The Swift Ditch is a backwater of the River Thames in England, which was formerly the primary navigation channel. With the main river, it creates the large island of Andersey Island near Abingdon, Oxfordshire.
As early as 955 to 963 AD, the monks of Abingdon Priory built a canal to the Abbey from the direction of Swift Ditch. There is also evidence that the current course of the river to the confluence had been built by 1060. However the Swift Ditch remained the faster route (hence the name), and a pound lock was built at its head by the Oxford-Burcot Commission in 1624. In 1788 several citizens of Abingdon wanted to divert navigation back to the current course and as a result Abingdon Lock was built near the town. Within ten years, the Wilts & Berks Canal connected to the current navigation channel at Abingdon.
Read more about Swift Ditch: Culham Bridges, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words swift and/or ditch:
“I will venture to affirm, that the three seasons wherein our corn has miscarried did no more contribute to our present misery, than one spoonful of water thrown upon a rat already drowned would contribute to his death; and that the present plentiful harvest, although it should be followed by a dozen ensuing, would no more restore us, than it would the rat aforesaid to put him near the fire, which might indeed warm his fur-coat, but never bring him back to life.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)
“What does education often do? It makes a straight-cut ditch of a free, meandering brook.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)