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Oxford Moorings


umpire111

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Advice please. On Thames in Abingdon and coming up stream and onto Oxford Canal. Want to spend a couple of days in Oxford and hope to find a quiet secure, safe mooring with easy access to Oxford centre. Should I stay on river to Dukes cut or onto OC as soon as. Any recommendations Re moorings please. 

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I would suggest that you use the Sheepwash channel and when in the lock send a runner down the canal to the very end to see if the moorings there are free. They are often when the usual moorings are full. Then back down the canal and moor at the end. I have never had any problems there, although people on the road bridge can get a bit oud at night. That mooring is a bit like Stratford basin, where you do get "idiot" questions and find tourists on your boat for a photo opportunity, but being close to permanent live-aboard moorings always feel fine to me.

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We have moored on the Oxford Canal immediately North of Sheepwash Lock (not sure if correct name) Jericho area a few times. However, be aware that they start up the diesel engines in the train sidings approx 5.00am and leave them running to warm up every morning and they are noisy. Further on there are sections without moorings before you hit the long term student moorings. I would be tempted to moor on the thames  before Sheepwash cut but have never done this 

 

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The moorings on the river just above Osney lock, from there to Osney Bridge, are excellent. It is still only a few minutes walk into the centre of town from there; also there is a big supermarket a few minutes away in the other direction (and a launderette). If they are full, you can also moor on the river immediately beyond the Sheepwash junction.

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14 minutes ago, Keeping Up said:

The moorings on the river just above Osney lock, from there to Osney Bridge, are excellent. It is still only a few minutes walk into the centre of town from there; also there is a big supermarket a few minutes away in the other direction (and a launderette). If they are full, you can also moor on the river immediately beyond the Sheepwash junction.

That’s very useful, tx

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34 minutes ago, umpire111 said:

That’s very useful, tx

 

49 minutes ago, Keeping Up said:

The moorings on the river just above Osney lock, from there to Osney Bridge, are excellent. It is still only a few minutes walk into the centre of town from there; also there is a big supermarket a few minutes away in the other direction (and a launderette). If they are full, you can also moor on the river immediately beyond the Sheepwash junction.

The moorings 'twixt Osney Lock and the bridge are under the control and owned by the EA. You get one night free and (I think) a couple of nights for a charge. It all depends on how polite you are to the lockie. The moorings are relatively quiet - when you cnosider that the bridge is one of the main access routes into the City.

 

There are spaces to moor above Sheepwash on the lock cut but they do get policed from time to time.

I think finding a mooring on the canal above the lock can be problematic as its full of 'residents' and very popular.

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So, Abingdon is a nice safe stop for a few days. Plenty of town moorings plus EA above the Lock. If you want to see Oxford i would take the bus in from Abingdon, which is only 20 mins away. If not...

 

You could moor just up from Iffley lock on the left - EA Moorings* - it is surprisingly quiet. A 30 min walk into Oxford along the towpath and a pub very close, The Isis.

 

Above Osney Lock are the EA moorings as mentioned, handy for Oxford centre and the railway station.

 

I would stay on the river to Dukes cut, but i am biased as I grew up in Wolvercote and like to see it from Port Meadow.

 

* Usual EA charges, free for 24 hours and a fiver for the next two nights. It might have gone up by 50p, it had in Goring.

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2 hours ago, umpire111 said:

Tx Tony. If they r full assume I’ll go north on canal, any moorings along there? I’ve committed when I come thru the channel I think?

 

As said above, the "normal" moorings are just above the lock opposite the old boatyard and College Cruisers. There are more a bit further on but might only be 24 hours.  There are a very few further on, but its not near the city centre. There are also loads of potential moorings reserved for voles. The very last place I would stop is in the vicinity of Duke's Cut. Not much foot traffic and too close to a squatter boat community on the cut (unless they have been moved on). I saw the result of an Anglo Welsh hire boat crew parking there while they went into town. The boat was broken into and all the sellable equipment had been stripped while they were away.

 

If the Oxford mooring were full and I wanted to visit the city, I would push on to Thrupp, walk to the main road and get a bus into town.

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Agree with TB.   Thrupp has good moorings, two pubs as well as the bus.  Osney also recommended.  The canal south of Dukes is not very inviting.  I know Oxford very well, it gets clogged with traffic all day and even the buses get held up leaving the city since bus lanes are only inbound!

 

On the extreme, go to Lower Heyford and get a train in, only 15 mins, though not sure about timetable now that COVID is in the mix.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry for a late response, in addition to the above I like mooring on the river above Sheepwash channel. I think it's officially 24 h but there only ever was one sign and it's gone. You'll probably need to tie to a tree and maybe hack at the undergrowth, but it's far enough from roads and trains to be quiet while still less than 15 minutes to the centre. The towpath there is fairly busy by day.

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11 hours ago, Onewheeler said:

Sorry for a late response, in addition to the above I like mooring on the river above Sheepwash channel. I think it's officially 24 h but there only ever was one sign and it's gone. You'll probably need to tie to a tree and maybe hack at the undergrowth, but it's far enough from roads and trains to be quiet while still less than 15 minutes to the centre. The towpath there is fairly busy by day.

 

There are very few 'official' short term moorings on the Thames and most of them are near locks (? so that the lockies can manage them).

The rest are informal moorings where folk can get near enough to hop ashore ena bang  a pin in. Such moorings 'belong' to whoever owns the land bordering the river and it's up to them whether or not the allow mooring and / or collect fees.

Every so often folks moor and behave badly  - so the land owners have to take remedial action - which ultimately causes everybody a lot of grief.

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On 15/07/2021 at 10:24, Tony Brooks said:

The very last place I would stop is in the vicinity of Duke's Cut. Not much foot traffic and too close to a squatter boat community on the cut (unless they have been moved on). I saw the result of an Anglo Welsh hire boat crew parking there while they went into town. The boat was broken into and all the sellable equipment had been stripped while they were away.

 

Yep, I don't think it's changed. Or at least it hadn't in May, Duke's cut has a distinctly dodgy feel.

 

On the other hand, I wouldn't discount mooring on the Thames between Iffley lock and Folly bridge if you see a decent space. Alternatively Godstow has a few pubs and a decent bus service into the centre.

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On 15/07/2021 at 10:24, Tony Brooks said:

 

As said above, the "normal" moorings are just above the lock opposite the old boatyard and College Cruisers. There are more a bit further on but might only be 24 hours.  There are a very few further on, but its not near the city centre. There are also loads of potential moorings reserved for voles. The very last place I would stop is in the vicinity of Duke's Cut. Not much foot traffic and too close to a squatter boat community on the cut (unless they have been moved on). I saw the result of an Anglo Welsh hire boat crew parking there while they went into town. The boat was broken into and all the sellable equipment had been stripped while they were away.

 

If the Oxford mooring were full and I wanted to visit the city, I would push on to Thrupp, walk to the main road and get a bus into town.

We moored and left our boat below Duke's Lock last year moored by Wolvercote Junction (I think that is what it is called). There were a few family groups dog walking in the area so it felt ok to leave the boat for a couple of hours whilst we went food shopping.  Boat was fine when we got back.

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