Where the journey started?

Kendra Maissens’ ancestor William Blincow came from Long Buckby in Northamptonshire; when he and his family emigrated to Nebraska in 1871 they travelled to London by boat — it was presumed by the Grand Union Canal which passes near Buckby. But, William’s grand-daughter Ruth Mussett remembered an uncle telling her they passed by the Houses of Parliament, way up river from where the canal joins the Thames. Before he emigrated William was farming at Appletree, only a few miles from the Oxford Canal, it makes more sense that they went by canal boat to Oxford and down the Thames from there. The most likely starting point was the wharf at Cropredy Bridge and the picture above shows Kendra there, sitting on a Narrow Boat. They really were narrow, only 8 ft wide, so that they could pass through the locks built to that width when the first canals started in the 17thC. The barges were drawn by horses and, until the railways came were the fastest, and for long after, the cheapest means of transport. When they got to Oxford the family probably transferred to a larger boat, probably one of the steamers that operated a daily service to London, taking about three or four days to get there.

Kendra has just completed a semester at Oxford at the Institute of Mediaeval and Renaissance Studies. Attached to Keble College, she helped boost the College successes in the inter-college soccer competitions.