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Bablock Hythe is a hamlet in
Canal Plan Gazetteer
River Thames ferries Hamlets in Oxfordshire {{oxfordshire-geo-stub
Bablock Hythe is a hamlet in Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...
, 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.
Heritage
The earliest reference to a ferry is in 1279; later ones continued to cross 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. There was also an ancient inn, described by William Senior in his ''Royal River'' in the 1880s. This was rebuilt in the early 1990s. The site is overlooked by the "Warm green-muffled Cumnor Hills", which now holds an extensive caravan site. The poet Matthew Arnold described the area in his 1853 work "The Scholar Gipsy
"The Scholar-Gipsy" (1853) is a poem by Matthew Arnold, based on a 17th-century Oxford story found in Joseph Glanvill's ''The Vanity of Dogmatizing'' (1661, etc.). It has often been called one of the best and most popular of Arnold's poems, and ...
":
: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.
See also
* Crossings of the River ThamesReferences
External links
Canal Plan Gazetteer
River Thames ferries Hamlets in Oxfordshire {{oxfordshire-geo-stub