Monday 8th June. Eynsham Lock, Oxford.
We were pleased to see that the weather was dry; we caught the bus to Witney where we changed buses for our destination, Burford. We had driven through many times when we had a light transport business. It was one of the many places at which we had planned to have a closer look.
The driver of the Burford bus was really friendly and helpful to all of his passengers. He made the journey that bit more enjoyable; the countryside was beautiful. One of the nice things about West Oxfordshire, is that the distant views are often dominated by church spires and not agricultural silos or distribution warehouses.
Burford itself had some lovely and interesting buildings on both sides of the very busy main street. The tourist information office was situated in Garne’s Brewery which was bought out by Wadsworths in 1969 and was interesting in itself.
We found a local bakery and just to please Barry Clark, a former colleague, Myra bought two steak and Guinness pies for our lunch. They were so good that two more were bought for us to eat tomorrow!
We had lunch sitting on the churchyard wall overlooking the River Windrush, it was a pleasant place to stop. Refreshed, we looked around the churchyard before entering the church which is dedicated to St. John the Baptist. There are a number of so called 'Bale Tombs' owing to the semi circular shape of the tops. These date from the time of the wollen industry of the area.
The original building is Norman, the present predominantly 15th century appearance masks the works of many different periods. The tower and spire date from the 15th century and the overall effect is a pleasant one.
Inside, there are interesting tombs including table tombs, paintings, beautiful wood carvings and painted decorative woodwork on the pulpit.
Unfortunately, the overall feeling of serenity was ruined for us by a continuously running audio visual display close to the base of the tower. We thought the constant noise and effect was totally out of keeping in a church and we thought it to be tacky.
Returning to Witney, we did a bit of shopping before catching the Eynsham bus back to the boat. We chatted to the crew of a workboat that were moving some pontoons downriver. They are for work to be carried out on the A34 bridge at Godstow. Thye have five more sets to move, some with containers aboard. We went through Eynsham lock before them, as the lock keeper wanted to keep a close watch on the pontoons. According to the measurements, they should have 4 inches to spare entering the lock, they passed us a while later, the measuremants must have been correct!
We filled up with water and moved back downstream to Yarnton Mead, we will moor in Oxford tomorrow.
2009 Totals – Locks 228; Miles 456.5; Bus pass uses 12
