Happened upon…
Varney Lock to Napton Bottom
Thank you to those who send email comments in response to references in the blog posts. It’s a delight to touch upon places or events that then stir particular memories for others. This week the reference to the Battle of Cropredy Bridge brought this message from a friend and former colleague: Have happy memories of Cropredy Bridge when I was a member in the Sealed Knot and a royalist musketeer. We re-enacted the 1644 battle for the Bridge. The Royalists won I'm pleased to say!
Who knew that The Sealed Knot (historical re-enactment society) was in her past…! https://www.thesealedknot.org.uk/
The overnight rural mooring a mile or so north of Cropredy was quiet – until the cows arrived in the field opposite. On a warm evening – and a hot sunny morning - who /what wouldn’t want to cool down…. From behind the curtains and blinds drawn against the sun was heard a bovine chorus: Sploosh, sploosh, glug, glug, lap, lap, sploosh, sploosh, sploosh…
Up Elkington Lock; onwards and back up the Claydon 5 lock flight, helped by multi-tasking volunteer lock keepers who were jiggling windlass-winding duties with gardening, grass cutting and painting…
Summit level now – to weave around the Oxford Canal wriggles, spotting ‘mares’ tails’ (high level thin cirrus cloud),
cruising through the roofless tunnel before Fenny Compton,
then passing Phyllis May II, a boat and former owner with notable back stories – Terry Darlington, once scored a notable Monkton Moment* with the Cleddau crew at Stoke Bruerne, see footnote (1).
Then here was ‘The Wedding Bridge’, named on maps but not numbered. It’s a footbridge between bridge numbers 132 and 131.
Onward, on a quest for a good overnight mooring with a view. Success… (For the record, it was here in the heat of the afternoon that some rooftop mint leaves were plucked to add to a summer Pimms.)
Several wide gaps in the hedge near Bridge 130 offered a grandstand view of the HS2 works, where during the afternoon convoys of lorries seemed to be delivering spoil along the HS2 track bed….
The canal wove closer to the HS2 works the next day:
Beyond the dust of the works it was a white and sparkling sort of day.
After a few more miles of twists and turns Cleddau reached the top of the Napton Flight; slowly the crew worked their way down. There is extensive mooring at the bottom of the flight but it is mostly enclosed between tree cover and hedging. Luck was in, however, as there was one space just long enough in the pound above the Bottom Lock.
“We could try to get up to the Napton-on-the Hill shop tomorrow,” the Captain had suggested. A chatty soul, he had words with the lady lock keeper on Saturday morning. “You haven’t got enough bags for the shop,” she said, observing what Boatwif and the Captain were carrying. “And you should stay for the VE celebrations tomorrow,” she insisted.
She was too right about the shop: fresh bread, fresh veg, cakes and pastries, freezer stuff, newspapers and stationery, all manner of items.
Apart from a flag bedecked garden and loud forties music at Jasmine Cottage there was little or no information about the planned events across the village….
In support of VE Day the Captain spent the afternoon decorating the boat.
Snippets of plans were gradually revealed by locals walking alongside the towpath: “Starts about midday – up at the Green…”
Shortly after noon Boatwif and the Captain started their ten minute stroll up into Napton-on-the-Hill village. At the Green proceedings were already under way:
the village population was out in force, the Fancy Dress competitions had already taken place under the watchful eye of ‘Winston Churchill’ in his siren suit,
well-polished forties vehicles were lined up on display – as were the primary school Maypole Dancing team.
At the command of the teacher the dancing started – who knew that there were so many different routines to thread coloured ribbons around a central pole…? It was such fun.
After the competition results (Bake-Off, Make Do and Mend, Fancy Dress, Junk Modelling and Best Dressed Property) the Morris Dancers took to the stage (the roadway).
(Unexpected visitor in a cottage garden)
Then came the Morris dancers. Much brandishing and banging of clash sticks.
After the performances, in barn dance style, members of the crowd were invited to learn a dance with them…
There followed a parade of WW2 military and civilian vehicles.
And following them, such a treat, came a forties version of a Mummers’ Play. Somehow in rhyme the play conveyed WW2 via Hitler the baddie, Joe Atkins the British squaddie, King George, a Doctor to the rescue (an American of course!), a hurricane aircraft, a naval officer and Britannia. (Scottish Sis, you would have loved it!)
Down at the village hall all seats and tables for the first session of tea and cakes (with singer entertainment) were already taken. Outside a crafts session was under way for children. Conversation with a born and bred local revealed an interesting canal history tale. “My uncle was the lock keeper who lived down by the bottom lock,” he said. ”I did the locks when Joe and Rose Skinner made their last trip along the Oxford canal with their horse.” https://www.towpathtalk.co.uk/a-lasting-friendship/
Apart from live music on the Green
and dancing later, at 8pm villagers were to gather at the Green to parade with lanterns up to the beacon site beside the Napton Windmill.
So where was the church in this village? And where was the beacon site?
“Just follow the paths up, from the Green,” said a villager breezily…
It’s a seriously steep village. Eventually the War Memorial was reached,
and after another very serious incline the church was reached.
There are spectacular views from the churchyard. The windmill, so dominant and apparent on previous South Oxford Canal trips was hard to find, since trees had grown up around it… But there it was, the Windmill
and just before it was the stack of wood ready for the bonfire.
Along the fence were strung the flags of the WW2 allies.
There were parallel feelings at witnessing the village’s VE Day’s 80th Anniversary – joyousness and humility, the joy and relief that the war was over mixed with the humility when you see how people paid with their lives.
(One of several trees around the Green planted in memory of fallen village men)
As for the beacon lighting – after both achieving about an 11,000 step day and climbing approximately 213 feet (65 metres) up to the beacon site (figures from a Google search) the Cleddau crew did not join the lantern climb that evening…
What an amazing day it had been! To have “happened upon” the 80th anniversary VE Day celebrations of one small English village (population 1,416 in 2021 Census) had been a privilege indeed
Next day it was down the last lock of the Napton Flight, glancing upwards at the windmill, to enjoy / endure a very cold cruise in a biting wind back towards Braunston…
(Napton-on-the -Hill Windmill as seen from the canal)
Cruise stats since last post: 15 miles, 14 locks
*2025 Monkton Moments* (Monkton Moment*- a reference to / recognition of Cleddau’s Pembrokeshire connections) - 1 (lady at Cropredy Lock, referred to Manorbier)
2025 Towpath Dinners: 2
Towpath Pimms: 1
(1) Terry and Monica Darlington had taken their first boat Phyllis May to the south of France and then to the inside passage of east coast USA. See books Narrow Dog to Carcasonne and Narrow Dog to Indian River. In his final book Narrow Dog to Wigan Pier Terry and Monica Darlington cruised in Phyllis May II to explore the waterways of northern England. Terry had lived in Pembroke Dock as a child.
