Skip the Cherwell and move on up the Isis (aka Thames)
The old mouth of the Cherwell is on the Left bank of the Isis (aka Thames) above the boathouses.
Unpowered boats only.
The Cherwell is shown here on six web pages:
Cherwell Mouth (from the Isis to below Magdalen Bridge)
Magdalen Bridge
Mesopotamia (from above Magdalen Bridge to the boat rollers)
Upper Cherwell (above the boat rollers to below Bardwell Road Punting station)
Bardwell Road to the Victoria Arms
Islip (Cherwell above the Victoria Arms)
Other pages of interest to punters are:
Bullstake Stream (Other side of the Isis (aka Thames) - for punters to explore)
To Old Navigation (Punt up above Osney Lock and then round to Oxford Castle)
There are also two round trips including going up the Oxford Canal and coming back down via Kings Lock and Godstow
Maps
In map - drag, double click, zoom. Click link to see Virtual Earth synchronised with StreetMap, Multimap, and old OS maps
1600s: Camden -
Cherwell, also a prety river well stored with fish, after it hath for a time parted North-hampton shire
and Oxfordshire, passeth gently with a still streame thorow the middest of the country and divideth it,
as it were, into two parts.
And Tamis with his waters comforteth and giveth hart to the East-part,
untill both of them together with many other riverets and brookes running into them be lodged in Isis.
...
where Cherwell is confluent with Isis, and pleasant Eights or Islets lye dispersed by the sundry
disseverings of waters, there the most famous Universitie of Oxford,
called in the English-Saxon tongue Oxenford, sheweth it selfe aloft in a champion plaine.
Oxford I saw, our most noble Athens, the Muses seate, and one of Englands staies, nay, The Sun,
The Eye, and the Soule thereof, the very Source and most cleere spring of good literature and wisdome.
From whence religion, civility and learning are spred most plenteouslie into all parts of the Realme.
A faire and goodlie Citie, whether a man respect the seemely beauty of private houses
or the statelie magnificence of publicke buildings, together with the wholesome site
or pleasant prospect thereof.
For the hils beset with woods doe so environ the plaine that as on the one side they exclude the
pestilent Southwinde and the tempestuous West winde on the other, so that they let in the cleering
Eastern winde onely, and the Northeast winde with all, which free from all corruption.
Whence it came to passe that of this situation it was, as writers record, in ancient times called Bellositum.
Some are of opinion that it hath beene named Caer Vortigern and Caer Vember in the British language,
and that I wot now what Vortigerns and Memprices built it.
But what ever it was in the Britans time, the English Saxons called it Oxenford,
and altogether in the same signification that the Grecians terme their Bosphori
and the Germans their Ochen-furt upon Odera, to wit, of the fourd of Oxen,
in which sense it is named of our Britans in Wales at this daie Rhyd-ychen.
And yet Leland, grounding upon a probable conjecture, deriveth the name from the river Ouse,
called in Latin Isis, and supposeth that it hath beene named Ousford,
considering that the Eights or Islands which Isis scattereth hereabout be called Ousney.
1909: The Story of the Thames, J E Vincent -
[The Cherwell] - This much sung river that has come all the way from Copredy Bridge (scene of a battle in the Civil War, of otter-hound meets now), and further, is some little trouble to ascend, but the pains are well spent. It is tortuous, narrow, and apt to be crowded, but it and its environment are delightful above measure.
E W Hazelhurst, Our Beautiful Homeland, Oxford -
... the Cherwell, winding, secretive, alluring, willow-girt, whispering of men and maidens, and of the dream days of ambitious youth.
1923: from "Father Thames" by Walter Higgins -
But the Thames (or Isis as it is invariably called in Oxford) is the place of more serious matters. To the rowing man "the River" means only one thing, and really only a very short space of that: He is accustomed to speak of "the River" and "the Cher", and with him the latter does not count at all ...
