River Cherwell - Cropredy and The Upper Oxford Canal

Cropredy and The Upper Oxford Canal

Half-a-mile north of the village of Cropredy, the River Cherwell turns southward again. The Oxford Canal enters the river valley here and more or less follows the Cherwell on its route to Oxford until it reaches Thrupp near Kidlington. The canal was projected to connect the Coventry Canal to the River Thames, and the Act of Parliament authorising it was passed in 1769. A few years earlier, Oxford merchants had proposed 'canal-ising' the River Cherwell upstream from their city to Banbury. Construction of the Oxford Canal began near Coventry but the canal didn't reach Banbury until 1778, and it was a further twelve years before it was completed, the first boats reaching Oxford in January 1790.

The River Cherwell skirts the east side of Cropredy itself and passes under Cropredy Bridge, site of a major battle of the English Civil War in 1644. The battle was a protracted encounter with riverside skirmishes concentrated along a three-mile (5 km) stretch of the River Cherwell between Hay's bridge and a ford at Slat Mill near Great Bourton. King Charles's forces beat the Parliamentarian army.

On Cropredy Bridge is a plaque bearing the words "Site of the Battle of Cropredy Bridge 1644. From Civil War deliver us." The bridge was rebuilt in 1780 and this plaque is a facsimile of the original one. Cropredy's church contains relics from the battle, and local tradition holds that local people hid the church's eagle lectern in the River Cherwell in case marauding soldiers damaged or stole it.

South of Cropredy Bridge, the river skirts the fields used for the annual Cropredy Festival, a three-day music event run by the band Fairport Convention. It then passes the site of a former water mill. A sufficient head of water to power the mill was created by a weir system and a millpond. There may have been more rudimentary mill works upstream but this is the first major mill along the river's course.