Mike Stevens' UK Inland Waterways Pages

TRIP REPORTS : THE YEARS BETWEEN BOATS

BIRMINGHAM & THE THAMES

August 1988

Part 3 : Tadpole Bridge to Banbury

Click on any of the pictures to see a larger version with a caption

We started at 07:38 in intermittent heavy rain, past the junction in Oxford with the Sheepwash Channel, where we would be heading the next day to re-join the Oxford Canal, and on to Osney lock where we couldn't get a licence because the lock-keeper had lost his keys!

Abingdon

We took on water before Abingdon lock , then locked down, winded past the town centre and moored at Abingdon recreation ground at 16:20. We made a reconnaissance for the next day's shopping & launderette, then had a Chinese take-away dinner.

We did the shopping, & launderette after breakfast, then headed back upstream at 12:15. We finally got our Thames licence at Osney, just before we left the river. We had to creep through the middle of Oxford Regatta between Iffley lock & Folly bridge, following instructions from an NRA patrol launch which was marshalling the traffic. Ian did wonders holding the boat still in mid-stream when necessary.

We passed through the Sheepwash Channel and Isis (or Louse) lock, back onto the Oxford Canal. We went on as far as Thrupp, where we moored at 19:13, noting that The Boat also appeared to do good food.

Early rain delayed our start until 08:25, but it turned much nicer later on. At Aynho wharf we stopped for a pump-out, and later sighted a convenient-looking launderette near the moorings below Banbury lock. At 19:30 we moored for the night before Hardwick lock, aground at the mooring for the first time for a while.