Objective: Cycle from Napton Junction to Banbury along the Oxford Canal.
Trip Type: two car ride
Distance: 23 miles
Time to complete: 4.25 hrs, 5.5 mph
Nicholson Guide: Guide 1, pp 165-171
Costs: Free parking in Banbury. Free parking at Napton Junction (if you ask nicely).
Difficulty: hard
Adjacent Rides: Leamington Spa to Rugby, Banbury to Lower Heyford
Overview
There is no suitable train station near Napton Junction, and so I recommend two cars for this ride. Extending the ride to start from Leamington Spa makes it too far (for me at least), given the difficulty of navigating the Oxford Canal towpath in its northern sections.
This ride is so challenging that I actually did it over 2 days, despite it being only 23 miles in total. Do not attempt it in poor weather, or when the ground is sodden, as this will only add to your problems, which already include potholes, collapsed banking, long undergrowth, nettles and brambles, stones and earth on a narrow path. I would recommend doing the ride in spring, when the vegetation is at its lowest.
1. Napton Junction to Wharf Inn, Fenny Compton (12 miles)
Park Car 1 in Queens Road, Banbury, OX16 0ED, free of charge and no restrictions (or Banbury Station car park, which is closer to the canal, is £10 for the day). Park Car 2 at your start point, Napton Narrowboats, CV47 8HX. There is a large parking area for narrowboat hirers, but please ask at reception to check it’s ok.
From Napton Narrowboats return to Tomlow Road, turn right, and join the towpath on the far side of the canal bridge. Turn north east (left as you join the towpath) and navigate the few hundred metres to Napton Junction, to join up with the adjacent Leamington Spa to Rugby ride. This section is very narrow and overgrown, and it is easiest to leave your bike at the bridge and walk it.
Returning from the junction to Tomlow Road Bridge, continue along the towpath which is in very poor condition, overgrown, grass or earth, potholed and generally slow going. You will need to walk several sections.
Things are better as you approach The Folly (a cracking free house but perhaps a bit early in the ride to stop here at this point), and up Napton Locks. Lock 15 at Marston Doles has steep steps going up. Once past Lock 16, Napton Top Lock, the canal reaches its summit level, and winds along the contours for many miles more than it needs to if the designer, James Brindley, had picked another option.
Conditions remain difficult. As of June 2025, HS2 works hinder progress north of Wormleighton, where there is a half mile diversion around the site.
After the big bend round Wormleighton Hill you approach Fenny Compton, and The Wharf Inn, at which point I split my ride. There is parking here to enable you to do this should you wish, as well as food, beer and coffee.
2. Wharf Inn to Banbury (11 miles)
Head south from the Wharf Inn. Conditions are a bit better than the first part of the ride, but the first mile has many potholes, a collapsed towpath, stones and roots.
Soon you are in Fenny Compton “tunnel”, built in 1777 and demolished in 1868-70, when it became a cutting. Here the canal itself is considerably narrower.
The towpath continues as earth or grass, mainly rideable but with a few sections where you will need to walk.
At Cropredy you have the luxury of a compacted earth and gravel section through the village, popular with moored boats (and Fairport Convention fans).
The towpath then worsens again approaching Banbury, and it is only the final section through the Castle Quay Shopping Centre which is metalled. End your ride at bridge 166, Albion Bridge, where Bridge Street crosses from the town centre to the station.
Either head back to the station car park, or cross the canal, cross the A4260 to Market Place, and follow the one-way system up past St. Mary’s Church. Cross West Bar Street to People’s Park, walk through the park, and then to Queens Road and Car 1.
On your way back to Car 2, stop off either at The Folly, CV47 8NZ, which you passed earlier at the foot of Napton Locks, or the nearby Napton Cidery, CV47 8NY. Based on a farm, the cidery serves a range of excellent ciders brewed on the premises, as well as food, in a lovely spacious modern building. There is also outside seating, and a large car park.
For technical reasons I have had to split the PDF below into 2 halves.