The usually punted section of the River Cherwell
Accolade, like lemonade, © 2002, Suzanne de Freitas -
Slow waters of the Cherwell flow
Past groups in flowered skirts and jeans and shirts
Release from academe brings forth
Fizzy pop, strawberries and laughter
And mild hysteria before the morning after
Gazing at you supine, I pole the punt upstream
The glory of your beauty glows while evening dowses
Pubward voices, discarded principles and trousers
In a backwater I drink your kisses;
Declare that love no more than this is
And oh, my love, one swallow makes a summer
The poet has disillusioned me about this. She writes -
I wish I could point out to you which bend in the river was the approximate site of the incident, but I can't as it's fictional... one summer long ago a gang of us in our mid-20's would drive up to Oxford or Cambridge at the weekend, have a pub lunch, and then hire punts. I remember one afternoon when one of our number fell in. Four times. Getting out each time was harder because his jeans and boots were getting more sodden and heavier and the deck was slippery - also he had lunched liquidly and extensively. I don't remember any erotic interludes, more's the pity. Also, we went to Cambridge far more often than Oxford, but the Cam doesn't scan and the Cherwell does!
Ah well - I wonder if John Donne imagined all the erotic references in his poetry?
T S Eliot, from The Waste Land
Listen to 'The Wasteland -
The river's tent is broken; the last fingers of leaf
Clutch and sink into the wet bank. The wind
Crosses the brown land, unheard. The nymphs are departed.
Sweet Thames run softly till I end my song.
The river bears no empty bottles, sandwich papers,
Silk handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette ends
Or other testimony of summer nights. The nymphs are departed,
And their friends, the loitering heirs of city directors;
Departed, have left no addresses.
By the waters of Leman I sat down and wept …
Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song,
Sweet Thames, run softly, for I speak not loud or long.
But at my back in a cold blast I hear
The rattle of bones, and chuckle spread from ear to ear.
If you have your own boat you may of course be coming from the slipway at
Donnington Road Bridge. Or hire a punt at Folly Bridge,
or at Magdalen Bridge or Bardwell Road on
the upper Cherwell above the boat rollers.
At Magdalen Bridge they also hire out
paddle punts which are safe, but make a slapping noise as the paddles strike
the water.
1922: C S Lewis, Monday, 14th August -
On Monday we went on the river - Smudge, Andrée, Maureen, W. and I in a punt. A good day on the whole, tho' Maureen was rather a nuisance.
There's always one in a punt! (Says he who often punts alone.)
River Cherwell, Footbridge
On the Isis (aka Thames) below Christchurch Meadow,
if in a canoe or punt turn under
the footbridge above the boathouses, and enter the Cherwell (pronounced
“Char-well”).
1890: Christchurch Meadows Cherwell Bridge, Henry Taunt
Christchurch Meadows Cherwell Bridge, Henry Taunt, 1890
© Oxfordshire County Council Photographic Archive; HT4500
1839: Merton and Christ Church from the Cherwell
1839: Merton and Christ Church from the Cherwell
F W FABER -
OXFORD FROM THE CHERWELL
O MANY an evening have I been
Entranced upon that glorious scene,
When silent thought hath proved too strong
For utterance in tranquil song.
There intermingling with the trees
The city rose in terraces
Of radiant buildings, backed with towers
And dusky folds of elm-tree bowers.
St. Mary's watchmen, mute and old,
Each rooted to a buttress bold,
From out their lofty niche looked down
Upon the calm monastic town,
Upon the single glistering dome,
And princely Wykeham's convent home,
And the twin minarets that spring
Like buoyant arrows taking wing,
And square in Moorish fashion wrought
As though from old Granada brought,
And that famed street, whose goodly show
In double crescent lies below,
And Bodley's court and chestnut bower
That overhangs the garden wall,
And sheds all day white flakes of flower
From off its quiet coronal.
Methinks I see it at this hour,
How silently the blossoms fall.
Most of the time I have known this section suddenly you were in what could be a tiny tributary of the Amazon, in rain forest! The stream was only perhaps two feet deep at most and sometimes it seemed not that much wider. Fallen trees, underwater branches and low bushes needed to be negotiated. However now the stream has been cleared and is deeper since there is now a current flowing taking the silt away. This is the old mouth of the Cherwell, by-passed by the new cut (below the left bank boat houses) After a hundred yards or so you come out into the main Cherwell.
