Napton Engine Branch
The site of a disused canal feeder arm and pump engine which were used to control the water level of the Oxford Canal, dating from the Imperial period. They were located 600m southeast of Napton Halt.
1 This half mile feeder arm was navigable until 1948. The canal was constructed because under the power of the 1786 Act the company was allowed to use any water found within a thousand yards of the canal. A pumping engine was placed at the end and water discharged into the summit pound. Following the construction of a reservoir at Boddington in 1811 the pump ceased to be used regularly.
2 The building appears to be ne which is now clad in corrugated iron. As no access was possible it was difficult to tell if this was the original building.
3 Canal feeder and engine house are marked on the First Edition 6″ Ordnance Survey map.
4Lidar imagery shows a series of mounds, presumably marking a tunnel, lead northwards for 670m to a small stream valley to the NNW.
- For the sources of these notes, see the
- Timetrail record
- produced by the Historic Environment Record.
Comments
My family have farmed land by the arm for around 100 year. Brother now owns the arm adjacent his land. The mounds mentioned indicate where a tunnel brought water from the bottom lock by gravity to the sump or well approx 70ft deep. A mound with a brick channel allowed pumped water to run at a fall around the fields and into the canal above the top lock.
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