Oxford Canal, Banbury

The Oxford Canal runs through the middle of Banbury, past the back of Castle Quay, and it is the town's best short walk. It reached Banbury in 1778. Within about a kilometre of towpath you pass the lock, Tooley's Historic Boatyard, the town museum and the way into Spiceball Park, and the same path carries on north into open country towards Cropredy.

The story of the canal at Banbury

The canal was built to carry Coventry coal south to Oxford and the Thames, and the Canal & River Trust says it opened in sections between 1774 and 1790. The first coal boats reached Banbury Wharf in March 1778, Banbury Historical Society records, and the town's trade grew up between the canal and the Market Place: warehouses, wharves and works such as Cobb's girth factory, built on the east bank in 1838.

Later canals took the through traffic, but boats still worked the Oxford into the 1960s, says the Trust. Tooley's Boatyard, the dry dock beside the lock, kept building and repairing them. The Trust calls it the oldest working dry dock in Britain, and it is a scheduled monument. Tom Rolt had his boat Cressy fitted out here in 1939 and set out on the journey that became his book *Narrow Boat*, which the Trust credits with starting the campaign to save the canals.

What to look for

Walk north from Bridge Street and look for:

• Banbury Lock, number 29 on the canal, with Tooley's dry dock beside it
• Tooley's Boatyard, with its forge, which the yard says first opened in 1778 and still works, and the dry dock, hemmed in by the shopping centre
• The lift bridge near the lock, which Canalplan says is worked with a windlass, and the glass Museum Bridge over the water beyond it
• Banbury Museum & Gallery on the bank, with its canalside café
• Boats moored along the towpath, and Tooley's trip boat Dancing Duck, which the yard says runs each Saturday through the summer

Past the town centre the towpath runs on beside Spiceball Country Park, where the canal and the River Cherwell run close together, and then out into fields.

Visiting the canal

The towpath is free and open at all times. The Trust's page says toilets are in the shopping centre. Tooley's, the museum and the food hall at Lock 29 keep their own hours. The town council's Banbury Canal Festival fills the stretch between Castle Quay and the Mill Arts Centre with boats on the first weekend of October: in 2026 it ran on 3 and 4 October.

Getting there

Banbury station is about three minutes' walk from the canal, says the Trust. Drivers are pointed to the Castle Quay car parks, beside the water: see our guide to parking in Banbury for charges. On foot, our Banbury Ironstone Heritage Walk uses this towpath, and the canal walk to Cropredy follows it about 4 miles north to Cropredy Bridge.

Nearby

Tooley's runs a small museum and boat trips, and the museum has the town's story. For more of the canal, go south to Aynho Wharf or north to Cropredy, and read our story of the canal's coming to Banbury.