The Oxford Canal and it's Bridges.

Photographs of the Canal Bridges between Oxford and Banbury which cross this beautiful English Canal

Our Oxford Canal Bridge Pictures show all the bridges which cross the Oxford Canal from the start (end?) at Oxford with Bridge 243 and going through Lower Heyford, Islip, Aynho to Banbury at Bridge 164 Spiceball Bridge.

The 77 mile long Oxford Canal wanders it's way through the English countryside between Oxford (The River Thames) and Hawkesbury Junction near Coventry and was fully opened in 1790. The Oxford canal joins up with the lovely River Cherwell which seems to wander and meander about even more than it's watery neighbour for a short distance but they soon part company again as in the photo on the left - however elsewhere both river and canal are often just a few yards away from each other. In one particularly interesting spot the River Cherwell cuts across the canal at Weir bridge and Lock. One of the saddest things we have come across on the Oxford Canal is the (presumably responsible) Oxfordshire County Council's poor treatment of Nell bridge. They have simply shoved an ugly load of concrete immediately across the top of this once gorgeous little bridge - which incidentally is one of the oldest on the Oxford Canal system. In other locations where roads have to cross at existing canal bridge sites at least some attempt has been made to keep the original canal bridge intact by routing their ugle concrete bridge either higher up or to the side, but here they have simply vandalised it - shame on them.

Originally the Oxford Canal was built and used for moving coal to the South but these days it is the habitat of fishermen, cruise boats, cyclists, walkers, herons, kingfishers, ducks and a large number of private canal boats. We have often used the canal for our walking trips - it is quite ideal to create lots of circular walks in and around the open countryside especially around the Lower Heyford area of Oxfordshire.

One of the nicest things about the canal are the small bridges which frequently cross over it - these are usually simply farmer's bridges used to move stock etc. between their fields either side of the canal. This page of information is a series of photographs of some of these bridges which we have found as we walked the towpath over the years.
There are quite a few photos of the railway bridges and also some of the what appears to be remains of bridges as well (of course in reality these remains are no longer bridges since they do not cross the canal but are interesting so included.). The original canal bridges were numbered and where some of the numbers are now missing but bridge remains exist we have made a guess that these were said bridges at one time.

Oxford Canal Bridges between Oxford and Banbury - Bridges 243 to 164.

164	165		166	168
Spiceball Bridge	Lift Bridge	Banbury-Oxford Canal road bridge	Albion Bridge	Samuelson Bridge
169?	169?	170	171	172
Demolished Bridge	Demolished bridge	Haynes Lift Bridge	Foxes Lift Bridge	Nadkey Bridge
173		174	174	175
Lift Bridge	M40 Bridge	Grants Bridge	Grants Bridge	Stevens Lift Bridge
	177			179
demolished bridge 176?	Twyford Bridge	Demolished lift bridge - possibly no178	or this demolished bridge may have been 178	Tarvers Bridge
179	181	182
Tarvers Bridge	Scroobys Lift Bridge	Coles Lift Bridge	Dismantled Railway Bridge	M40 Road Bridge
183	184	185	186	187
Coles Lift Bridge	Demolished Lift Bridge 184?	Demolished Lift Bridge 185?	Idons Lift Bridge	Nell Bridge
188	189	190	191?	192
Weir Bridge	Belchers Lift Bridge	Aynho Bridge	Demolished Lift Bridge - 191?	Souldern Bridge
193	194	194	195	196
Chisnell Lift Bridge	Somerton Deep Lock	Somerton Deep Lock Bridge	Meadlands Bridge	Somerton Bridge
197?	198	199		200
Demolished Lift Bridge - 197?	Deep Cutting Bridge	Somerton Mill Bridge	Pipe Bridge	Heyford Common Bridge
201	202	203	203	204
Railway Bridge near Upper Heyford	Single Bridge	Allens Lock Bridge	Allens Lock Bridge	Allens Bridge
205	206	207	208	209
Mill Lift Bridge	Heyford Wharf Bridge	Cleeves Bridge	High Bush Bridge	Dashwood Bridge
209	210	next to 210	211	212
Dashwood Bridge	Northbrook Bridge	Northbrook Packhorse Bridge	New Brighton Bridge	Old Brighton Bridge
213	214	214	215	216
Pigeons Bridge	Pinsey Bridge	aka Binsey Bridge sometimes	Caravan Lift Bridge	Bridge at Enslow
	217		220	220
Enslow Railway Bridge	Horse Bridge	Bunker Hill Railway Bridge	Shipton Lift Bridge	Shipton Lift Bridge
			220	220
Shipton on Cherwell Railway Bridge	Dismantled Railway Bridge	Dismantled Railway Bridge	Shipton Bridge	Shipton Bridge
221	223	224	224	226
Aubreys Lift Bridge	Sparrowgap Bridge	Langford Lane Bridge	Langford Lane Bridge	Roundham Bridge
226	227	227	228	228
Roundham Bridge	Bullers Bridge	Bullers Bridge	Yarnton Bridge	Yarnton Bridge
			230	231
Pipe Bridge Kidlington	Oxford Canal Footbridge	Oxford Canal Footbridge	Kings Bridge	Drinkwaters Lift Bridge
	232			233
Railway Bridge	Dukes Bridge	Oxford Canal Road Bridge	Oxford Canal Road Bridge	Lift Bridge
234	234	235	235	235
Perrys Lift Bridge	Perrys Lift Bridge	Upper Wolvercote Bridge	Upper Wolvercote Bridge	Upper Wolvercote Bridge
236	236
Balls Bridge	Balls Bridge	Upper Wolvercote Railway Bridge	Upper Wolvercote Railway Bridge	Demolished Lift Bridge?
238	238		240	240
St Edwards Lift Bridge	St Edwards Lift Bridge	Oxford Canal Bridge	Aristotle Bridge	Aristotle Bridge
	242	242	243
	Oxford Canal Bridge	Oxford Canal Bridge	Isis Lock Bridge

There are many more English Canal Photographs including Arms and also many Grand Union Canal Photos on our Site - please see our England Topics.

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