Duke's Cut

The Cut was constructed at the request of the Duke of Marlborough. The Duchy of Marlborough had owned Wolvercote paper mill since 1720, and much of the surrounding land belonged to their Blenheim Palace estate. In the 1790s, the Duke saw the benefit of bringing Warwickshire coal to the area, as the upper Thames area typically only received fuel from the Northumberland Coalfield via London, and consequently little cargo was left by the time vessels reached the upper river. Today, the cut is the preferred boating route from the Oxford Canal to the Thames;

In 1802, Robert Mylne surveyed the cut and reported his findings to the Thames Commissioners. He described how the cut had a stop lock near Wolvercote Junction where it meets the canal; the beam of this was given as 13 ft. The canal usually discharged towards the Thames, the numbering is inherited from that on the Oxford Canal. The lock is crossed by the Birmingham and Oxford Junction Railway, which opened in 1850. In 1987, the lock was granted Grade II listed status. At the junction with the mill stream, fed from the Thames, was a single gate of 12 ft. Mylne stated that this floodgate was of poor seal and water easily flowed into the canal at times the river was of a higher level. The cut…