On to the 'City of Spires'

Before we left Thrupp on Sunday, I took a walk to the gift shop to make a couple of purchases and was happy to get a chance to see Maffi, Bones and 8ch again and say 'farewell for now'.

A glorious canal carrying coal boat passing 8ch's boat at Thrupp

We were told 'Rose' lives in one of these cottages - the woman who the book 'Rambling Rose' was loosely based on

At one of the locks I got chatting to a man and woman from France - well Delphina has lived in Oxford for ten years and I think she said she originally came from Toulouse, and Boris, her brother, was visiting from Bordeaux.  I offered them a ride in the boat down the lock and they excitedly accepted - Barry took a few shots of them and then Boris took a few shots of us!  Smashing people, good to meet you.

Boris, Sandra and Delphina coming through the lock

A photo Boris took as we headed away - au revoir!

A couple of interesting boats as we entered the outskirts of Oxford

It wasn't a long way from Thrupp to Oxford - about six miles and four locks.  We caught up with the Hen party girls on their boat 'Brasenose' at the locks - they were all still looking gorgeous despite their shenanigans the night before at The Boat Inn until 2am!  Shame we left 'early', it seems there'd been some naughtiness in the shape of partial clothing removal by a few of the chicks involving tassels  (I'll leave it to your imagination to work out the exact details!).

Caught in a traffic jam as we followed Brasenose through a lift bridge

Is this called a hen with a flock of chicks?

Surprisingly there were quite a few moorings in Oxford, some of them you can stay at for up to fourteen days (but a bus ride from the city centre) - mostly they're for 48 hours only.  There's an eclectic mix of live-aboard boats along the canal too - some of them are real eye-sores which is a shame, but we've found that's true of some permanent moorers, just as it is on land.  We wonder if there's a belief that it'll be so much cheaper buying a boat and living aboard, and subsequently some people discover they don't have the money, time or resources to maintain the boat?  Of course there's also the question of storage space - could be why the roof is used for collections and clutters of all sorts of 'stuff'?

 Lots of moorings as we approach Oxford

The gardens get more interesting as you near Oxford

This one's for Maffi - a very obstructive willow tree yet to be trimmed

Isis Lock and the entrance to The Thames

  This area attracts large numbers of cyclists and walkers

We arrived in Oxford mid-afternoon and called a friend of mine who cycled with her son to see us for a cup of tea - and this year we even remembered to take a photo of them!  Fabulous to see them again and we're going for dinner to their house on Wednesday night so will have a really good catch up.

 Sarah and Saul

Afterwards we took a walk into the 'City of Spires' - it really is the most amazing place full of breathtakingly beautiful buildings.  We walked around with our heads up most of the time, just gazing and gawping.  Somehow it seems unfair to have so much magnificence in one city - no wonder it's constantly packed with tourists from around the world.

The Oxford University Press building

Part of the science faculty

We also discovered an amazing display, outside the Pitt Rivers Museum, of tree stumps - a 'ghost forest'.  The story can be found on this web site.  Many of the stumps fell naturally during storms, while  others were cut down in Ghana in a controlled sustainability project. 

It is said that a tropical forest the size of a football pitch is felled somewhere in the world every four seconds - I cannot comprehend that this can be true, and if it is we should be doing more to stop it - well done to the woman who has spent much of her time gaining sponsorship to bring this incredible exhibition to light.  It was in Trafalgar Square in November 2009, then Copenhagan for the United Nation's Climate Change Conference in December and is now in its present position until 31 July only - if you get a chance go and see it - awesome!

Naturally felled stumps ...

And a commercially cut down stump - what a difference ...

We walked for a few miles taking in the sights, seeing things we'd not had time to when we were here for the day last year, until our poor legs complained and we returned to the boat very late after eating a delicious meal at a Thai Restaurant called 'SOJO'.  We noticed a distinct lack of public conveniences around the town, more of that in future posts (nothing dirty, don't worry!) ...

Some of the sights of Oxford

There are literally bikes everywhere ...

and interesting constructions

Magdlen Street (pronounced 'Mawdlin') - no copycat building here! 

A couple of the generic Roman busts all around the University Library

  The other end of Magdlen Street with some of the University buildings,

including the Museum of the History of Science

We hope to stay in the city until Thursday when we'll be heading onto the mighty River Thames, or 'Isis' as it's alternatively known as in Oxford - not sure exactly why, but must find out!  My parents will be coming to visit on Tuesday until Wednesday, so we'll do some more exploring then ...

