South Oxford canal tow path

[Ernie]

BW must really be strapped for cash if the can’t even afford to cut the grass. It is a struggle to walk along the tow path due to the state it is in.

See photos at:

 

http://www.erniesplace.com/_BoatingDiaries...ngs_Sutton.shtm

 

It's like it all the way from Enslow.

Edited June 8, 2008 by Ernie

[carlt]

Personally. I think the February photo is over-trimmed and, if used, the growth soon gets trampled down.

 

Maybe if they just strimmed a metre wide swathe, instead of trying to achieve a "bowling green" standard, water to hedgerow, they could afford to do it more often.

[alan_fincher]

I'm thinking I can remember something about this a year or two back.

 

There was something to do with the balance between boater and public access, and letting nature take it's course, so wildlife, plants and animals, could flourish.

 

The memory is hazy, but I recall something abount only cutting at (I think) two times of year for general towpaths. (Don't think it applied to recognised marked mooring sites).

 

I'll be blowed if I can find the information again now, though, (tried a search on Waterscape).

 

I agree - cut a walker's, or bike's width, but otherwise largely let nature take it's course. Even down towards London some of the GU is managed like that, and it's not hard to just trample down the undergrowth at the front and back of a moored boat.

 

(Unless it's full of dog s**t, but that's another story..... )

[NB Alnwick]

BW must really be strapped for cash if the can’t even afford to cut the grass. It is a struggle to walk along the tow path due to the state it is in.

See photos at:

 

http://www.erniesplace.com/_BoatingDiaries...ngs_Sutton.shtm

 

It's like it all the way from Enslow.

 

You are coming this way then? I'll get the strimmer out and strim you a mooring at Cropredy!

 

We arrived back from Crick to find the towpath where we normally moor over three feet high in grass, cow parsley and nettles. It is pretty much the same all the way down and, as if to add insult to injury, we have just had a letter from British Waterways pointing out that the terms of our mooring permit require that we not clutter or allow our pets to foul the towpath! Furthermore, they say, we have "a duty to maintain our boats in good decorative order"

 

I have written back inviting them to look at their own maintenance regime before criticising we boaters.

[Ernie]

You are coming this way then? I'll get the strimmer out and strim you a mooring at Cropredy!

 

We arrived back from Crick to find the towpath where we normally moor over three feet high in grass, cow parsley and nettles. It is pretty much the same all the way down and, as if to add insult to injury, we have just had a letter from British Waterways pointing out that the terms of our mooring permit require that we not clutter or allow our pets to foul the towpath! Furthermore, they say, we have "a duty to maintain our boats in good decorative order"

 

I have written back inviting them to look at their own maintenance regime before criticising we boaters.

Hi Graham,

 

Yes coming your way (again). We are very fond of the South Oxford - a lovely canal - shame about the current state of the tow path.

 

If you clear us a nice 60' section - nothing too short, 2" high will do. Oh, and if you could clear a path to the shop that would be great also. We like to moor about a quarter of a mile north of the lock so it shouldn't take you too long. ( 2 feet wide will be ample, don’t bother doing from hedge to water ). We should be arriving Cropredy in around 10-12 days time.

 

Have added another photo on the web site taken at the Kings Sutton moorings last September – the tow path was fine then.

 

Joking aside, it is almost a danger walking the tow path as it is so overgrown that you can’t see pot holes etc. Perhaps BW will do something if someone has an accident and takes legal action against them.

[tidal]

a duty to maintain our boats in good decorative order

 

YOU WHAT?

 

Is this in the bylaws or on the licence now? genuine query

[Bones]

you mean there IS a towpath there? gosh.....

 

I wonder what counts for good decorative order... the diversity must be vaste, from the funeral pire to the church wedding.

[Dominic M]

Furthermore, they say, we have "a duty to maintain our boats in good decorative order"

What, I wonder, constitutes "good decorative order"? Whether or not something is "decorative" is in the eye of the beholder, so it is thoroughly subjective. If I chose to decorate my boat in the style of, say, Jackson Pollock, or Mark Rothko how would they stand on that? Do I get a red card, or do the PLA offer me a lifetime's free mooring outside the Tate Modern?

 

Dominic

 

Edited owing to link upcock.

Edited June 8, 2008 by Dominic M

[NB Alnwick]

Hhmm! The letter went on to say that it was against the mooring conditions to advertise a business from the boat - I have walked up and down the towpath this morning and I reckon they must be talking about the R W Davis builders plate on the hull side - Hey Ho!

