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what are these signposts on the Oxford?


Wittenham

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out for a [socially distanced...] walk on Sunday, somewhere near Kidlington.  I came across some low height metal signposts on angled iron.  One angle had D, the other S.  Maybe it was a spacer, maybe it was an I between the two.

 

Any suggestions on what they mean?

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They spelled out DIS, short for Distance.

 

Back in the carrying days there had been many arguments and fights between boatmen, with claims of one boater having "turned round" a lock against another. In attempt to defuse the situation, the canal company installed these posts and stated that it was against their rules to turn a lock around against a boat that had passed the distance marker.

 

As a result, no longer did they argue and fight about who had reached the lock first. Instead they argued and fought about whether or not the oncoming boat had passed the distance marker (which was often invisible from the lock anyway!)

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2 hours ago, Keeping Up said:

They spelled out DIS, short for Distance.

 

Back in the carrying days there had been many arguments and fights between boatmen, with claims of one boater having "turned round" a lock against another. In attempt to defuse the situation, the canal company installed these posts and stated that it was against their rules to turn a lock around against a boat that had passed the distance marker.

 

As a result, no longer did they argue and fight about who had reached the lock first. Instead they argued and fought about whether or not the oncoming boat had passed the distance marker (which was often invisible from the lock anyway!)

I believe, although I can't remember where I read it, that on some canals a whip was cracked when the distance post was reached - of course even that could lead to disputes if someone was thought to have cracked the whip before they got to the post...

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14 hours ago, magpie patrick said:

I believe, although I can't remember where I read it, that on some canals a whip was cracked when the distance post was reached - of course even that could lead to disputes if someone was thought to have cracked the whip before they got to the post...

Assuming horse drawn boat at ~2 MPH, that's about 2.5 feet a second, 28 seconds for the boat to pass the post, never mind the horse and towline before it...

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1 hour ago, 1st ade said:

Assuming horse drawn boat at ~2 MPH, that's about 2.5 feet a second, 28 seconds for the boat to pass the post, never mind the horse and towline before it...

 

34 minutes ago, Detling said:

And was it the boat reaching the post or the horse?  White van man has been evolving for a long time.

By 1st Ades calculations the nose of the horse would pass the post a full minute before the rudder of the boat did!

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