 Growing at the side of the canal on the way to Oxford

Thrupp and The Boat Inn'vaded' by women

On Saturday we decided to remain in Kidlington/Thrupp another day before moving down to Oxford, assuming the town moorings would probably be busy with hire boaters visiting for the weekend.

Barry took the opportunity to chat for a good while with the boater moored in front of us, called simply '8ch' (Aitch).  He's also great with a camera - check out his website here.  I, meanwhile, did a spot of hand-washing (can't bear it but a distinct lack of launderettes means it's best to keep on top of it!), and then a bit of boat cleaning/polishing - making the most of our static time.

After lunch we returned up the canal to explore the tiny hamlet of Thrupp.  In years gone by there'd been a mill here, now there's a charming row of cottages, sadly spoilt by the cars parked outside and the rubbish bins - such a shame.  Apparently this used to be called 'Salt Row' and may have been used as salt warehouses.

In the 18th century Thrupp had two pubs, 'The Axe' which is now the very popular 'Boat Inn', and the 'Three Horseshoes' which closed in 1924.  In the 20th century 'The Britannia' opened on the main Banbury Road - now renamed 'The Jolly Boatman' and nestling snugly between the main road and the canal - we were reliably informed this used to be the most popular boating pub until it changed hands and the new owners removed many of the original features making it more of a restaurant than anything resembling a place for boaters to go and have a drink or two - unsurprisingly they soon lost their boating clientele to 'The Boat Inn' - what a short-sighted move!  Boaters may not spend a lot of money, but if you're situated next to a canal it doesn't take a genius to work out who your regulars are likely to be!  It was a very quiet place each time we walked past it, not terribly 'jolly'!

The Jolly Boatman - almost in the canal!

 The Boat Inn - scene of the pirate invasion on Friday night

Bones' boat is at the front of this line-up of boats, though this isn't her usual mooring

 

At the end of the road through Thrupp, there's a steel lift bridge across the canal - it's now electronically controlled and there've been many 'ups and downs' (excuse the pun!) while it's been installed - Maffi has written extensively on the problems and frustrations in his blogs - see this post as an example.

 Thrupp Lift Bridge recently automated, though it's still not problem-free

 Confident enough in her boat to stand at full height

 Thrupp BW yard - sharp right to the infamous lift bridge

A popular spot for people to enjoy the local boating sights

On the other side of the lift bridge there's a good tea room and gift shop, and you can hire day boats and canoes from here too.  Further along there's three cottages with a common thatched roof - all of them currently in the process of being sold.  It seems that one of them was snapped up last year at around £170,000 and has changed hands since then - the current owners are hoping to sell it at auction for around £350,000!  Not sure I'd pay that, even if I had the money, for what is after all a 'end-terraced' house. It's postulated that the cottages previously belonged to the British Waterboard, being used by their employees.

 

Maffi at the gift shop where he spends the odd hour working, when he's not sorting out the hire-boaters and canoeists

 

 

 

Annie's tearooms and gift shop at the back of the canal

The house on this end is on the market for around £350,000

This stretch of the canal follows the main street of Thrupp for all of its 100yards or so

The gargoyles outside the 'Old Chapel'               The Boat Inn ready for another big night

We met up with Maffi once again, working in the gift shop, and also later in the evening to go back to The Boat Inn for a couple - well that was the plan, but it turned into another fun-filled night with a hen party this time!  It's a good job the two parties didn't clash, there would've been a riot I feel.  The girls were great fun, the hen was serving behind the bar for a while, and then the Landlord and Bar Manager (very accommodating and friendly people), put some dance music on and they were away - much easier on the ears than the stags 'singing' the previous evening!

The Hen soon tried to cajole willing volunteers to dance with her, and to my incredulity not one of the eight or so men in the bar took her up - shame on you all!  I quite fancied a dance, and the Hen was lovely, so I partnered her instead.  She probably wished I hadn't as we had a bit of a stumble at the end of the song and banged her arm on a chair quite badly - she'll have a bit of a bruise in the morning bless her - sorry!

The Hen's sister on the left, Hen on the right, cheery chicks all around

 

Come on Maffi show us what you're looking at, or give us some more pork scratchings - Maffi's dog Molly and Bones' dog Boots accompanied us to the pub bless 'em

We left the premises just before midnight, as Maffi had to be up and back in the shop Sunday morning, but the party was still in full swing - what a congenial pub - fantastic, we thoroughly enjoyed Thrupp!

