Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The bottom of the Napton Flight with the windmill above
.
The graceful cast-iron roving bridge in the Tunnel
.
The Plough pub is passed at Upper Wolvercote and the Marylebone to Oxford line is the
final railway crossing at Summertown, where the playing fields of St Edward's School oc-
cupy the left bank. Pupils have included Kenneth Grahame, whose views of the canal may
have been included in his
The Wind in the Willows
.
The canal here and its boats and crews were central to the early part of
Northern Lights
,
the author of which, local resident Philip Pullman, was among those demonstrating against
a housing development on the Castle Mill boatyard site. PD James was also born in the city
and set
The Children of Men
here, including passing reference to the canal. A chain ferry punt
used to cross here and there was a boatmen's chapel mounted on a barge hull in the parallel
Castle Mill Stream in the 19th century. Behind is the Oxford University Press. The university
has been publishing for over 500 years and is Britain's most prolific imprint, although not
the most efficient as it took them 35 years to get back the corrected proofs for
Coventry Con-
stables' Presentments
.
