The Oxford Canal is a narrowboat canal in southern central England linking the City of Oxford with the Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury (just north of Coventry and south of Bedworth) via Banbury and Rugby. Completed in 1790, it connects to the River Thames at Oxford, and links with the Grand Union Canal, which it is combined with for between to the villages of Braunston and Napton-on-the-Hill.
The canal is usually divided into the North Oxford Canal (north of Napton, via Rugby to Hawkesbury Junction near Coventry) and the South Oxford Canal, south of Napton to Banbury and Oxford.
The canal was for about 15 years the main canal artery of trade between the Midlands and London, via its connection to the Thames, until the Grand Union Canal (then called the Grand Junction Canal) took most of the London-bound traffic following its opening in 1805. The North Oxford Canal (which had been straightened in the 1830s) remained an important artery of trade carrying coal and other commodities until the 1960s; the more rural South Oxford Canal however became something of a backwater, especially following the opening of the Grand Junction Canal, and it faced closure proposals in the 1950s. Since the end of regular commercial goods carriage on the canal in the 1960s, it has gained a new use as a leisure resource, and become used primarily for narrowboat pleasure boating.
The Oxford Canal traverses Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire and east Warwickshire through broad, shallow valleys and lightly rolling hills; the canal's route northeast and then northwest forms part of the Warwickshire ring.
The route
The canal begins in Warwickshire near Hawkesbury Village at Hawkesbury Junction, also known as Sutton Stop, where it connects with the Coventry Canal, a little over 4 miles (or about 7 km) from the centre of Coventry and from Nuneaton. Within a mile were the late 18th- and 19th-century coal field/pit and colliery of the small town of Bedworth. From Hawkesbury, it runs southeast through the Warwickshire countryside for to Rugby.
The route between Coventry and Rugby is level, with no locks, apart from the stop lock at the junction. Parts of this section were straightened by raising and waterproofing in the 1820s; the remains of a more circuitous route (which kept to the chosen contour) can still be seen in places.
The canal winds through the northern part of Rugby. It passes through the Newbold Tunnel. In the churchyard in Newbold-on-Avon remains can be seen of an earlier canal tunnel built in the 1770s. It scales a flight of three locks at Hillmorton about east-southeast of the town.
East of Rugby, the canal passes southwest then south. It crosses under the M45 motorway and through broad low fields interspersed by views of wooded knolls and modest hills of Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to reach Braunston.
West of Braunston village centre, by a pub, the canal converges with the Grand Union Canal where both change direction to west-southwest. The latter canal has a major wharf, Braunston Marina, east and a campsite. The combined canal splits north of Napton-on-the-Hill: The Oxford Canal runs southwest and then turns south towards Oxford via Banbury. The Grand Union Canal runs north passing opposing marinas within a mile then northwest to Birmingham via Warwick.
After winding round Napton Hill, the canal ascends the Napton flight of nine locks to a local summit reach, well below the hilltop. After passing an old wharf and a pub at Fenny Compton, the canal enters a long cutting which until some time in the 19th century was a tunnel. This section is normally referred to as a "tunnel straight" or the Fenny Compton Tunnel.
The route between the farms of Priors Hardwick and Fenny Compton was never straightened, and is the most circuitous in the region: taking to cover (geodesically, as the crow flies). This coincides with the canal's highest "summit" reach in navigational terms. This reach is the "eleven-mile pound" mentioned in Tom Rolt's Narrow Boat.
The canal then descends the Claydon flight of locks and into the vale of the nascent Cherwell at Cropredy. The canal descends the valley to Oxford.
Banbury has many visitor moorings alongside the historic and modern shopping areas in the middle of town. Banbury Town Council and Cherwell District Council treat the canal as an attraction to be encouraged; examples of its work include an old boatyard which has been incorporated into the town centre: Tooley's Historic Boatyard. About south is a lightly settled locality, Twyford Wharf, where narrowboats up to can be turned. Two villages nearby, Kings Sutton and Adderbury (Twyford), are within 30 minutes' walking distance along the road. Both offer several pubs.
Within Oxford's conurbation, the end of the canal has two links to the Thames: north of the city where Dukes Cut leads to King's Lock; a few hundred yards (metres) from the heart of the city centre by Oxford railway station. below Isis Lock (known to boatmen as 'Louse Lock') through Sheepwash Channel. This leads to an elongated navigable circuit at the Thames called "Four Rivers" above Osney Lock.
After below Isis Lock the Oxford Canal ends abruptly at Hythe Bridge Street near to the current Hythe Bridge over the Castle Mill Stream, a backwater of the River Thames that runs parallel to the Oxford Canal for its southernmost part. The canal used to continue through a bridge under Hythe Bridge Street to a turning basin and goods wharf south of Hythe Bridge Street. It then continued via a bridge under Worcester Street to end in a coal wharf beside New Road. In 1951 the basin and wharves were filled in and Nuffield College has taken part of the site.