Edited June 8, 2008 by NB Alnwick

[Curly]

Having just come down the South Oxford myself I am more concerned with the number of online moorings that are sprining up! There is even boat fitting being carried out in one of the lock pounds!

[Dominic M]

Hhmm! The letter when on to say that it was against the mooring conditions to advertise a business from the boat - I have walked up and down the towpath this morning and I reckon they must be talking about the R W Davis builders plate on the hull side - Hey Ho!

Really? Lot's of Phil's boats have got RW Davis sign written on the back panel. Many Steve Hudson's declare, "registered at Tamworth" as asubtle form of advertising. Lots of other builders have their brand name painted on the boat too - Louis & Joshua, Braidbar I have seen chugging past recently. And an old rusting bath tub drifted past me yesterday morning. At first I thought somebody had just slung it in the canal, but on closer inspection you could make out the words, "New Boat Company" on the side. I don't think BW have any legal right to prevent you advertising from your boat - I'd like to see them try and enforce it.

[carlt]

Having just come down the South Oxford myself I am more concerned with the number of online moorings that are sprining up! There is even boat fitting being carried out in one of the lock pounds!

Yes it's outrageous! Damned boats cluttering up the canals.

 

Let's sterilise another lump of countryside, and dig another marina.

[stort_mark]

We recently walked from Cropredy to Slat Mill Lock after it had been raining and were soaked to the skin because of the undergrowth across the towpath. On several occasions we slipped and almost ended up in the canal.

 

Meanwhile we saw lots of new bollards being prepared at the narrow locks (BWB.....I don't give a toss what its says in your bsevice standards, it's still a complete waste of money and a trip hazard!).

 

fwiw we got the longitude and latitude of the last remaining bit of the South Oxford that is not a mooring if anyone wants it.

[sueb]

I'm thinking I can remember something about this a year or two back.

 

There was something to do with the balance between boater and public access, and letting nature take it's course, so wildlife, plants and animals, could flourish.

 

The memory is hazy, but I recall something abount only cutting at (I think) two times of year for general towpaths. (Don't think it applied to recognised marked mooring sites).

 

I'll be blowed if I can find the information again now, though, (tried a search on Waterscape).

 

I agree - cut a walker's, or bike's width, but otherwise largely let nature take it's course. Even down towards London some of the GU is managed like that, and it's not hard to just trample down the undergrowth at the front and back of a moored boat.

 

(Unless it's full of dog s**t, but that's another story..... )

Why should the towpath only be cut for walkers? I object to having to spend the summer in wellingtons ,needed to get through the stinging nettles to moor. I also like to be sure that there is solid ground to step on to.

If the towpath is cut it should be to the edge.

Sue

[Eugene Baston]

I'm thinking I can remember something about this a year or two back.

 

There was something to do with the balance between boater and public access, and letting nature take it's course, so wildlife, plants and animals, could flourish.

 

The memory is hazy, but I recall something abount only cutting at (I think) two times of year for general towpaths. (Don't think it applied to recognised marked mooring sites).

 

(Snip)

 

Hi

 

Go to

http://www.britishwaterways.co.uk/accounta...on_reports.html

 

and scroll down to 2005. There's three reports there.

 

Right, back to lurking, Eugene.

[saltysplash]

Sounds like some folk have been a bit spoilt.....however did we cope back in the 70's an 80's and much earlier with virtually no tow paths at all along some sections?

[stort_mark]

Sounds like some folk have been a bit spoilt.....however did we cope back in the 70's an 80's and much earlier with virtually no tow paths at all along some sections?

 

Oh right..so we all want to go back to the dark days of the 70s or 80s????!!

Now I'm waiting for someone to suggest that we have it lucky because in the 1940s the Luftwaffe bombed the canals.

[saltysplash]

Oh right..so we all want to go back to the dark days of the 70s or 80s????!!

Now I'm waiting for someone to suggest that we have it lucky because in the 1940s the Luftwaffe bombed the canals.

 

 

well there certainly seemed a lot less complaining going on and more 'get on with it' attitude, If neat tidy towpath moorings are what some folk want then smashing, take a sythe along to assist, BW can only do so much and have to try and please everybody. They did a great job on the Slough arm last autumn but cant be everywhere at once. It all costs brass, and what would you rather have. Working Locks and infrastructure or neat close trimmed banks?

