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I’ve finally made it. This is the final northernmost part of my journey on this stretch of the Oxford canal.

Going any further than Varney’s lock, the next stop up, takes you up a flight of locks called Claydon Flight and into Warwickshire.

Above Claydon Flight

The communications are not good, little windey lanes, bad parking. Added to that, the mooring is poor until you get to Fenny Compton which is the first village in Warwickshire.

I don’t like Fenny Compton. It does have some positives, like a marina and pub. The 14 day mooring is often full, meaning you have to go out into the wilds to moor up. Fenny itself is the last stop before you get to Napton, which is a good 8-10 miles away. In between, there is virtually nothing, just fields and HS2. Lovely cruising country. I’m not cruising, I’m living day-to-day. Doing day-to-day stuff, and for that purposes, it’s pretty, and pretty impractical.

For this reason, I don’t go above Claydon as it’s simply a waste of time.

Suits me fine.

Prolonged stay in Banbury

There was a canal fare. I overstayed a little, just one week so I could hang around and go the fare which was staged over Saturday and Sunday 5/6th.

Ventured out in Banbury a few times to sample the nightlife entertainments. Went to this bar place called Ugly Face, or Baby Face, or Mug Face. The guy that owned it had started it with his family and grown it organically from a coffee shop into a bar. Always seemed to be people in there which is more than could be said for a lot of the other, brewery sponsored pubs in Banbury. Definitely worth a visit if you happen to be in town.

The weather

Whilst I was in Banbury was absolutely shocking. Where I’m located is up toward the top end as you’re driving out of town. It’s next to what they used to call the old Alcoa factory, a big employer in times gone by.

Mooring up here, you’re out of town and due to the proximity of the nature reserve and the relative quite of the grazing field on the left and the non-developed industrial land of the old Alcoa factory, it’s pretty quite. If I want to walk into town it might take around 20mins.

The Cherwell is also close and there is a small stream that runs through the woods that feeds it. During the rains, I took these pictures.

And here’s one on the exit stream to the reservoir.

As you can see, the area virtually turned into one big lagoon. And remained that way for some days.

The Cherwell had flooded the area to the South of Spiceball. Lidl carpark was under 4ft of water. Also, the water-point and elsan area.

Remember these people? Under the bridge? All their stuff got flooded. That area under the bridge where you can see them standing was under about 3 foot of water.

I guess all their gear got damaged or ruined. I feel pretty bad for them.

I don’t think I saw them again.

Downstream Cherwell

Other areas also got flooded. Taking a trip to where I was in August, Somerton Meadows. A nice spot. Here, see.

Banbury flood defences

As you can see, the flooding outside of Banbury is much more severe. Banbury was awarded some grants by Oxfordshire county council to improve it’s flood defences against the Cherwell, and protect it, as much as they could from flooding events like this.

It cost £18.5 million in 2012. One of the guys in the boat opposite described to me how he was under 2 foot of water in 1998 when the Cherwell flooded in Banbury and caused 12 million worth of damage, closing the station and damaging thousands of homes and businesses. They used to be frequent events he said.

Although this year has been bad, it’s nothing like what it used to be. In addition to the defence system, they reduced flooding by encouraging less run off. That meant having wild areas of trees and scrub and meadow that would naturally slow the water. In these areas, they created ponds, which took some of the flow capacity away from the water which used to flow directly into the Cherwell.

All combined, these measures have succeeded in reducing the flooding in Banbury. You can read more about that here https://www.internetgeography.net/topics/banbury-flood-management-scheme/

Downstream. As you can see. Not so much.

Here’s some pictures from the week

Now I’m in Cropredy

Used to be bit of a marmitey place. Now, since they’ve constructed a 5g mast and expanded the 14 day mooring in the south, it’s like boater paradise!

Here I am moored up close to what used to be the old mill.

The main problem with being here in the past was the mobile signal. Non-existent on any network you care to name. I need the internet to work. That made these moorings useless on previous visits.

I did a test when I was arriving on Bonnie, just to check. I think in the past it used to be 1-2MBS.

This is perfectly acceptable.

As I travel around the canal, I do the odd random test. The mobile companies do change things. Sometimes things improve, like here in Cropredy. Sometimes they get worse, like in Aynho where the signal has gone from useable to useless. It’s not a done deal, things do change, and in this case it’s for the better.

Crop has 2 pubs.

No doubt I will be visiting these in the forthcoming days and will keep you informed.

Until then.