Canals
Oxford Canal is amongst the earliest of cuts in the Canal Age. It was constructed and opened in sections between 1774 and 1790 with a wharf at Lower Heyford, six miles from Bicester. This was particularly valuable as it brought Bicester into direct connection with the collieries in the West Midlands and ensured a supply of cheap coal. Horse drawn carriers then transported the coal to Bicester.
It reached Banbury in 1778, when Tooley’s Boatyard was built. Also known as Banbury Dockyard, over the years the site has included a dry dock, a forge and blacksmith’s workshop, a carpenter’s shop, a belt-driven machine shop and stables. The machine shop dates from the 1930s and contains second-hand machinery from the 1890s. The dry dock is the oldest continuously operated facility of its kind on the inland waterways of Great Britain. Before the 1920s, the dry dock was a brick-lined hole, which took 10 minutes to fill and an hour and a half to empty into the River Cherwell. The forge and blacksmith’s workshop, which date from 1778, is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
The canal follows a north – south axis and was developed to form part of a national network that linked the ports of London, Liverpool, Bristol and the North East coast ports with the Midlands industrial base, a kind of motorway of its day transporting goods throughout the country. Port Meadow had served as the flood plain for the Thames flowing through the area and protected Oxford in times of flood, but navigation of the river proved difficult in times of flood or drought. There was a conflict of usage relating to the river between mills situated on its course and the requirements for river craft navigation hence the development of the canal did much to solve this problem. However, it was built cheaply, so is of a narrow construction. The boats which navigate it are referred to as ‘narrowboats’, whereas later canals accommodated wider boats (40ft+) and are called ‘barges’.
The present Worcester Street Car Park, in the centre of Oxford, was the site of the original canal basin. An adjoining secondary wharf linked with this Basin and occupied the site of the present Nuffield College. Daniel Harris, the Governor of Oxford Goal, did much to support the early development of this area of the city. He was able to provide a plentiful supply of labour from the prison. Wyaston Hall in New Inn Street was the original Headquarters for the Oxford Canal Company who subsequently moved to the more imposing Canal House, adjacent to Bulwarks Lane, and close to the canal basin.
There were always tensions between a city that believed itself to be an academic haven and the industrial developments that the canal serviced. The coming of the railway in 1844 posed the greatest threat to the canal and its decline followed the railway's development.