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.