The sun was shining when twenty five members met at Oxford station for an Easter Saturday walk around its green and urban areas. One of our members, Gini, missed her train so I directed her to meet us at the lunchtime pub. We headed for the Thames towpath but soon found that a stretch of it was flooded because the river level was very high due to the recent heavy rainfall. We detoured through a new housing estate and reached a drier section of the path.

We crossed Rainbow Bridge to a temporary bar being set up at Medley Manor Farm but we resisted the urge to stop. Similarly we passed the Perch pub further on which was a haunt of the author Lewis Carroll. As we approached Wolvercote, we came upon another flooded area which proved impossible to pass without getting our footwear extremely wet. Therefore we decided to return to the Perch pub for our lunch. Although it was busy, we were able to enjoy the sunshine in its extensive garden with its outside bar and food offerings.

We then retraced our steps to the Rainbow Bridge and then headed across the Port Meadow to the Oxford Canal towpath. That took us along a pleasant stretch of waterway to the edge of the city centre where some of our number left us for the station. The remainder stayed for a short tour of Oxford. We saw Ronnie Barker’s old school and the adjacent Four Candles pub named after his famous comedy sketch with Ronnie Corbet.

Then we passed the Ashmolean Museum before reaching busy Broad Street with its original Oxfam shop and an Anthony Gormley sculpture on top of an adjacent building. The Sheldonian Theatre, the Bridge of Sighs, the Bodlean Library and the Radcliffe Camera were then seen before we reached a park area adjacent to Christ Church College. A short walk brought us back to the station for our return journey home. In case you’re wondering what happened to Gini, she enjoyed the planned lunch stop in Wolvercote and made her own way back along the canal to the city.

Danny

Photos courtesy of Ida Kwan.