Oxford isn't known for 'big' things. It's got ancient archaic laws governing the heights of buildings in the city centre, and the main sewer system is similarly on the smaller end of the spectrum with apparently the largest sections being only a metre in height, so not conducive for good exploration potential. Infrastructure stuff has never really crossed my mind here in my home town as there simply wouldn't be anything worthwhile other than Trill Mill stream which I have below zero interest in doing owing to how unpleasant it is.
Recently my mind was jogged though and I recalled spotting a concrete channel that emptied out into the Thames just down from the Donnington Bridge area in the centre of the city. I'd first spotted it ages ago and of course over time totally forgot about it but out of curiousity I recently tried tracing where it went and realised it was quite a bit larger than I assumed it would be. Using a distance calculator I worked out the rough length was somewhere around 1.3 miles stretching right through the east side of the city, beginning at Boundary Brook in Cowley and emptying into the Thames at Donnington. As it's within walking distance of my house I gave a small section of it a brief look the other week whilst going to get some bread but recently went back on a proper trip to see how far it was possible to get down it - the answer is, disappointingly, only about halfway. After about three quarters of a mile the concrete lined channels end and it reverts back to a small, narrow, stagnant polluted stream. I'd imagine the whole stream was once like this, but it was widened in the past to allow for floodwaters to drain into the Thames as the area is notoriously prone to flooding in the winter - which left us with the great idea of taking some inflatable crafts down it when it's flooded!
This is far from my usual fare, as I've never really considered doing anything like this before due to the limited options around here, but it was a great fun excursion stooping under the low bridges and seeing something that's sort of hidden in plain sight in the middle of the city.
This is where it empties into the Thames - the flow of the water in the channel was surprisingly fast at this point as it's on a slightly steeper gradient than further up.
At one point it opens out and runs alongside a car dealership. We found the next bridge under a main road was far too covered in vegetation and way too much of a wet horrible crawl to bother with, so jumped out here and dropped down in again on the other side.
The grated section to the left starts with a concrete box channel and then after a short distance changes into a 3ft pipe, my next task is to work out where the entrance for this section might be as feeding myself through that small hole in the grate isn't an option for me!
Sadly a short distance after that last section the concrete runs out and it turns into this mess, we followed it up a little further to where I'd seen a long culverted section on the map but sadly it stayed as a horrible stream the rest of the way. The entrance to the culverted part was similarly grim, with only a narrow box around 3-4ft tall with around a foot of water flowing through it, so we left it at that. Before heading back though we dropped down into one last small concrete part at the exit of a much shorter culverted section of the channel.
Cheers for looking
Recently my mind was jogged though and I recalled spotting a concrete channel that emptied out into the Thames just down from the Donnington Bridge area in the centre of the city. I'd first spotted it ages ago and of course over time totally forgot about it but out of curiousity I recently tried tracing where it went and realised it was quite a bit larger than I assumed it would be. Using a distance calculator I worked out the rough length was somewhere around 1.3 miles stretching right through the east side of the city, beginning at Boundary Brook in Cowley and emptying into the Thames at Donnington. As it's within walking distance of my house I gave a small section of it a brief look the other week whilst going to get some bread but recently went back on a proper trip to see how far it was possible to get down it - the answer is, disappointingly, only about halfway. After about three quarters of a mile the concrete lined channels end and it reverts back to a small, narrow, stagnant polluted stream. I'd imagine the whole stream was once like this, but it was widened in the past to allow for floodwaters to drain into the Thames as the area is notoriously prone to flooding in the winter - which left us with the great idea of taking some inflatable crafts down it when it's flooded!
This is far from my usual fare, as I've never really considered doing anything like this before due to the limited options around here, but it was a great fun excursion stooping under the low bridges and seeing something that's sort of hidden in plain sight in the middle of the city.
This is where it empties into the Thames - the flow of the water in the channel was surprisingly fast at this point as it's on a slightly steeper gradient than further up.
At one point it opens out and runs alongside a car dealership. We found the next bridge under a main road was far too covered in vegetation and way too much of a wet horrible crawl to bother with, so jumped out here and dropped down in again on the other side.
The grated section to the left starts with a concrete box channel and then after a short distance changes into a 3ft pipe, my next task is to work out where the entrance for this section might be as feeding myself through that small hole in the grate isn't an option for me!
Sadly a short distance after that last section the concrete runs out and it turns into this mess, we followed it up a little further to where I'd seen a long culverted section on the map but sadly it stayed as a horrible stream the rest of the way. The entrance to the culverted part was similarly grim, with only a narrow box around 3-4ft tall with around a foot of water flowing through it, so we left it at that. Before heading back though we dropped down into one last small concrete part at the exit of a much shorter culverted section of the channel.
Cheers for looking