River Cherwell Main channel
The River Cherwell has three mouths onto the Isis. They are -
1. The old western mouth referred to above.
2. The new cut which comes out below the boathouses.
3. The old eastern mouth now very blocked and unusable
(see "Freshman's River" above Donnington Road Bridge).
1875:
Ordnance Survey Map showing Cherwell before new cut.
Turning right would take you back to the Isis below the
boathouses, but turn left.
Here you will encounter punts. Some few of them may
even have punters aboard who know what they are doing! Admire their skill!
But most will not keep right, or even straight, or even speak English,
and it may be difficult to avoid them.
Punts should keep right - though with skilled punters it
would be more correct to say that punts should obey the rule of the river that
"where there is a danger of collision" keep right.
However no one appears to keep the rules at
all - so steer clear and make it obvious which side you wish to pass.
Be prepared to stop suddenly.
[ In 1906 Henry Wellington Wack gave an explanation of what were then the rules:
The Rule of the Road on the Thames. ]
Play spot the punter – there are a variety of occupants -
general tourists (sideways - not going anywhere)
language course students (sideways - bouncing from bank to bank -
loudly - in French)
university students (not examination time),
picnics with much beer. Generally fairly skilled if not inebriated.
university students (examination time), solemn and serious
and apparently studying or holding deep conversations.
Books have been seen. (Generally fairly skilled if paying attention).
old University members on a nostalgic
show-the-spouse-and-family-what-it-was-like trip.
(Reasonably skilled but slow, the old muscles
are not as supple as memory says they once were).
There is a persistent belief that punting is essentially comic. It was fed and encouraged perhaps
by Jerome K Jerome in "Three Men in a Boat" (despite the fact that his heroes used a camping skiff
and not a punt).
George said he had often longed to take to punting for a change. Punting
is not as easy as it looks. As in rowing, you soon learn how to get
along and handle the craft, but it takes long practice before you can do
this with dignity and without getting the water all up your sleeve.
One young man I knew had a very sad accident happen to him the first time
he went punting. He had been getting on so well that he had grown quite
cheeky over the business, and was walking up and down the punt, working
his pole with a careless grace that was quite fascinating to watch. Up
he would march to the head of the punt, plant his pole, and then run
along right to the other end, just like an old punter. Oh! it was grand.
And it would all have gone on being grand if he had not unfortunately,
while looking round to enjoy the scenery, taken just one step more than
there was any necessity for, and walked off the punt altogether. The
pole was firmly fixed in the mud, and he was left clinging to it while
the punt drifted away. It was an undignified position for him. A rude
boy on the bank immediately yelled out to a lagging chum to "hurry up and
see real monkey on a stick."
Notice that Jerome in the 1880s understands the normal method of punting to be 'running' -
that is with the punter moving along the length of the punt. The new Oxford method of
pricking a punt from a fixed position was just coming in.
A cartoonist's view of Oxford punting
1902: Sketch of University Life, punting -
Sketch of University Life, punting, 1902
© Oxfordshire County Council Photographic Archive; D262654a
Sketch of University Life, punting, 1902
© Oxfordshire County Council Photographic Archive; D262655a
Sketch of University Life, punting, 1902
© Oxfordshire County Council Photographic Archive; D262656a
(ex)Wire Ferry
Just before the island with the sports ground on it there
used to be cables stretched across the
river, waiting to decapitate the unwary.
This was a wire ferry belonging to a college.
For a year or two it appeared to be rarely
used, and in 2003 it has disappeared and instead of pontificating on its danger
I am now rather sad. All the ferries of
one sort or another have gone.
The island is the neatly chequered grass in the centre of the
Map.
1909: The Story of the Thames J E Vincent -
The meadow on which the pageant of 1907 was displayed, and the cricket ground of that Magdalen College School which Wayneflete founded simultaneously with his college.
And then the Cherwell splits around an island with a sports
ground. On the point of the island is
sometimes in summer a temporary theatre, the performances and rehearsals at which
can be enjoyed for free from the vantage point of a boat.
