Bablock Hythe

Bablock Hythe is a small hamlet in Oxfordshire, England, some five miles (8 km) west of Oxford city centre. There was a ferry across the River Thames at Bablock Hythe from the 13th century. The hand-propelled cable ferry was said to be the first along the Thames and was still in use for cars and other road vehicles up until 1959.[1]

the ferry in August 2006

Heritage

The Ferryman Inn

The earliest reference to a ferry is in 1279 and later ferries continued to provide a crossing service until the mid-20th century. The ferry was a wide-beamed ferry punt with a rope or chain in the river, which presented something of a hazard to navigation.[2] There was also an ancient inn, The Chequers, described by William Senior in his Royal River in the 1880s. This was rebuilt in the early 1990s and renamed The Ferry Inn and later The Ferryman.[3]

The poet Matthew Arnold described the area in his 1853 work "The Scholar Gipsy":

Thee, at the ferry, Oxford riders blithe,

Returning home on summer nights, have met

Crossing the stripling Thames at Bablock-hithe

Trailing in the cool stream thy fingers wet

As the slow punt swings round.

The site is overlooked by the "Warm green-muffled Cumnor Hills", and is now an extensive caravan site.[4]

See also

• Crossings of the River Thames

References

1. "Correspondence". The Autocar. London: Ilffe & Sons Ltd: 440. 30 March 1959.
2. Fred. S. Thacker: The Thames Highway: Volume II Locks and Weirs (1920, republished 1968 by David & Charles).
3. Christopher Winn: I Never Knew That about the River Thames (London: Ebury Press, 2010), p. 39.
4. Paul Goldsack River Thames: In the Footsteps of the Famous (Bradt/English Heritage 2003).

External links

• Canal Plan Gazetteer
• Where Thames smooth waters glide