Circular walks in Oxfordshire
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A short walk around Kidlington, taking in:
The Oxford Canal
Thrupp Kidlington Getting to the start
The walk starts from the car park at St Mary’s Church, postcode OX5 2BB. Alternative parking is available in Kidlington’s main car park, situated behind Tesco in the High Street.
Tesco car park
Public transport When out walking, it is always wise to let someone know where you are going or, if possible, have someone with you. Take For timetable enquiries, please call Traveline your mobile with you, and make sure it is on 0871 200 22 33. fully charged. If you use your car to ac- You will also find information and Oxfordshire cess the route, please park with care – County Council public transport timetables in do not block farm gateways or village fa- most Oxfordshire libraries and Tourist cilities, and do not leave valuables in Information Centres. Alternatively, write view. enclosing an A5 stamped addressed envelope to: Oxfordshire County Council, Please follow the Countryside Code: Public Transport, Speedwell House, Speedwell Street, Oxford OX1 1NE. Be safe – plan ahead and follow any signs Easy-to-follow routes Leave gates and property as you find them Each walk is marked with metal Protect plants and animals, and signposts where the path leaves take your litter home the road, and with waymarks on gates and stiles at every change of direction. Keep dogs under close control The appropriate Ordnance Survey map to Consider other people use on this route is OS Explorer 180.
This map is reproduced from Ordnance Survey material with the permission of Ordnance Survey on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office © Crown copyright. Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown copyright and may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings. Licence: 100023343 (2008) Points of interest
A Kidlington lies in the centre of F The railway crash in 1874 near Oxfordshire on the River Cherwell, Shipton-on-Cherwell was the worst which rises in Northamptonshire and accident in the history of the Great forms one of the tributaries of the Western Railway. More than 30 people Thames. The name Kidlington was were killed and 70 injured. At the time derived from the tun (Anglo-Saxon there was a rumour that a curse had for settlement or farm) of Cydela. been put on the manor house because The first written form of the name the family in residence refused to help appears in the Domesday Book of rescue the victims from the wreckage. 1086 as Chedelintone.
G The Oxford Canal, completed in 1790,
B St Mary’s Church provides a linked Oxford with Coventry and so picturesque starting point for the walk. provided a continuous waterway In the past, Church Street was a busy between Birmingham and London. working area, with a butcher, baker and During the 19th century it was an school. Now it is a quiet residential important route for coal, lime and road. The present church dates from stone. The coal trade was the last c.1220, but was built on the vestige of the formerly diverse traffic. foundations of an earlier church of This declined in the 1950s and the last Norman or Saxon times. It was built in regular deliveries were in 1961. the Early English style but there were In 1971, the wharf at Thrupp was extensive later alterations, particularly lengthened to accommodate the in the 15th century, when the upper increasing number of pleasure boats. stages of the tower and the spire rising 170 feet above it were added. H The tiny hamlet of Thrupp is recorded in the Domesday Book as ‘Trop’, the
C The Almshouses opposite the church Old English for farm or hamlet. Its size were built by Sir William Morton in has not increased greatly since then, 1671 and endowed in his will. The when the son of Wadard held it from Morton Arms can be seen on the north Roger d’Ivry. Wadard was an officer of end of the house and the names of some importance in the Norman army some of the Morton children are on the and is pictured in the Bayeaux window ledges. Tapestry, busying himself with supplies for the troops. The main attraction of
Thrupp today is the row of picturesque D The name Hampton Gay comes from terraced cottages along the bank of the the Old English ‘Hampton’, meaning Oxford Canal. village or farm, and the local de Gay
family. The ruined manor house that you can see from the walk was built by I Annie’s Tea Room on the route at the Barry family in the 16th century. It Thrupp is open 7 days a week 10—5 in retained its original Elizabethan plan summer and Sat, Sun & Mon 10—4 in winter. and features almost unaltered until it was destroyed by fire in 1887. If you would like to give us feedback about these walks, you can email [email protected] You E Look out for wildlife. Many species of can also upload photos of your walk online at bird have been spotted on this walk, www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/countrysidephotoupload including kingfishers along the banks Alternatively, call 01865 810226 or write to: of the River Cherwell. You may also Oxfordshire County Council, Countryside Service, see muntjac deer, rabbits and foxes, Signal Court, Old Station Way, Eynsham, Oxford to mention but a few.