Favourites are Lewis Carroll adaptations.
Go round to the left and you will pass the Botanical
Gardens on your left and then when the right hand branch rejoins, punts moored
on your left waiting to be hired.
Site of Milham Bridge Map: Site of Milham Bridge
Site of Milham Ford
[Milham bridge was where the stream splits above the island, below Magdalen Bridge.]
from the Antient and present State of Oxford 1773 -
Milham Bridge was situated not far from the south side of East Bridge [ie Magdalen Bridge].
...
It contained but two Arches, made of Stone, over the Branch of Charwell;
from thence was a raised Causeway, across Cowley Mead,
containing three or four [arches] more than those over Charwell.
Itself was of timber.
The Reason why it was so called, was because of a Mill (with a Ham adjoining, since taken into the said Mead)
that stood on the River there, called Boimilie, or, as the ancient Records, Boiemulne;
given to the Nuns of Godstow at their first foundation by Roger, Bishop of Sarum 1133.
Concerning the Time of its first Building, I have seen a Writ, that makes it to have been built by the Monks of St. Frideswide
for a Way from their Grange into their Corn Fields towards Cowley.
...
At the Time Cardinal Wolsey proceeded to raise his College, he made then also this Bridge, Anno 1524,
as appears by the Accounts of his Buildings of the same College and other Edifices belonging to them,
Item, says the same Account Book, to Thomas Watlington, Warden of the Carpenters,
for making Planking and Railing and a new Bridge, standing over the Water in Cowley Mead,
between St Edmund's Well and the East side of the said College (meaning Cardinal Wolsey's,)
with the making of two new Gates, one of them containing 12 Feet in Length and 12 Feet in Height,
and the other containing 8 Feet in Height and 1O in Breadth, one of them standing near St Edmund's Well,
the other standing near unto a Place, Our Lady in the Wall.
...
So it continued ever after ... and in indifferent good Repair, till about 1634,
the furthermost End of it, next to St. Clement's Field, was then forced down by the Violence of the Ice,
in a great Frost that happened; which remaining in that Manner,
the other Part not long after fell to Decay, and at the Beginning of the War, in 1641,
quite demolished, and so continued. ...
1870: Magdalen "viewed from Milham Ford", Henry Taunt -
View from Milham Ford, Taunt, 1870
on the left is a slope down into a ford, and then beyond it a bridge foundation?
© Oxfordshire County Council Photographic Archive; HT1085
Milham Bridge crossed the western branch of the Cherwell south of Magdalen Bridge at
the south-west tip of the Botanic Gardens. It comprised two stone arches, and a causeway
then continued south eastwards before crossing the eastern branch of the river on a
wooden bridge.
The canons of St. Frideswide's may have built the bridge c. 1300 to connect their grange to
their cornfields near Cowley, and the bridge was rebuilt by Cardinal Wolsey to facilitate
the carriage of materials to his new college.
Wolsey's bridge was used as a horse- and footway
until c. 1634 when it was damaged by severe frost; it was demolished in the Civil War.
During the rebuilding of Magdalen Bridge a temporary bridge was erected on the site of Milham
Bridge.