A colourful display on the overflow paddle of the canal opposite the BW yard

Bloggers in The Boat ...

Our meeting with Nick from 'Canal Boat' was planned for 0930hrs on Friday, so we made sure we were up in time - well actually I set the alarm on my phone for 0800hrs and thank goodness woke up spontaneously at 0830hrs - obviously my phone alarm doesn't work unless the phone is switched on which seems ridiculous to me!

Nick brought along Mortimer Bones, another blogger and contributor to 'Canal Boat', as she moors not far away at Thrupp.  They arrived around 1000hrs and came back to the boat for a cup of tea and a chat.  What nice people, we had a thoroughly enjoyable morning with them and look forward to seeing an article hopefully in the September issue - watch this space!

Sadly, what we totally forgot to do in all our excitement at meeting such prestigious people, was take a photo of them!  Goodness me, what are we like!  So we've absolutely no proof that they were ever here - you'll just have to take our word for it and buy a copy of the magazine next month, lol!

As our cupboards are rather bare, we visited Heyford Wharf Visitors Centre to eat some lunch at their waterside bistro called 'Kizzies', prior to setting off to find a supermarket somewhere down the canal later today.

The canal travelling theatre company arrives for tonight's show - we're just leaving - typical!

I picked up a leaflet for the Mikron Theatre Company, a group performing two plays 'Striking the balance' about the fight for equal pay for women, and 'Pedal Power' about 100 years of cycling.  They're travelling the waterways during the summer months and have been '...touring and telling the stories of the real people caught up in the big events'  for 39 years would you believe?  Unfortunately I didn't check out the programme until we were well past Lower Heyford, when I discovered that they were actually performing on Friday night at Heyford Wharf, had been at Tooley's Boatyard on Tuesday and The Great Western at Aynho on Wednesday evening - we'd literally missed them by a day each time, what a shame!  Maybe we'll catch them somewhere before they finish on 23rd October.

It's Friday morning, boat return day, so the hire boats are in for servicing, etc, and out again this afternoon

Rolling Oxford countryside

How gorgeous is this bridge??

It's Northbrook Bridge, spanning the Cherwell River - a packhorse bridge which continues over the canal to the right

The wind was blowing fiercely ...

  through the surrounding fields and woodland

A mixed day weather-wise, but that didn't detract us from appreciating this pleasant rural stretch of canal

A variety of interesting scenes for the photographer ...

with idyllic cruising and not too busy

 

Another wonderful weir lock off the River Cherwell

Lots of lift bridges along the Oxford Canal

Passing underneath the lift bridge

We arrived in Thrupp late afternoon, passing Mortimer Bones who was on her way up to Heyford over the next few days so wasn't in her normal mooring spot.  There's not a lot to Thrupp, but it really embraces the canal and couldn't survive without it - more details in the next post.

And here's Mortimer in the flesh on her narrowboat 'Bones', just as the heavens opened

Passing by 'The Jolly Boatman', one of three pubs close to the canal at Thrupp/Kidlington

We moored up behind fellow blogger Maffi's boat 'The Milly M', and took a walk to the Co-op store a few minutes away to stock up on essentials.  It's not even large enough to have shopping trolleys, so we had to use two of the big baskets on wheels. Mortimer had recommended a pub along the cut called 'The Boat Inn', so took a wander back up the canal after dinner and found a very relaxed atmosphere pervading the premises - though this changed somewhat when an hour or so later a bunch of marauding pirates invaded and took over!  Things did get a little out of hand at times, with the most outrageous pirate attacking us all and ultimately riding on the shoulders of a reluctant boater, but generally it was all 'in the best possible taste'!

 

  Mortimer Bones and Maffi fight off the enemy admirably but unconvincingly! 

Barry and Sandra embrace the buffoon (bless him!) - or was it the other way around?!

It was late before we ventured back to the boat, along the dark of the towpath (I keep forgetting to take our torch out with us!), following a rather exciting day all in all!  That's one of the many pleasures of cruising the canals, we never know what we'll experience from one day to the next - marvellous magic moments mostly!

Isn't this gorgeous?  Goodness knows what it is, but it ain't a rhododendron that's for sure - thanks for the corrections to the previous posts!  We're not very good horticulturalists are we?!