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Visitor mooring in Oxford


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I'm no expert. However, I would have thought that time of year will be fairly busy all of the time. If you 'go as far as you can' you will end up adjacent to College Cruisers, which means that over the weekend it will be busy with their turnaround days.

 

We were there about August time year before last. We found a mooring.

 

Hope this helps a little.

 

Martyn

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I'm no expert. However, I would have thought that time of year will be fairly busy all of the time. If you 'go as far as you can' you will end up adjacent to College Cruisers, which means that over the weekend it will be busy with their turnaround days.

 

We were there about August time year before last. We found a mooring.

 

Hope this helps a little.

 

Martyn

If you go passed that you will come to the very end, but you have to reverse out, so get someone to walk down and look, its passed all the long term residential moorings just to the left of Isis Lock. I have never failed to get in up there.

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Did this last June, moorings we're busy, but very disappointing. Found Banbury much nicer & safer.

 

We're a fairly frequent visitor to Oxford and until recently the moorings were very poor. They've improved them a lot however being close to the station there is a fair amount on noise from the trains. There are some 7 day moorings that are quieter however the bank is poor and it's a long walk into the centre.

 

As a stab at what the best days are I would suggest that you aim to travel 1 day ahead of the hire fleets. We've always tried to do this and never had a problem. One thing to factor in is the Cropredy festival. If you're travelling along the Oxford around festival time there can be VERY heavy traffic in the days leading up to and just after the festival.

Edited by Chalky
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Why, what happened to you in Oxford?

Nothing happened, just found the area depressing especially the smashed up narrow boats with people on them in the cutting below the moorings opposite college cruisers (read deliverance). It seemed a shame as it was our first time in the area, just felt like Oxford had turned it's back on the canal, whereas Banbury seemed to make a distinct effort.
  • Greenie 1
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Visitor mooring below Wolvercote is about as friendly to visiting boats as Omaha beach. The nice 24 hour moorings are often deserted, with people crammed onto the 48. The 7 day mooring is entertainingly undredged which is fun if your boat is deeper than 2 foot. Combined with dire warnings about fines and no return within a month it's all a bit much. Never felt unsafe though and its a far nicer place than Banbury.

 

BJCF2bkCYAE4c6W.jpg

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Let's get a bit of balance!

 

I agree Oxford is a city that doesn't seem to love it's canal much, and yes some mooring is shallow.

 

But unsafe? Unless you actually have evidence of problems, it seems unhelpful to make that kind of statement.

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Rather than take pot luck - how's about considering taking out a Thames visitor licence?

 

Not cheap, but the moorings are very good; you can moor above Osney lock and the moorings are surprisingly quiet.

Alternatively there's a longer run of delightful moorings opposite Christchurch meadows.

Get your licence at either King's lock (if entering via Duke's Cut) or at Osney lock.

Effectively covers you for two days.

 

Otherwise you could consider stopping at Banbury and taking the train (I think the bus is a bit slow)

Ditto - at Lower Heyford - the train runs alongside the cut

OR at Thrupp where the few ST moorings are delicious - bus into the City

 

By taking the first option above, you have the advantage of finding a mooring on the canal, then moving onto the River if they're full!

 

 

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Nasty unsafe overcrowded moorings, surrounded by smashed up boats.

 

(Oxford - 2 years ago)

 

 

 

IMG_0093_zpscaecc6c7.jpg

I am sure someone would be able to do something with that hull Alan, it's not beyond saving in my eyes......

but the grass is a bit untidy..

Edited by matty40s
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I am sure someone would be able to do something with that hull Alan, it's not beyond saving in my eyes......

but the grass is a bit untidy..

smiley_offtopic.gif The hull possibly, although one of the rear fenders has certainly gone beyond saving since this date - possibly both of them!

Edited by alan_fincher
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Rather than take pot luck - how's about considering taking out a Thames visitor licence?

 

Not cheap, but the moorings are very good; you can moor above Osney lock and the moorings are surprisingly quiet.

Alternatively there's a longer run of delightful moorings opposite Christchurch meadows.

Get your licence at either King's lock (if entering via Duke's Cut) or at Osney lock.

Effectively covers you for two days.

 

Otherwise you could consider stopping at Banbury and taking the train (I think the bus is a bit slow)

Ditto - at Lower Heyford - the train runs alongside the cut

OR at Thrupp where the few ST moorings are delicious - bus into the City

 

By taking the first option above, you have the advantage of finding a mooring on the canal, then moving onto the River if they're full!

