Trip 5: May 2026. Bridge Meadow, Cropredy, nr Banbury.
After a fairy easy 2 hour drive on motorway , dual carriage way and narrow country A roads we arrived at our campsite at Cropredy. The site is basically a meadow between the river Cherwell and the Oxford canal. This is basic camping without any facilities apart from water and a waste disposal point. We rely on our solar panels and batteries for all things 12v and gas for cooking and heating.
On the website there is a shop opposite the meadow entrance but due to a subsiding floor that the landlord would not fix, the shop shut in 2025. Luckily we came fully stocked for 4 days of meals.
We got set up and had lunch before going on a walk around the village. First stop was Cropredy Bridge.
There are some lovely cottages with thatched roofs. Many houses are mentioned in a village description as being workers dwellings, carpenters, black smiths, shoe makers etc.
We called in at the church which had an art exhibition of work by local artists.
There are two pubs in the village and we visited both today as we walked around the village.
We visited The Red Lion pub which is next to the church. We were met by two resident English Springer Spaniels at the door. The pub is a country pub that has a lot of character. We didn’t eat here but a group of ladies at the art exhibition had had their lunch here according to the Landlady.
We left the pub and continued walking around the village before coming to the second pub, The Brasenose Arms. The pub was once three cottages but now it is more of an eatery than a pub. We felt underdressed and the seating was more for looks than comfort. The Landlady was pleasant and helpful. However the prices were top end and the same drinks were £3 more than The Red Lion.
We continued our walk to the canal and followed the towpath back to the campsite. The sun did come out and I got the chairs out to enjoy the views. The sun went in and the wind got up so it was back inside. Sue cooked us Chicken Kievs, salad and chips for tea.
We could not get many channels on the TVs because the reception is poor. No TV for 4 days but we have got our Kindles to read as well as WiFi for the iPads.
Tomorrow we will try a longer walk although the weather is forecast mainly cloudy
Day 2:
The weather is very erratic, one minute it was full sun and the next rain showers. We had planned to do the circular walk which is listed on the village website. So we set off anti clockwise along the Oxford canal towpath.
We had walked about half a mile and the rain came, we stopped under a bridge until the worst had stopped.
A boat passed and the man on the tiller was as wet as we were.
We continued to the next bridge and left the towpath and joined a farm track which lead us across the first field with a few cows in. Luckily for Sue they were at the opposite end and we crossed the field.
The path then took us across fields to a steep hill , there were cows in this field as well but because it was raining they were stood under some trees. We climbed the hill and joined a farm road that went through a working farm. We stopped to talk to the farmer and he told us all about the Brasenose pub that is in trouble with some ex employees who were not paid, plus he confirmed how expensive it was. We told him about the Red Lion because he had not been in there for over three years and it has had new owners for two years.
We left the farm and followed the road to the next footpath sign. This again took us down a track across fields. We had not gone far when the really heavy rain started. There was no immediate cover so we got soaked, we did come to a wood where we took cover but the the rain stopped. We decided to take a short cut towards the village incase we got caught in more showers.
We had nearly reached the end of the path when we met a man and his dog. He was very keen to tell us all about the Brasenose Arms where he worked before the owners started to get into financial difficulties. It was a long conversation, interesting but we just got colder and colder stood in the wind. We parted company and headed for The Red Lion where we could get warm and have a drink before the final walk back to the campsite.
We had managed 4 miles of the circular walk. Tomorrow we will walk the parts that we missed today. Tonight Sue is cooking Sea Bass and Prawns with new potatoes and a salad. Still no TV reception so more reading tonight.
Day 3:
We set off for a walk today. The idea was to cover the part of yesterday’s trek that was interrupted with the rain storms. Today’s walk took us over fields of beans and the paths were easy to follow.
After about an 90 minutes we reached the canal and found a bench near a lock, so we stopped to eat our packed lunch before setting off along the canal towpath back to Cropredy. We called in at The Red Lion for a drink before continuing back to the campsite. The walk was 4.5 miles today.
Day 4:
Our last day and the weather is forecast to be dry so another walk was planned. We decided to keep it easy and walk along the Oxford Canal towpath to Banbury.
The canal was quite busy this morning and we saw a lot of boats, in fact most locks along the way were being used.
Our plan was to walk to the RomanMeadow Country park which you could get to via a bridge over the canal. The problem was that the path to the bridge was closed so we had to continue along the canal, passing under the M40.
The next path took us across some waste ground and under the main railway line into the Grimsbury Woodland reserve.
We found the Grimsbury reservoir where we sat on a bench and ate lunch. We had walked just over 4 miles.
We left the reservoir and walked through the wood to the canal towpath.
The canal traffic was less now and we followed the canal home, stopping briefly at a lock which still had the original Lock Keepers cottage.
We got back to Iona after 8 miles in total. Chill time by the van but the wind was cold so we moved back inside for the rest of the afternoon. Tonight for tea we have Chicken Wraps.
Iona’s Travels 