-term moored boats through Wolvercote and Kidlington and out to Thrupp. Then there’s also the lift bridges to master.

 

 

Heron fishing in the rain.

 

 

 

By the time we left on Thursday afternoon it was getting on for 4pm, the sun had gone, and with the clouds the temperature soon dropped, by the time we got to Duke’s lock it was raining hard and we had to fetch the waterproofs out again. But we were happy to keep going.

We met Dusty the fuel boat on the way and filled up with diesel.

When we got to Thrupp, we saw Bob and June from nb Autumn Myst walking Phoenix the guide dog puppy, they said there was a space on the 7 day moorings, but it wasn’t quite long enough.  So we had to carry on, through the lift bridge and we were almost at Shipton Weir lock before we found a mooring, so it was quite late by then, just about 8 o’clock. But no matter, there’s no schedule and the canal gets more rural from here on.

Friday

 

Our first lock of the day was Shipton Weir lock, one of two of these odd shaped locks on the Oxford canal. It has only a shallow fall, so the large size allows more water to be displaced from the river section where the river Cherwell and canal join.

 

 

 

Satellite dishes of the Cable & Wireless Whitehill communications operations, which we could see from Baker’s lock just before Enslow Wharf.

 

 

 

 

Kirtlington village is about a mile’s walk from the canal above Pigeon’s lock.  We had thought that on our journey this time up the Oxford we would explore some of the villages a bit further from the canal.

This was during the sunny part of the day, the village is very pretty, built of Cotswold stone around several different village greens.

  

There is a pub, shop and post office, school and hotel, Dashwoods.

The name Dashwood keeps popping up, sadly on the war memorial there were a number of Dashwoods there and later we came to Dashwood lock. So I googled the name to find out more.

There have been two baronetcies created for members of the Dashwood family, in 1684 and 1707. Both are still in existence. The family seats were here at Kirtlington and also at West Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The original baronets were members of parliament.

Kirtlington Park is a Grade I listed 18th-century Palladian country house, it is about half a mile out of the village, set it 3,000 acres of parkland with  views across the Chilterns.  It is now used as a wedding venue. We didn’t walk out that far though, not knowing at the time it was there.

 

A new development of 6 large houses, the stone very clean and light honey colour, needs to mellow a bit, I think.

  

Back on board and we set off through the now familiar villages of Lower and Upper Heyford, not stopping this time.  The old tythe barn set up high from the canal is rather lovely. And the pretty bank of flowers close by looking very colourful.

Going up in the world at Somerton deep lock is always spectacular.  I love this cottage, the only access is by boat from the road bridge almost a mile away, with no main services, so I guess no brown envelopes containing bills either.

Thursday- 7 miles, 4 locks, 5 bridges

Friday- 12 miles, 8 locks, 1 bridge