Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Dominating the area was the Rugby Radio Station, established in 1924 on a 3.6km
2
site,
transmitting around the world. The tallest masts weighed 200t and were 250m high, the
world's tallest structures when erected. The last tall mast was demolished in 2007. At this
point the canal changes from its south-easterly course to head south-west.
Braunston is one of the best-known village names on the canal system although most of
the activity is to the east on the Grand Union Canal. The approach from the north is quiet
enough, herons and swans minding their own businesses below a ridge topped by a disused
windmill and a church. This has a tall Victorian spire and is in a churchyard that includes
many boatmen's graves. The Oxford Canal originally continued south-west but this section
was taken over as part of the Grand Union Canal main line and southbound boats now tra-
verse this stretch in the opposite direction from when it was first built by the Oxford Canal
Company.
Running through All Oaks Wood
.
Incorporation of the Oxford section and the 800m Braunston Branch saved £50,000 in con-
struction costs along the Grand Union Canal route from Birmingham to London. An idea of
the importance of this new transport link can be gauged from the fact that goods being con-
veyed from London to Abingdon were sent via Braunston rather than up the River Thames
because of the poor state of the latter.
The southern section of the Oxford Canal saw horsedrawn boats long after other canals
had given them up and there can be few long sections of canal better suited to the pace of the
horse. Joseph Skinner's mule-drawn boat was in use until 1959 and is now in the National
Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port. The rural feel is complemented by bollards made from
roughly hewn tree trunks. The southern section of the canal has many angling contests.
Napton on the Hill takes its name from the Anglo-Saxon
cnaepp tun
, meaning hilltop
homestead, the hill being over 120m high. On top is a windmill, restored in the 1800s, al-
though there has been a mill here since at least 1543. Materials for building the 13th century