 

Yes, the Thames is definitely the best thing about Oxford boating, it more than makes up for the most southerly bits of the canal.

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Yes, the Thames is definitely the best thing about Oxford boating, it more than makes up for the most southerly bits of the canal.

 

It's a shame to slate the southern - southern Oxford.

The approach to the City is much improved with new Halls of residence and apartments tidying up the view. However there's no escaping that the canal was part of an industrial corridor (after all that is what it was for) and it can be gloomy.

 

I've seen worse!

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Would like to state that I my have worded my first post badly, with ref to the safety I was only stating how it looked & how I felt at that particular moment. If I,ve caused offence I apologise particularly to Alan Fincher who seems to have taken offence & seems to want to make a point. As I have been a member of this forum for a while & followed a lot of Allan's posts with respect for what he has to say I find this surprising. But as a first time poster, I don,t see the point in posting an opinion any moor if this is how people react.

Andy B

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Would like to state that I my have worded my first post badly, with ref to the safety I was only stating how it looked & how I felt at that particular moment. If I,ve caused offence I apologise particularly to Alan Fincher who seems to have taken offence & seems to want to make a point. As I have been a member of this forum for a while & followed a lot of Allan's posts with respect for what he has to say I find this surprising. But as a first time poster, I don,t see the point in posting an opinion any moor if this is how people react.

Andy B

Sorry,

 

I wasn't intending to appear as if I was taking anything badly, so if I have given that impression I apologise.

 

If I'm trying to make any point, then it is only that places often seem to get a poor reputation on the basis of a few comments made, and that can sometimes escalate to the point that people start to think they have a worse reputation than they deserve.

 

I don't claim to be any great expert on the Southern Oxford - it is one of our less visited waterways, and I am aware that a lot of people say negative things about those final few miles.

 

I can only say that is not our experience, and I put the pictures in to show that parts of it are pleasant enough. I do agree this fine city could make far more of its canal, as I have said - it does come across as not being so important in the history of the city as many other things, which is a shame.

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Another view of the same mooring.

 

Dsc03173r.jpg

 

We told some walkers that the seats in the foreground were the arms of a giant capstan that would let all the water out of the canal if you turned it.

 

Well blow me down - I thought that whole length ('twixt the lock and the road bridge) was for residents only..

 

One lives and learns!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well blow me down - I thought that whole length ('twixt the lock and the road bridge) was for residents only..

 

One lives and learns!

 

Funny..I thought that too...but you do have to reverse out....and night time 'folks' tend to gather around the capstan with their extra strong booze. There is a popular bench there.

 

I have moored opposite Oxford cruisers on several occasions and found it fine and no night time problems.

You do get a 'thundering' noise from trains though..through the night...especially as a lot of long and heavy freight trains run in the early hours..

I have been there on change over days, but most of the traffic is with skilled (?) skippers from the hire company doing demos, so I haven't been hit. The worse you can expect is a 'glare' if directly and awkwardly moored. Have never arrived and not got a mooring.

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We went down to Oxford a couple of weeks ago and what an improvement since the last time we were there a few years ago. Apart from going along to the very end, past the residential boats, the stretch from isis lock north is all visitor moorings for quite a way. We went expecting to have difficulty finding a space but we had lots of choice. The long lines of boats in poor condition which used to be a feature of the approcah to Oxford seem to have been tidied up and although there are long stretches of long term moorings, they are no longer depressing looking. We did find it strange though that there were stretches with notices attached quite high up at the back of the towpath telling boaters that they couldn't moor there as it was a conservation area. We wondered if this is another way of saying that the residents don't want you there. Didn't look much like a conservation area to us. You would need very good eye sight or binoculars to be able to read the notices from your boat in the middle of the canal.

We were very pleasantly surprised by the state of moorings in Oxford.

 

haggis

Edited by haggis
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Nasty unsafe overcrowded moorings, surrounded by smashed up boats.

 

(Oxford - 2 years ago)

 

IMG_0094_zps2bc34daa.jpg

 

IMG_0093_zpscaecc6c7.jpg

Alan

 

You know and I know that just by the bridge in the second picture there are a few 'iffy' boats on the Mill Stream that andyb116 was refering to.

 

Yes they dont present a problem but they are an eyesore.

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