Sunday, July 09, 2017

Something hidden but worth seeing on the Oxford Canal.

Here's a find you might not know about. It's one of those things right next to the canal, but you never know it's there until someone tips you off like someone did to us.

First, a bit of background, so bear with me.

The little old river Cherwell has been known to flood a bit around Banbury. In fact, a bit more than a bit. In 1998 even Banbury railway station had to be closed because of floods. That year, flood damage amounted to 12m pounds. When they had bad floods again in 2007, the town and the EA decided enough was enough and 14m quid was spent on developing and constructing a Flood Alleviation Scheme. A major piece of this was the creation of a large floodwater holding area in fields to the north of the town by building a retaining dam 2850 metres (that's over a mile and three quarters) long and up to 4.5m (nearly 15 feet) high.

Not only is this worth looking at, it's right next to the canal, and you can use it to walk through to the retail park next to the motorway where comfortably off shoppers can visit M&S or the less wealthy can go into Primark or Poundland or the less healthy can eat at MacDonalds.(healthy menu options are available).

So how do you see all this from the canal? Well you start at the motorway bridge just north of Hardwick lock (that's the last one before Banbury if you are coming from the North). There's plenty of room to tie up on the straight stretch down to the lock. Walk back through the bridge and you'll find this gate.



See it there on the left of the picture. Walk through the gate and you'll be looking at a bit of the dam.




Climb up onto the dam to see the vista beyond, where all the flood water will be held. There are a couple of socking great concrete sluices which I suppose are there to control the release of the water at the appropriate time.


If you fancy a bit of retail therapy, it's less than a ten minute walk from here. With your back to the canal, turn to your right and walk along the dam and across a second sluice to join a path going under the motorway.



As you can see, M&S and the rest are just the other side.

There is a good write up of the flood alleviation scheme with maps and pictures available as a pdf. Google the scheme (other search engines are available) and look for the entry from WaterProjectsOnline.com.

What worries me is how they will manage post Brexit when we can't get any little Dutch boys to stick their fingers in the dam if it leaks.

4 comments:

Halfie said...

Hang on, in 1998 it flooded. It flooded again in 1997. Something wrong with those dates?

Herbie Neil said...

Thanks John, now corrected to read 2007!

Marilyn, nb Waka Huia said...

Halfie,
Neil appears to like living in the past - receding from today. Don't burst his bubble!
Marilyn ;-)

Oakie said...

Just spotted it on Google Maps satellite view. I never knew that, so will be paying a visit in a couple of weeks time, when coming south towards Oxford. You never know Neil, we might even meet up again in Ye Olde Reindeer.