Report - Trill Mill Stream Oxford, Feb. 2012

[MKZ]

Hello!

I want to tell you about one quite nice underground stream in Oxford, given that all the photos from the previous post have dissapeared for unobvious reasons. It runs under parts of Oxford, used to be a part of medival sewer system, but it is not any more.

It was a boring Saturday, I knew noone in this region, so decided to go and explore it alone- as usual. The stream submerges somewhere near to the Oxford castle and emerges at Christchurch. As I have red on this website- there is only one open entrance which is in the grounds of Christ Church college.
However I still wanted to find a "source" and see whether it is actually closed.

It was quite easy to find the source, place was amazing- bench, far from main roads, a dream of any river lover.

Sorry for the quality and small number of photos in advance, I was alone and with a lot on equipment such as bags and etc but I have tried my best.

These two streams merge and give water to the Mill Stream itself.

And here is a main feature of the "entrance"- water lock.

To my surprice (or did I expect it?) the lock on one of the two lattices was cut. So here we go, another entrance! Of course, I have tried to move it- you can see it from the photo.

So, changed in my river trousers, jump in fast, not to attract the attention- it was almost 2 meters, not too much, but I really enjoyed the hard, "punching" slide down!

The stream is clean, but sometimes quite deep. It was a while before I was able to set a tripod correctly.

The shape is really interesting- flipped egg? Not?

Stream is bending all the time, it was possible to see really old parts as well as new- reconstructed.

Another entrance by the way.

Than it became a bit tiring- a really shallow ~ 60- 80 meter strip was in front of me, so I have decided to turn back, and finish the explore later, and with a buddy in order to produce good photos.

Has anyone seen a key?

I hope it was not really boring, thank you for watching, to end the report- a picture of this rather amazing wheel.

Thanks for watching!

 

[Thejam]

There is a rumour (quoted in Jan Morris’s Book, Oxford), that in the 1930s the skeletons of a couple in Victorian clothes were discovered down there in a punt...

 

[mookster]

The one Oxford location I have no interest in doing, personally ha.

Although with the huge development that has now taken place where the lock part is, I've no idea what's happened to that area now.

 

[gtejon]

I love this, thank you for posting these!!
I know this is an old post but I can't help but tell you my Dads story.
He was born in oxford 1922, his mum ran a hotel that no longer exists (hasn't done for many years), in the cellar was a trap door that led down to an underground stream.
My Dad and his older brother one day, upto mischief as usual, borrowed (pinched) a boat from bossoms?? Boatyard and decided to explore and see if they could find this trapdoor, entered the stream, pitch black and had no way back out but to keep going, they were scared senseless as they had no idea where they were going or if they would ever see the light of day again...
Eventually they emerged in Christchurch gardens and ran all the way home!!! This would probably be early 1930's, mum thinks he was probably 9 or 10 at the time. Lovely to see these pictures and see where he ended up all those years ago!! I will add they never did find the trap door