[ From: '
Communications', A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 4: The City of Oxford (1979)
It may be that this Frith photograph of 1890 shows a pier of this temporary bridge. ]
1890: Francis Frith -
1890: Magdalen College, Francis Frith
Magdalen Bridge
Introduction
Estuary
PLA
QEII Br
Barrier
Tower Br
Custom Ho
London Br
; Frost Fairs
Cannon St Rb
The Great Stink
Southwark Br
Millenium Br
Blackfriars Rb
Blackfriars Br
Waterloo Br
Charing Cross Rb
Westminster Br
Lambeth Br
Vauxhall Br
Victoria Rb
Chelsea Br
Albert Br
Battersea Br
Battersea Rb
Wandsworth Br
Fulham Rb
Putney Br
Hammersmith Br
Barnes Rb
Chiswick Br
Kew Rb
Kew Br
RICHMOND
Twickenham Br
Richmond Rb
Richmond Br
TEDDINGTON
Kingston Rb
Kingston Br
Ditton Slip
Hampton Br
MOLESEY
SUNBURY
Walton Br
Desborough Cut
SHEPPERTON
Chertsey Br
CHERTSEY
M3 Br
Laleham Slip
PENTON HOOK
Staines Rb
Staines Br
Runnymede Br
BELL WEIR
Magna Carta Is
OLD WINDSOR
Albert Br
Datchet
Victoria Br
Black Potts Rb
ROMNEY
Eton
Windsor Br
Windsor Rb
Windsor Slip
Elizabeth Br
BOVENEY
Dorney Lake
York Cut
Summerleaze Fb
MonkeyIsland
New Thames Br
BRAY
Bray Slip
Maidenhead Rb
Maidenhead Br
Below Boulters
BOULTERS
Cliveden
Hedsor
COOKHAM
Cookham Slip
Cookham Br
BourneEnd RFb
Quarry Woods
A404 Br
MARLOW
Marlow Br
Bisham
TEMPLE
HURLEY
Medmenham
Culham Ct
Aston Slip
HAMBLEDEN
Temple Is
Fawley Ct
Remenham
Regatta
Phyllis Ct
Henley Slip
Leander
Red Lion
Henley Br
Angel on Br
Landing
Hobbs Boatyard
Hobbs Slipway
MARSH
Hennerton
Bolney
Wargrave
Shiplake Rb
R.Loddon
SHIPLAKE
Sonning Br
SONNING
Dreadnought
K&A Canal
CAVERSHAM
Reading Br
Caversham Br
Reading Slip
Purley
MAPLEDURHAM
Hardwick Ho
Whitchurch Br
WHITCHURCH
Hartswood Reach
Gatehampton Rb
Goring Gap
Goring Br
GORING
Swan
CLEEVE
Moulsford
Moulsford Rb
Papist Way Slip
Winterbrook Br
Wallingford Br
BENSON
Shillingford Br
R.Thame
DAYS
Burcot
Clifton Hampden
Clifton Church
Clifton H Br
Barley Mow
Long Wittenham
CLIFTON
Appleford Rb
Sutton Courtenay
Sutton Br
CULHAM
Culham Cut Fb
Abingdon Slip
Abingdon
Abingdon Br
ABINGDON
Nuneham Rb
Nuneham
Nuneham Park
Radley Boats
SANDFORD
Rose Island
Kennington Rb
Isis Br
Iffley Mill
IFFLEY
Oxford Rowing
Isis
Donnington Br
Riverside Slip
Boathouses
Punting
Lower Cherwell
Upper Cherwell
Islip
Head of River
Salters Steamers
Folly Br
Bacons Folly
Oxford Fb
Osney Fb
Weir stream
Osney Rb
Bullstake Stream
Osney Marina
OSNEY
Osney Br
Four Rivers
OLD RIVER
CANAL
Medley Weir Site
Medley Fb
Bossoms
Perch
Trout
GODSTOW
Godstow Nunnery
Godstow Br
Thames Br
KINGS
River Evenlode
EYNSHAM
Swinford Br
Oxford Cruisers
PINKHILL
Farmoor
Stanton Harcourt
Bablock Slip
Arks Weir Site
NORTHMOOR
Harts Fb
Rose Revived
Newbridge
Maybush
River Windrush
below Shifford
SHIFFORD
Shifford Fb
Tenfoot Fb
Trout Inn
Tadpole Br
RUSHEY
Old Mans Fb
RADCOT
Radcot Cradle Fb
Swan Inn
Radcot New Br
Radcot Old Br
GRAFTON
Eaton Hastings
Kelmscott
Eaton Fb
BUSCOT
Bloomers Hole Fb
Trout Inn
St Johns Br
ST JOHNS
Halfpenny Br
Marina Slip
LIMIT
Inglesham
Hannington Br
Kempsford
Castle Eaton Br
Marston Meysey
A419 Br
Cricklade
SOURCE?
THAMES HEAD
SEVEN SPRINGS