The Oxford Green Belt Way - Stage 6

Swinford Bridge to Wolvercote – Monday 10 February 2020

Following our practice of undertaking shorter journeys nearer to the home base of Oxfordshire in the winter we agreed, when we met for our pre-Christmas amble around Oxford and lunch at the White Horse, Broad Street, to continue the Oxford Green Belt Way.

It seems ages since we assembled in St Frideswide’s Square to catch the S1 bus to Swinford Bridge on 10 February. P&T had travelled up from Wallingford on the X39 and A arrived just about on time. N appeared a bit later (sans pie in hand) but, no worries, the bus seemed to be late anyway. Not a bad day for walking, fairly mild for February with a pulse of rain forecast for midday.

Way through the Woods? (Morse ref)

We started to catch up on news of friends and family as we swayed along on the top deck of the bus past Dean Court, Farmoor and Pinkhill. We soon arrived at the Swinford Toll Bridge and alighted opposite the Waterworks (used to be the main supply for Oxford) and walked down to Eynsham Lock (Grid Ref: SP4453 0865) to start this leg of the OGBW. The short bus journey hadn’t been long enough to catch up with all the news so we were in good spirits catching up on Christmas, New Year and so on.

The route follows the Thames Path and N&T owned up to the fact that they had followed the same route back on 25 June 2010 when they circumnavigated Wytham Woods. The going wasn’t too bad despite the previous wet conditions. We had had doubts about the condition of the path so close to the river and whether it was flooded but that wasn’t really a problem.

We went into the woods and emerged opposite one of the mouths of the Evenlode River.

Evenlode joins the Thames (Isis)

Discussions changed to speculating about reinstating the railway link from Oxford to Witney. The old track bed was across the river from where we were. T remembered travelling from Oxford to Eynsham on a train back in the 1950s. In these days of daily traffic jams on the A40 anything to improve links would be useful. Speculation of railway links inevitably lead on to discussion of HS2. The Government announcement was due fairly soon as to whether to continue or modify the project. Our own discussions carried on after the walk with various WhatsApp exchanges.

“Hang on chaps, we’ve deviated from the route”. Hurried examination of the maps showed that should have stayed next to the woods and not followed the tow path. An easy course correction and we were back on the Oxford Green Belt Way.

The going was getting a bit stickier as we slowly climbed round the edge of Wytham Woods and turned eastwards to go past the University Farm Field Station. We were hit with the rain as forecast. Well “hit” is a bit strong, it was certainly unwelcome but the Howbery Hiker boys are made of strong stuff and we pressed on past Wytham Mill on the Seacourt stream (SP4768 0949). This is a mill stream that takes off from the main Thames River and flows to the west of Oxford. It also provides some flood relief capacity though how effective that is debatable. After several name changes the stream re-joins the main Thames downstream of Oxford near Redbridge/Iffley

A34

The sound of traffic on the A34 (Oxford Western By-pass) was becoming intrusive as we plodded through sodden meadows, under the A34 and came out at Godstow, SP4840 0920. Opposite were the ruins of Godstow Abbey through most locals know this as Godstow nunnery. By all accounts this is where “Fair Rosamund” Clifford who was the mistress of Henry II retired to and died at the age of 30!

Our path then followed the road towards Wolvercote, past the Trout Inn one of many Inspector Morse pubs in the area. It was either P or N who said they came across a pub in Oxfordshire once where there was a notice to say that “Inspector Morse hadn’t drunk there”!

Past the entrance to Port Meadow (a SSSI, ancient common pasture, etc). N has special status being one of the Wolvercote Commoners. Past the Red Lion and White Hart pubs but neither took our fancy or weren’t open on Mondays or something like that. A quick diversion to look at the new fancy housing development on the site of the Oxford University Paper Mill (SP4882 0971) and then on towards Upper Wolvercote and our destination of the Plough Inn (SP4960 0966). We’ve been here before and it doesn’t disappoint, 8+ out of 10.

Sad end

By now we were cold so a warming cup of tea for some of our party, a refreshing pint for others and some chips (fried potatoes not those things in bags) to share. After a warming hour we said cheerio to N who wasn’t far from home and P, A & T headed up to the main Woodstock road to catch a bus into the city centre and thence home.

Not a long walk, 4.64 miles (7.5km) but pleasant enough. In the next few days we discussed when we should meet up again, should we continue on the OGBW out to Kidlington or plan to get back to the Cotswold Way. The remainder of February became rather busy for all of us and then the coronavirus hit. Doubtful if we are going to meet up for some time.