Creating a canal heritage trail

The Jericho Living Heritage Trust (JLHT) has embarked on a Heritage Lottery-funded project that will lead to the creation of a unique Oxford Canal Heritage Trail. In future, people enjoying the quiet waterway from Wolvercote to Oxford City, will be able to access much more information about the history and natural environment of the canal. The aim is to open the trail in May 2014.

JLHT hope to involve as many Jericho people as possible in the project. Volunteers will be trained in gathering oral histories so they can interview people about their experience of living near, or working on the canal, from the 1940s to the present day. These histories will be deposited in the Oxfordshire Local History Centre in Cowley where they will be available to the general public and researchers.

The project will also work with children from St Barnabas School and the other three primary schools near the canal to make plays about the canal - as well as with local authors who will write and produce audio trails and radio plays. In addition, there will be leaflets, maps and a website, and the project will improve the street signs to the canal and put up better signs on the canal itself.

If you are interested in knowing more about the project, you are welcome to a meeting on Monday October 7 at the Jericho Community Centre between 7.30pm and 9.30pm. Mark Davies, a local historian will talk about the history of the canal. And the project manager, Maria Parsons, will explain where they have got to and how you can help. Refreshments provided.