Lower Heyford

Coordinates: 51°55′12″N 1°17′42″W / 51.920°N 1.295°W / 51.920; -1.295

Lower Heyford is a village and civil parish beside the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, about 6 miles (10 km) west of Bicester. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 495.

Prehistory

Aves ditch is pre-Anglo-Saxon and may have been dug as a boundary ditch. It still forms the eastern boundary of the parish.

Harborough Bank, an Anglo-Saxon burial mound southwest of the village dates from the 6th century.

Manor

The Domesday Book of 1086 records the village as Hegford. The toponym evolved as Heiford until the middle of the 13th century, Heyford ad Pontem after the bridge was built (see below), Heyford Purcell since the middle of the 14th century, Nether Heyford after 1474 and sometimes Little Heyford. Some of these names were used concurrently. "Lower" distinguishes it from Upper Heyford which is about 1 mile (1.6 km) upstream along the Cherwell valley. There are both a Nether Heyford and a Little Heyford in Northamptonshire, so the current "Lower Heyford" reduces confusion.

Oxford Canal

Coordinates: 52°27′N 1°28′W / 52.450°N 1.467°W / 52.450; -1.467

The Oxford Canal is a 78-mile-long (126 km) narrow canal in central England linking Oxford with Coventry via Banbury and Rugby. It connects with the River Thames at Oxford, to the Grand Union Canal at the villages of Braunston and Napton-on-the-Hill, and to the Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury Junction in Bedworth just north of Coventry. The canal was once an important artery of trade between the English Midlands and London, and is now highly popular among pleasure boaters.

The Oxford Canal passes mainly through the Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire and Warwickshire countryside, and is often considered to be one of the most scenic canals in Britain. North of Napton-on-the-Hill, the canal forms part of the Warwickshire ring.

The route

The canal begins near Hawkesbury Village at Hawkesbury Junction, also known as Sutton Stop, where it connects with the Coventry Canal, four miles from the centre of Coventry. From Hawkesbury, it runs south east through the Warwickshire countryside for 15 miles (24 km) to Rugby.