Above Shifford Lock (River Thames) – Friday 19th September

A grey and wet day but at least we woke up to still being in a United Kingdom :-)

This part of the Thames is rather boring I’m afraid so there isn’t that much to blog about and also not much to take photos of!

 

Eynsham Weir (taken in 2010)

We pulled pins about 10am again and set off to Eynsham Lock where we used the services and then cruised on.  Past the Anglo Welsh base thank goodness as one of their boats had latched onto us and moored up with us last night and had his engine running almost from the time they arrived to 8.30pm – it was on again this morning.  It was well within the “boater’s code” time but from the time they arrived?

Northmoor Lock and then we pulled over – I’m not sure why just there as it wasn’t very good at all!  If we had gone a little further we could have stopped at the Rose Revived and had a drink – but hey ho!

The Rose Revived is in there somewhere!

Newbridge

The Rose Revived is at Newbridge.  This is one of the two oldest surviving bridges across the Thames and is a Grade II* listed structure.  The bridge dates from the 14th century and is built of Taynton stone in the same way as Radcot Bridge, which is slightly older. They were built by monks on the orders of King John in order to improve communications between the wool towns in the south of England, and the Cotswold farms, and named "New Bridge" as it was the youngest out of the three bridges built at the time (the third being the Lechlade bridge, replaced in the 19th century). It was also very much longer than it is now, with 51 arches and being 726 yards long, compared with the current 12 arches.  In 1644, in the English Civil War, the Battle of Newbridge was fought on the banks of the river. Parliamentarian William Waller attempted to cross in order to surround Oxford and capture King Charles, but was defeated.

          

Socialising

Muffin had been explaining to Diane that he likes to be a lap dog

 After Newbridge it was Shifford Lock which was on self-service so Diane and I did it between us saves using the horrid pole to open the far gate!  After the lock cut it is back out into open ground and we found where we had moored back in 2010 and it was just long enough for both boats.  As usual we sat out on the bank and chatted with whatever beverage took our fancy – mine was tea!  I had cooked dinner as we cruised along so it was just a case of heating it up – so very sociable.

12.94 miles

4 locks