The following was originally posted to the Oxfordshire list and is posted here with the permission of the original writer. Paul Betteridge of the Oxfordshire list wrote: The company was authorized by Act of Parliament in 1769. The canal ran from near Coventry to Oxford. It joined the Coventry Canal at Longford junction. While construction in the northern section went reasonably well, the canal was only constructed as far as Banbury when the original money ran out and the pressures of the American War of Independence made things difficult. The section from Banbury to Oxford was opened on 1st January 1790. Coal was a (the?) major cargo of the canal. The canal is still there, but only used for pleasure now. The basin in Oxford has been filled in. Stephanie (of the Oxfordshire list, JG) sent this link (to the British Waterways site) to the list earlier this year: http://www.britishwaterways.co.uk/ There is a page on the Oxford canal: http://www.britishwaterways.co.uk/default.asp?B43inter and you can get at more detailed maps of the canal by following the links. You will certainly want to look through the list archives for other messages about the canal: http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl (plain search) http://archiver.rootsweb.com/ (threaded archives) Hope you find this of use Regards Julie Goucher [email protected]