It was time to bid farewell to Oxford, the city of Dreaming Spires
however I have renamed it Oxford, the city of White Van Man!! I guess that most building work is done
during the summer vacation and the place is full of white vans which were
always eager to get into my photos!
We didn’t rush off this morning.
I had a long phone call with my sister, Penny while Richard tried to
sort out the TV aerial which has been cutting out the signal on the TV –
usually just at the wrong moment! We
said goodbye to Ray and Diane who were going off shopping into town but we will
see them again tomorrow in Thrupp – as long as we can get mooring places.
I have been interested to find out why Jericho is so named. It seems that as it was located outside the
old city wall, it was originally a place for travellers to rest if they had
reached the city after the gates had closed. The name Jericho may have been
adopted to signify this 'remote place' outside the wall. This was originally an industrial area which
grew up because of the presence of the Oxford Canal, which arrived in
1790. In the 1950s, Jericho was briefly
a red light area, and in the early 1960s there were plans to demolish it and
replace it with light industrial units and new housing. However, many people
objected and campaigned to save the historic area. Although the houses beyond repair were
demolished many were upgraded in the late 1960s and early 1970s with the help
of council grants. This encouraged many young professionals and families to
move in and subsequently Jericho became one of Oxford's most sought-after
areas. Large council and social housing developments were built in the 1970s and
1980s, to house locals whose houses were in disrepair, and asylum seekers. So an area of rags to riches?
We needed to move today as the things that need emptying were getting
pretty desperate to be emptied and the water tank was also getting low. We didn’t have far to go and had hoped to
moor up before we got to Duke’s Cut.
However, even though there are mooring areas we couldn’t get into the
side so continued on. At Duke’s Lock we
came across a narrowboat towing another narrowboat and it took them ages to get
through the lock. Richard continued on
but got so fed up of the slow speed of the towing vessels that we pulled over
before Kidlington Lock for the night.
We passed a lot of moorings designated as “Agenda 21”. Having never heard of this before I looked it
up. Everything I’ve found has been
rather complicated but thanks to Maffi I think it’s a bit clearer now. “Agenda 21 is an action plan of the United
Nations (UN) related to sustainable development and was an outcome of the
United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992. It is a comprehensive blueprint of action to be taken
globally, nationally and locally by organizations of the UN, governments, and
major groups in every area in which humans directly affect the
environment.” This means that where
Agenda 21 moorings are designated people can live an alternative low impact
life style. Hm. Isn’t this just legalising continuous
mooring??
It was then time to give Muffin a shower. He is so funny as he obviously hates it and
tries to hide under the table then gives in and reluctantly gets into the
shower and just stands there with his head hung down hating every minute of it. Still he is all fluffy now and smells lovely.
It is nice being back on the canals.
It is so different to the rivers though we have grounded a couple of
times today. After we had moored up I
took these photos which I think just sums up being on the canal.
3.91 locks
2 locks
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