Ian S, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Couples
- Walkers
- No car
- Autumn
An Oxford Canal weekend in Banbury: boatyard, boat trip and towpath to Cropredy
Two days on the Oxford Canal from Banbury, on foot: Tooley's Boatyard, the museum and a boat trip on the Saturday, then the towpath to Cropredy for Sunday lunch and its Civil War bridge. The boat trip runs only on summer Saturdays; the rest works all year.
- 2 days, Saturday and Sunday
- No car needed
- Towpath about 4.5 miles (7km) each way
- Boat trips: summer Saturdays only
- Base: Banbury
Saturday: the canal in Banbury
Day 1 · The boatyard, the museum and the water, with a boat trip in summer
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10am
10am Things to do 1 hour here
Tooley's Historic Boatyard
Free, 10am to 1pm, Tuesday to Saturday. A working dry dock, parts of it from 1778, with a forge and a boatyard museum. The blacksmith demonstrates at 11am on the first Saturday of the month. Ring 01295 272917 to ask if a boat is in.
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11am
11am Things to do 1 hour here
Banbury Museum and Gallery
Next door. Free, 10am to 4pm on Saturdays (2026). The Waterways Gallery spans the canal itself, and the museum holds the town's story of plush and Alcan.
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Midday
Midday Things to do 1 hour here
Lunch at Gwen's Canalside Café
In the museum, 10am to 4pm on Saturdays (2026), with hot meals and cakes. Or walk five minutes to the charter market on the square, up until 4pm.
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By booking
By booking Things to do
A Dancing Duck boat trip
Public trips leave Tooley's on Saturdays through the summer, with extras in the autumn school holidays. The trust gives no times or fares on its page, so book first and fit the day round it.
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2.30pm
2.30pm On foot
The towpath and Spiceball Country Park
A few minutes north of the museum along the canal. Cross the wooden bridges to the river's wild side and back. Free, and Banbury Town Council, which runs the park, lists no café or toilets there.
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6.30pm
6.30pm Eat and drink 1.5 hours here
Supper at the Reine Deer Inn
On Parsons Street, about 10 minutes on foot from the canal. Food every day from midday to 9pm. Book on 01295 270972 for a Saturday.
Sunday: the towpath to Cropredy
Day 2 · Four miles north on foot, a pub lunch, the bridge, and a taxi home
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9.30am
9.30am On foot
The towpath north from Banbury to Cropredy
About 4.5 miles (7km), two and a half hours with stops. Join it by Tooley's. Surface not checked; it may be muddy. The towpath at Cropredy Lock is closed for repairs until 18 December 2026, so leave it at the wharf bridge.
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Midday
Midday Village 30 minutes here
Cropredy Bridge and the lock
The canal reaches Cropredy Wharf Bridge No 153 by Lock No 25. The stone road bridge over the Cherwell, where the 1644 battle turned, is a short walk east. Read the inscription on its south side.
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12.30pm
12.30pm Village 1.5 hours here
Lunch at the Brasenose Arms
On Station Road. Open from 11.30am to 10pm on Sundays, on its own site, which publishes no separate kitchen hours, so ring 01295 750244 and book.
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2pm
2pm Village 30 minutes here
St Mary the Virgin, Cropredy
A short walk through the village. See the church from the churchyard, even if the door is shut. The place guide has what to look for.
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3pm
3pm Market town
Taxi back to Banbury, or walk
About 4 miles and about 15 minutes by road. We found no Sunday bus, so book the taxi before you set out. The walk back takes about two and a half hours, and gets you to town before dark in most months.
In more detail
The Oxford Canal runs through the middle of Banbury, past a dry dock that dates in part from 1778 and through a museum built across the water. This weekend spends a day on that stretch and a day walking it north to Cropredy, where the canal, the River Cherwell and a Civil War battle all come together. You need no car, only decent boots, and you can come by train. Nobody from this guide has walked the towpath for this page, so the timings are our estimates.
When to come
The boat is the seasonal part. Tooley's Boatyard Trust (opens in a new tab) runs public trips on its boat Dancing Duck on Saturdays through the summer months, and extra ones in the autumn school holidays, with a poster on its page dated 2026. It gives neither dates nor fares there, and the ticket page would not open for us, so look on TicketSource. Outside those months the weekend still works: the rest needs only Tooley's short hours and a dry towpath, so a cold, bright weekend is still worth having.
Two weekends change things. Banbury Canal Festival filled the stretch between Castle Quay and The Mill Arts Centre on 3 and 4 October 2026, 11am to 5pm, with trading boats in Tooley's dry dock. We could not find the 2027 dates. And Fairport's Cropredy Convention fills Cropredy on 12 to 14 August 2027, when the pub and the moorings go early. See the festival guide if that is your reason for coming. Dry summers matter too: the festival's 2026 notice spoke of drought trouble for boat traders, so check the Canal & River Trust's notices before you count on boats moving.
Saturday: the canal in town
Tooley's comes first, because it closes at 1pm. It has been hemmed in by Castle Quay since about 1999, and a plaque there says Tom Rolt began his 1939 cruise in Cressy, the trip behind his book Narrow Boat, from the yard. The museum is next door and free. If you have a boat ticket, swap the order to suit. The afternoon is for Spiceball, which has the canal along its edge and the river through it. In the evening, take the Reine Deer, or see the best pubs near Banbury. The heritage walk ends at the boatyard, so read it backwards if you want the old town too.
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Sunday: the towpath to Cropredy
Cropredy is about 4 miles north of Banbury by road and about 4.5 miles by the towpath, which runs the whole way. It is a level walk by the nature of a canal, apart from the locks. You arrive at the wharf bridge, and the lock is just north of it; the towpath at the lock is closed for repairs until 18 December 2026. The festival's own guide describes two short strolls from there, if you want more: north to the lock, or south on a circle coming back by a footpath at the next bridge.
Cropredy Bridge is on the road across the Cherwell, not on the canal, and it is where a royalist army beat Sir William Waller on 29 June 1644. It is a 1937 rebuild, faced in old Hornton stone. The Civil War in Banburyshire tells it properly. There is little else to do in the village, which is why it suits a Sunday: walk, read the panel, eat, see the church, and go home. On a fine day, walk both ways, which makes about 9 miles.
Plan on a taxi if you do not want the walk back. The area's few buses, the 498 on a Tuesday, the 497 on a Thursday and the 501 on a Saturday in November 2026, are each one return timed for a morning in Banbury, and neither helps on a Sunday. Our bus guide has the rest.
If it rains, and what to skip
In the rain: Saturday's museum and boatyard are mostly indoors, though the forge and the dock are not. On Sunday, the museum opens from 11am to 3pm and Gwen's serves a roast in the same hours. Skip the towpath, and take a taxi to the Brasenose for lunch if you still want Cropredy.
What to skip: Kings Sutton, unless you are coming for its spire. It has a station one stop from Banbury, but the village is off the canal, so it does nothing for a towpath day. Castle Quay is only your way through to the water.
For a longer walk: the Banbury Ironstone Heritage Walk starts along the canal and carries on to Wroxton, 9.6 miles and about four hours.