[NB Alnwick]

well there certainly seemed a lot less complaining going on and more 'get on with it' attitude, If neat tidy towpath moorings are what some folk want then smashing, take a sythe along to assist, BW can only do so much and have to try and please everybody. They did a great job on the Slough arm last autumn but cant be everywhere at once. It all costs brass, and what would you rather have. Working Locks and infrastructure or neat close trimmed banks?

 

When I was very young I used to watch the canal lengthman riding through the village on his Constabulary pattern Hercules bicycle with a scythe and hedge slasher over his shoulder. The blade of the scythe was always wrapped in sacking and both were kept razor sharp. He kept the towpath and hedge on the Welford arm sufficiently well trimmed for us to walk on even though that canal in those days was pretty well un-navigable. I believe he also worked either side of the junction as far as Husbands Bosworth tunnel in one direction and well on towards Yelvertoft in the other. We often watched him working, he would lay hedges single handed and watching him swing that scythe was nothing short of incredible - much more effective than the modern strimmers we see used now.

 

Why can't anyone do that today?

[churchward]

Personally I don't want a well-manicured towpath or canal environment. I think there needs to be space for the wildlife too. In any case if you want the grass cut one could always do it yourself or just trample it down by the boat. I would rather BW's money was spent on the canal infrastructure and engineering than cutting the grass.

 

Why no lengthsman? Easy, BW or you can't pay enough money to anyone to do the job these days folk who did this sort of thing would have been paid so very little in those days manual labour was cheap but in these times we all expect a much higher standard of living.

Edited June 8, 2008 by churchward

[carlt]

Oh right..so we all want to go back to the dark days of the 70s or 80s????!!

Yes please!

 

I'd like to go back to the days when there was an entry level for young people to start boating, instead of the aging, elitist canal population we are turning into now.

 

I'd love to return to when you didn't have "a duty to maintain our boats in good decorative order" and the variety of converted landing craft, ships lifeboats, working boats and pontoons were seen as adding to the colour and character of the cut, not seen as some "underclass" of "pikies" who are merely lowering the tone for "proper boaters".

 

I'd welcome back the days when every patch of land that isn't agriculturally useful (ie. meadowland) isn't sanitised and dug out, to become another housing estate for clonecraft boats.

 

If it meant carrying a scythe and "lock repair kit" again then I'd happily pay that price.

 

Funnily enough we seem to be getting all the bad things back, without the good things that were there, when I was a teenager, getting my first boat.

[Ernie]

Personally I don't want a well-manicured towpath or canal environment. I think there needs to be space for the wildlife too. In any case if you want the grass cut one could always do it yourself or just trample it down by the boat. I would rather BW's money was spent on the canal infrastructure and engineering than cutting the grass.

 

Why no lengthsman? Easy, BW or you can't pay enough money to anyone to do the job these days folk who did this sort of thing would have been paid so very little in those days manual labour was cheap but in these times we all expect a much higher standard of living.

I don’t think many folk are asking for a well manicured tow path – just the ability to walk the dogs from lock to lock would be nice. As it is at the moment, you have to struggle through waist high grass, nettle, weeds etc.

 

BW are actually selling the canal system as a nice place for people to walk, cycle and generally enjoy the environment……..

[cotswoldsman]

Having just come down the South Oxford myself I am more concerned with the number of online moorings that are sprining up! There is even boat fitting being carried out in one of the lock pounds!

 

"Oh no boats moored on the canal!!" The sooner we get all the boats off the canal the better.

I guess you must be moored in a marina and pop out at weekends. Maybe if you give BW warning when you are about to cruise they can clear the system for you.

[Ernie]

Now moored at Banbury.

We were talking to a lady this morning that has a permanent mooring close by. Not sure how much truth there is in the story but she was telling us that BW gave the grass cutting contract for this section of the Oxford canal to a company that has only got two employees. The contract company is trying it’s best to recruit another six employees but seems to be struggling.

We would not normally moor so close to town but there is nowhere else we could moor where it is possible to walk the dogs - it's almost impossible to walk the path at all in many parts!! Have been out with the shears again to clear yet another mooring spot.

 

Was also talking to a family on a hire boat. They have push bikes for themselves and their kids and were looking forward to cycling along the tow path and going forward on the bikes to set the locks etc. They are not very impressed with BW to say the least, their expensive holiday is not what they had expected.

[tidal]

Why no lengthsman? Easy, BW or you can't pay enough money to anyone to do the job these days folk who did this sort of thing would have been paid so very little in those days manual labour was cheap but in these times we all expect a much higher standard of living.

 

give me 100 quid a week and a free mooring and I would snatch their hands off