The locks on the canal are as follows. +Locks on the Oxford CanalLock NumberNameRise of lock1Hawkesbury Lock (to/from Coventry Canal)2–7Hilmorton Locks8–16Napton Bottom Lock to Napton Top Lock17–21Claydon Top Lock to Claydon Bottom Lock22Elkington's Lock23Varney's Lock24Broadmoor Lock25Cropredy Lock26Slat Mill Lock27Bourton Lock28Hardwick Lock29Banbury Lock30Grant's Lock31King's Sutton Lock32Nell Bridge Lock33Aynho Weir Lock34Somerton Deep Lock35Heyford Common Lock36Allen's Lock37Dashwood Lock38Northbrook Lock39Pigeon Lock40Baker's Lock41Shipton Weir Lock42Roundham Lock43Kidlington Green Lock44ADuke's Lock44BDuke's Lock (to/from the Thames via Duke's Cut)45Wolvercote Lock46Isis Lock (to/from the Thames via Sheepwash Channel) The canal rises from Hawkesbury Junction to Hilmorton Top Lock, there is then a pound to Braunston Junction, where it joins the Grand Union canal. From Napton Junction the Oxford canal rises again though the Napton Locks. After Napton Top Lock there is a pound to Claydon Top Lock, from where the canal falls towards Oxford.
History Construction
The Oxford Canal was constructed in several stages over a period of more than twenty years.
In 1769 the (9 Geo. 3. c. 70) authorising the Oxford Canal was passed, having been promoted in Parliament by Sir Roger Newdigate MP, who chaired the canal company. The intention was to link the industrial English Midlands to London via the River Thames. Construction began shortly after near Coventry. The principal motivation for the canal was the transport of coal from the Midlands to Oxford and London.
Surveying of the route and initial construction were originally supervised by the celebrated engineer James Brindley, assisted by Samuel Simcock who was also Brindley's brother-in-law. Brindley died in 1772, when the canal had only reached Brinklow, and Simcock took over. By 1774 the canal had reached Napton, but the company was already running out of money.
A second act, the (15 Geo. 3. c. 9) was passed allowing the company to raise more funds. Construction soon started again and by 1778 the canal had reached Banbury. Financial problems meant that work on the final stretch from Banbury to Oxford did not begin until 1786, and when it did, James Barnes was appointed as the engineer. As funds were limited, the Banbury-Oxford stretch was built more cheaply, and to lower standards than the rest of the canal, and many cost saving measures were used whenever possible: Wooden lift or swing bridges were built, instead of more expensive fixed brick bridges. Deep locks were used wherever possible, with single gates at both ends instead of double gates. A stretch of the River Cherwell at Shipton-on-Cherwell was incorporated into the canal. This reduced construction costs, but the behaviour of the river makes the canal more difficult to use.
The Oxford Canal reached the outskirts of Oxford in 1789, when a coal wharf was opened at Heyfield Hutt, now the site of Hayfield Road. The final section into central Oxford was ceremonially opened on 1 January 1790.
The Duke's Cut, a short link from the Oxford Canal to the River Thames, just north of Oxford, was built in 1789 by the Duke of Marlborough.
The River Swift (a tributary of the River Avon) connected to the original route of the Oxford Canal near Cosford and was used as a water feeder to the canal. In 1785 there was a proposal to make the river navigable from the Oxford Canal at Cosford to the town of Lutterworth in Leicestershire. This proposal however never came to fruition. The River Swift, however is still an important feeder to the northern Oxford Canal, via the now unnavigable Brownsover Arm; a part of the canal which was bypassed when the canal was straightened.
Commercial use Heyday For the next 15 years the Oxford Canal became one of the most important and profitable transport links in Britain, with most commercial traffic between London and the Midlands using the route. Its principal traffic was coal from Warwickshire. It also carried stone, agricultural products and other goods.
A much more direct route between London and the Midlands, the Grand Junction Canal, was completed in 1805, connecting Braunston to London in much less distance. Much of the London-bound traffic switched to this faster route, as it avoided the passage of the River Thames which still had many flash locks. This greatly reduced Oxford Canal traffic south of Napton. However, the short section between Braunston and Napton became the link between the Warwick and Napton Canal and the Grand Junction Canal, making it part of the busy direct route between Birmingham and London. Despite these developments, the Oxford Canal remained highly profitable during this period; from 1824 to 1826, the company paid dividends of up to 55% to its shareholders.
The Grand Junction and Oxford canal companies were bitter rivals. When Parliament considered the bill for the Grand Junction Canal Act 1793 (33 Geo. 3. c. 80) for the building of the Grand Junction, the Oxford Canal successfully petitioned to make the Grand Junction pay "bar tolls" to the Oxford Canal to compensate for the loss of traffic south of Napton.
Traffic from Birmingham had to use of the Oxford Canal to get from Braunston to join the Grand Junction at Napton. The Oxford Canal exploited this by charging high tolls for Grand Junction traffic on this short section.
Straightening
The Oxford Canal was originally built as a contour canal, meaning that it twisted around hills to minimise vertical deviations from a level contour. This meant however that the canal followed a very winding and circuitous route: Although the distance between Coventry and Napton was only as the crow flies, the distance by the original route of the canal was . This mattered little when the Oxford Canal had no competition, however, with increased canal competition, and one eye on the developing railway network, the company decided to straighten the route.