The Oxford Green Belt Way - Stage 5

Cumnor to Swinford Bridge – Monday 8 July 2019

Oxford canal walk – Monday 29 July 2019

 

Cumnor church

We mentioned in the last post that P had been advised to take it easy and it was agreed that we would put the Cotswold Way on hold until he could rejoin us. The remaining three of us therefore decided to carry on with the Oxford Green Belt Way (OGBW). We kept P informed via Whatsapp picture updates throughout the walk.

 

A warm summer morning and A&T met at Oxford station. No N to be seen so A&T headed for the nearby bus stop in St Frideswide’s Square. As the #4 bus to Cumnor drew up N appeared from across the road. He had been waiting at another part of Oxford Station! Never mind - the walk was on and we made our way to the village of Cumnor.

T apologised in advance that as this was the village of his youth, well certainly the primary years, there was a high risk that he would be reminiscing about life in this village in the late 1950s. We took a small detour down past St Michael’s church (Grid ref SP4615 0413) into what passes for the centre of the village to look at some of the old farm houses and barns that have been variously converted into fancy dwellings.

Memories of walking to school, village neighbours who still only had oil lamps to light their homes and actual working farms in the middle of this village. Cumnor was also noted for the Amy Robsart incident. She was the wife of Robert Dudley a favourite of Elizabeth I and was found dead at the bottom of the stairs in Cumnor Place (long gone.) Did she fall or was she pushed? The story (much embellished by Sir Walter Scott in Kenilworth) was that with Amy out of the way he would have a better chance with the Queen. 

T lived here

Path to Farmoor

After that stroll down memory lane we rejoined our path heading north from the village past the red brick house that used to be where the District Nurses lived (SP4616 0420) and below the primary school that T went to, (SP4632 0433).

We left the well maintained Denman’s Farm track and headed across a field towards Farmoor skirting the hamlet where T used to live on Tumbledown Hill (SP4577 0471). The cluster of houses in the hamlet have been massively altered over fifty years or so and only three Lombardy poplar trees remain of the row of over twenty of these distinctive tall trees that crested this hill and made it an obvious landmark. 

View from Tumbledown Hill

It was hot and we took a short break to look at the view north-westwards over Farmoor Reservoirs. T remembered the first (northern portion) of the two reservoirs being constructed in the early 1960s. 

Fields of memories

Our path descended the small scarp slope of the Oxfordshire Corallian ridge and down onto the flat clays lands before turning westwards to head towards the hamlet of Filchampstead and the reservoirs. 

We found a “useful” bench in the shade and had our respective lunches (SP4515 0555).

The path then skirted the reservoir towards Lower Whitley farm (back to the Amy Robsart story – it was said that the staircase that she fell down was removed from Cumnor Place when it was demolished and reinstalled in Lower Whitley farm house – probably an old wives tale, after all it was an old wife who told it to T).

Farmoor Reservoir

There were several groups of excited school students out on the reservoir doing some sort of boating / paddling. Not sure what they were doing but it seemed to be fun. N was keen that we should take a dip in the river and was disappointed that A & T had not packed their swimming shorts. By the time we reached the river bank he thought better of it. There were a couple of lady swimmers kitted out in wet suits with dry bags  making a speedy exit from the water as a family of Mute Swans were not at all happy sharing the water with swimmers. 

Swans agressive?

We discussed the options and in the process learnt that the swimmers were making their way down river from Cricklade to London in several stages. They decided to give up for the day and return on foot to Bablock Hythe.

N thought better of it too so we carried on following the river Thames towards Pinkhill Lock (SP4406 0713) with the reservoir embankment on our right hand side. Much of the land between the reservoir and meandering river has been landscaped into wet lands and reed beds making a great habitat for birds and wildlife.

Pinkhill Lock

Pinkhill Lock seems to be in the middle of nowhere. Road access is via several miles of winding lanes from Stanton Harcourt. It was all very quiet except for a lone canoeist who was heading upstream.

Swinford Bridge

After a 10 minute rest break in some welcome shade we moved on towards the B4044 (Eynsham to Botley road). The route at this point follows the road for a few hundred metres to skirt around the boat yard and then rejoins the Thames Path to Swinford Bridge (SP4430 0861). Swinford is where the principle water treatment works for Oxford was sited. The bridge built in 1794 is still a toll bridge and the basic charge is one penny per wheel. The charge was decimalised and the spare wheel added to make it 5p per car! It is now a cause of much delay to traffic and always seems to feature on the Oxfordshire traffic reports. By all accounts the Act of Parliament to enable the bridge to be constructed forbade construction of any other bridge across the river within three miles.

Ducks in a row!

We had finished our walk in three hours. Time to replace fluids. We walked towards Eynsham and stopped at the Talbot Inn (6/10). Can’t remember what we drank but it was a couple of pints of summer ale and it went down well and was very welcome. The bus stop was just up the road and we caught one of the regular S1 buses back to Oxford saying cheerio to A at Botley.

A pleasant, if at times rather hot, walk of 5.9 miles (9.5km). Full of memories. The trail was easy to follow and the views towards the Cotswolds were tempting. Time we got back there. 

PS: P is back to gentle walking. T & P met up in Oxford on Monday 29 July and did a gentle walk of 3.7miles (5.9km) in total through the city via the covered market to the Oxford Canal and up to Wolvercote following the canal as it tracks northwards behind the streets of Jericho. As we approached chez N we sent a Whatsapp message and found that N was in so we arranged to meet at the Plough in Wolvercote (improved since we last called in here during the early days of the Shakespeare Way, 5 February 2010). Great to catch up, pleasant light lunch, back to N’s for a coffee and then bus back to the centre of Oxford and a familiar return on the X39 to Wallingford and Reading.