Oxford & Grand Union Canal (Pearson)

The Ninth Edition of the Oxford & Grand Union Canal Companion has been extended to an unprecedented 176 pages.

Routes covered include the hugely picturesque and justifiably popular Oxford Canal between Hawkesbury Junction (on the outskirts of Coventry) and the University City of Oxford; the whole of the Grand Union Canal from Birmingham to London (Brentford/Paddington) including its branches to Northampton, Aylesbury, Wendover (under restoration) and Slough; the Regent’s Canal (with large scale mapping to do justice to central London) between Paddington and Limehouse; and the complete Leicester Section of the Grand Union Canal, including the arms to Welford and Market Harborough.

Solely the Upper Thames between Lechlade and Oxford has been sacrificed to make space for this increased route coverage, and that will be included in a forthcoming edition of the Kennet & Avon/Thames Canal Companion.

Three-quarters of a century ago a disparate band of determined individuals successfully campaigned to save the inland waterways from official indifference, preserving 18th and 19th century trade routes for a new role as a leisure resource without parallel. Sadly, human memory is short – political memory shorter still – and today the underfunded canals and navigable rivers of England and Wales are again fighting an existential battle.

Pearson’s Canal Companions have accurately chronicled the fortunes of the network for five decades, gaining a reputation for being as up to date as guidebooks can possibly be. Espousing the Reithian tenets to inform, educate and entertain – or, in other words, facts, wisdom and wit – they encourage people of all persuasions to explore on or beside the water, giving them the key to a secret world many never knew existed.