Wharfingers and Gangoozlers

Last week, the floods and bad weather did their best, and I set out to challenge myself to negotiate the remaining traces of public transport to get to Banbury. (view from train)

I met local historian Brian Little, who was a fount of knowledge on all things Banbury, and told me that the Wharfingers were people who ran the wharfs, most of which are now gone. Brian agreed to join forces for Canal Day, to adapt his usual walking tour to take in video and sound installations, which I will create for the day.


Later on that week I interviewed Ed Hart, an Oxford boat resident who taught me another new word, Gangoozlers, a name for passers by who stop and stare as boaters struggle their way through tricky locks etc. Am now warned and will no longer stand and stare on the bank for fear of the boaters wrath.

Sadly my plan to walk up the towpath from Oxford to Banbury had to be postponed, as parts of the canal towpath were still under water and the clouds were threatening once again...

Tours and torrential rain

Yesterday I walked along the canal towpath in the blazing sun, using the 1882 map to work out where some of the old wharves and canalside factories stood. In fact beyond the station I found a number of buildings still stood, now with canalside facades boarded up and operating a "Hand Car Wash", and a "Laser Manufacturing Unit" amongst others.

At the Centre for Oxfordshire Studies I tracked down the articles reporting on the opening of the canal in Oxford in 1790, and the Canal Revival events of 1955. Quotes from the former:
"They were received by a vast concourse of people, with loud huzzas, and an Ox having been roasted whole upon the wharf, on approaching the band struck up 'The Roast Beef of Old England', a favourite old tune, and well applied".
and the latter:
"Never has the town had such a water-borne spree. Gaily coloured boats of all shapes and sizes passing to and fro, amid the brightly dressed holiday crowd, enlivened the otherwise drab stretch of canal."

Today we braved the torrential rain and met Matt from Tooley's Boatyard, who gave us a fantastic tour of the boatyard and answered my many questions. He demonstrated the working forge, and showed us the dry dock (which as we talked became increasingly less dry, as the canal overflowed into the dock..). Tooley's has been in operation since 1788, and retains some original fixtures and buildings, but is also a working boatyard which has seen 450 boats pass through in the past 4 1/2 years.

Residency begins..

This week I started my residency on the Oxford canal. The canal, which was completed in 1790, runs between Oxford and Coventry and passes through many small villages en route. The first engineer James Brindley designed the canal so it followed the contours of the surrounding hills and valleys, resulting in a gently meandering journey through the English countryside.

While the canal was built to transport coal and other goods to and from the Midlands to Banbury and Oxford, today it is mainly used by holiday makers and those choosing to live on narrow boats which cluster by the towpath.

Banbury played a crucial role in the Canal Revival, after Tom Rolt restored his boat 'Cressy' at Tooley's boatyard in Banbury, and took a journey which resulted in the book 'Narrow Boat', the spearhead of a movement to rescue the canal system which was no longer profitable for commercial use. (The map here shows Banbury wharf in 1882)











Through the course of the residency I will be exploring the history of the people and places who used the canal in its commercial heyday, and looking at the identity of people living on and using the canal today. I will be recording the journey from Oxford to Banbury by foot, bicycle and boat, using video, sound and photography to document the present day and glimpses of the past.

The resulting artworks will be presented on Canal Day, October 7th in Banbury.