The Oxford bridges can be more difficult if, as we found on one recent trip, one that is normally open has been closed by a farmer to bring tractor and other equipment across, do an hour work then go back over. We, arriving in the time the bridge was down found this one had no mooring place (just bloody great weeds and stingers to jump at from a number of feet out on a bit of canal that was too shallow to get in near the bank). We finally got off on the non-towpath side, which the farmer had cut! It was luck we could moor here as it took 3 of us to make the bridge lift. We moored a bit further along on a rare bit of metal within sight of the bridge. Later the farmer returned and used his tractor plus some unseen rig to raise the bridge once he was across - so obviously its stiffness was the norm.
--- On Tue, 8/12/08, Steve Wood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: From: Steve Wood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [canals-list] Speeding (but off topic) [Lift Bridges] To: [email protected] Date: Tuesday, August 12, 2008, 11:20 PM John wrote: > We have just come up the Oxford from the Thames and have only found 3 > lift bridges that actually need lifting. The rest have been secured in > the up position. (170 - 193). Are there more lift bridges, further > North on the Oxford? Only 3? I thought there were either 6 or 7 that were closed, including two on the very bottom section below Duke's Cut and the one at Banbury which is operated with a windlass. There was one closed in the section where my Nicholson's says they are all left open! There are none on the northern section. Fortunately I got swaps or offers of assistance at most of them and in the end only did 2 completely on my own, though I had started 2 others by the time assistance arrived. In one I managed to tie a knot in the chain ( ! ) and the other I raised the bridge then used a rope to hold it up. In both cases I wedged a mooring pin into the teeth of the hinge (bet that's not an approved practice!) as it was really windy and I wanted belt and braces. BTW a bit of lift bridge trivia, how come the construction dates are carved into the bridge in Roman numerals? Can't think or any other examples of this anywhere on the cut. Steve NB Bream [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
