Hinksey to Newbridge

Tue 10^th August  New Hinksey to Osney Bridge

We didn’t have far to go today. We wanted to arrive at the Osney moorings after the overnight moorers had left, and before the lunchtime arrivals. It is usually very busy.

There were several rowers out. There were singles, pairs, fours and eights. We have never seen a rowing six. Presumably that is because there are no competitions for sixes, and that is because nobody makes six-seater rowing boats. There’s a thought to contemplate!

We left after the spate of rowers had quietened down, and we set off upstream. There was a brood of new ducklings opposite, and another Oxford college barge. We passed the two entrances to Hinksey Stream, both of which had low bridges.

New ducklings

College barge

Hinksey Stream entrances

The rowing clubhouses followed, but there was little activity as it is not term time. There were a lot of boats in various stages of decay leading to Folly Bridge, where the Salters Steamers terminate, and where the rowers turn round. Here there are two channels, and although we are allowed to use either channel, we tend to keep right. The left channel is very narrow, and we wouldn’t want to meet another boat there.

Folly Bridge

The river skirts around Oxford until it reaches Osney Lock, which was manned.

Osney Lock and weir stream

Osney Lock

Above the lock are the moorings which usually get full. Today there was plenty of space. Later, Earnest moored behind us. This boat used to belong (still does?) to a syndicate of adventurers called the Tuesday Night Club, who set themselves the task of navigating every possible part of the waterways system. They were often featured in the waterways magazines.

Earnest

Unusual duck

We had a problem finding our bus stop, as there were road works on Botley Road. We walked to the next stop near the station and took a bus into the centre of Oxford. We had a meal in the excellent Thai street food restaurant in the Covered Market. We noticed that the city was much quieter than usual, with a drop in overseas visitors due to covid travel restrictions. We wandered round the new shopping centre and then caught a bus back.

Later we had a knock on the boat. It was Marion, of Many Meetings. We had been hoping to catch up with them, but had missed them by a day in Abingdon. They were here in a friend’s car to visit the Punter (previously the Waterman’s Arms), a pub nearby that is Vegan. She came back with Robin to see us briefly after their meal, which they said was very good. We are now unlikely to coincide by boat, as they are leaving their boat at Eynsham to attend to grand-parent duties.

1 lock, 2 miles. Dep 0920, arr 1010

Wed 11^th August  Osney Bridge to Pinkhill

Moored by Osney Bridge

There were only two boats left this morning, apart from us. We departed up stream under Osney Bridge, where a work barge was waiting. 

Osney Bridge

We turned into the Sheepwash Channel, with the plan to go up three miles of the Oxford Canal, emerging again at Dukes Cut onto the Thames. This was so that we could fill up with water properly, as the Environment Agency taps are very difficult due to the pressure regulators they have installed.

Into the Sheepwash Channel

Under the railway

When we arrived, eagle-eyed Hazel spotted a tap within range of the lock pontoon, so we turned the boat around, connected our hose and soon had a full tank.

Water point by Isis Lock

As we no longer needed to go up the canal, we returned to the Thames. The unusual railway swing bridge is apparently being restored, and was under white sheeting. There is no longer a railway that leads to it, so it will be interesting to see how much restoration they can do.

Restoring the railway swing bridge

As we headed up towards Port Meadow, we passed two interesting boats. The first was Gaiety, originally a Salters Steamer, apparently built in 1889, although it has 1887 painted on it. It took part in the 2012 Jubilee River Pageant in London, which we watched in the pouring rain from Albert Bridge. Name Gaiety | National Historic Ships. The second boat was another Oxford college barge.

Gaiety

College barge

Port Meadow is a wide expanse of common land, with grazing rights for horses and cattle. It has never been ploughed.

Port Meadow

Cormorant

We came to Godstow Lock, which we shared with a small cruiser. It was self-service, so we had the help of a young girl from the cruiser who held our front rope. There was a sign at the lock to say that Osney Bridge was closed today from 1000 until 1400. We had been unaware of this, and had sauntered through at about 1030. Thankfully we hadn’t decided to go to Waitrose before setting off.

Godstow Lock

We passed the ruins of the nunnery there, and went under the skew bridge, and past the ancient Trout Inn, an Inspector Morse location.

Skew Bridge

The Trout Inn

There are some nice looking moorings above here, except for the traffic noise which is loud and continual from the busy A34. That hasn’t stopped lots of boaters deciding to moor anyway. These are people we call continuous moorers, i.e., people who have bought a boat to live on rather than cruise on. Many of the boats had canoes or dinghies, suggesting that they use these for going shopping or getting out, as they don’t want to move their floating homes. We noticed that some boats were listing, as the water levels had dropped.

Boats aground

Parked narrowboats

Shallow areas

At King’s Lock there were several hire boats waiting for Osney Bridge to re-open. We went through the lock, which is manual, as they all are from here to Lechlade. We had some help from a young man who bought his boat in March, but hasn’t moved very far yet. Above the lock there were more parked boats.

Parked boats

Another three miles brought us to Eynsham Lock, where we emptied a cassette and disposed of rubbish. There was a queue for the water tap, so we are glad we had filled up. This lock was also on self-service.

We passed Many Meetings moored up at the Boat Centre, but not occupied. We arrived at Pinkhill Lock, where there was a lockkeeper on duty. He told us that the reason for the bridge closure was to replace a long section of pipe that had been damaged by a boat that was too high for the bridge.  The roadworks were there for the same reason.

Many Meetings

We moored soon afterwards, just where we had planned, near Farmoor Reservoir. We have seen barn owls twice here in the past, and a cuckoo on one occasion. There were lots of military planes from RAF Brize Norton.

Moored above Pinkhill Lock

Military planes

James went for a walk later. Here is a selection of his photos.

4 locks, 7 miles. Dep 1025, arr 1425

Thu 12^th August  Pinkhill to Newbridge

It was a beautiful sunny morning. Three sandpipers flashed past. They didn’t stop for a photoshoot! We also saw a sparrowhawk trying to surprise small birds in the trees. Several boats had passed by the time we set off, and it had clouded over.

We saw an egret, which waited for a photo before flying off into a tree.

Little Egret

We passed the reservoir and negotiated some zig zags, before all the caravans at Bablock Hythe. The only lock of the day was at Northmoor, which was keeper operated.

Northmoor Lock

We had planned to stop at The Rose Revived at Newbridge, but there were a lot of canoes on the moorings, so we reversed back to a mooring that Hazel had just seen. It was a bit of a scramble up the bank for James to get some pins hammered in, and the ropes attached. Within a few minutes we had heavy rain, so we had timed it well.

Sadly, the bank was too much of a challenge for us to negotiate to get to the pub for a meal, so we ate on board.

Moored on a bank near Newbridge

Euston 73 went past, and we exchanged a quick “Hello” with Tony and Sue, who keep the boat in Aylesbury. They were gone before we got a camera out.

We heard tawny owls later.

1 lock, 5 miles. Dep 1050, arr 1140

Next: continuing upstream, hoping for a mooring near a pub at some stage. No food shops until Lechlade.