Trill Mill Stream, Oxford
Dave Dunford
Has anyone in this NG been down the Trill Mill Stream (a culverted
tributary of the Thames in Oxford)? I used to walk past one end on the way
to work a few years back, and I got interested enough to go to the Library
and do some research (some of which was published in the proceedings of the
Chelsea Speleological Society). I never got as far as finding out about
access (both ends are gated and locked IIRC). I'd be very interested to
hear of any recent visits or any new developments. It used to be canoeable
(T.E. Lawrence - yes, Lawrence of Arabia - did it as an undergraduate) and
there is an apocryphal story of a Victorian punt with two skeletons being
found down there in the '20s. Personally I don't believe this one as
surely Lawrence (who as far as I could work out must have done the trip
some time around 1910) would have come across it? However a guy at the
Oxford Archaeological Centre said the date was a bit recent for it to be
totally made up. He did suggest trying the Coroner's Office - maybe I'll
get round to it one day, but knowing only "the 1920s" for the date makes
looking it up a rather daunting prospect.
If anyone is interested I could dig out the rest of my research. All info
welcome...
Cheers
--
Dave Dunford
ddun...@rmplc.net
Dave Dunford
Unfortunately a search of my hard disk suggests that I didn't keep my notes
when I swapped machines a while back :-(
I'll have a look at home and see if I've got a printout. But, from memory:
T E Lawrence DEFINITELY did the trip (I think as a schoolboy, rather than a
student). There are two or three contemporary accounts (could look up the
references if anyone is interested) by people who did it with him (one of
whom, IIRC, became a bishop or a canon or something in later life). There's
something about firing off a gun down there in one of the accounts. A
letter in the Telegraph (?) in the late 50s from someone claiming to be the
first person to do the trip since Lawrence provoked several indignant
replies from other people who had also done it in the meantime (it was
known as "Shooting the Town Drain" by undergraduates, apparently, and was
considered better sport in flood conditions). Somebody recalled climbing a
"chimney" (probably an old drain - the stream was often used as a sewer)
and poking their head out to find themselves in a cottage garden full of
hollyhocks. I believe the stream must have been diverted when they built
the Westgate Shopping Centre (or, more particularly, the multi-storey car
park - someone I spoke to said this had resulted in a sharp right-angled
bend which would be tricky or impassable in a canoe). There's a long,
hand-written, essay on the history of the stream before it was culverted by
Henry Taunt, a local historian and pioneer photographer, in the Centre for
Oxfordshire Studies.
The channel is lined in brick, about 6 foot in diameter, with an arched
roof and floor. It was culverted in the second half of the 19th century; it
starts in the grounds of Oxford College of FE ("Oxpens") and rises in
Christchurch Meadows just off St. Aldates, a distance of about quarter of a
mile as the crow flies. Apparently it was shown (possibly just the
entrance) in a Channel 4 documentary about a guy canoeing from somewhere
way up north and passing through Oxford via the Oxford Canal - but I've
missed it both times it was on.
Dave
Dave Dunford
Roger J Morgan <gw...@dial.pipex.com> wrote in article
<33F341...@dial.pipex.com>...
> Dave Dunford wrote:
> >
> > Has anyone in this NG been down the Trill Mill Stream
>
> I posted a request for information on T E Lawrence's exploits to this
> newsgroup about 6 months ago and got only disbelieving replies!
> Evidently you missed it - very grateful for info.
>
>
What d'you know - I found my file of notes! The quotes I noted that relate
to T.E.Lawrence are as follows:
10
Under his guidance I made the passage of the Trill Mill stream. This
stream, which had medieval importance, now runs underground from 'The
Friars' and emerges in the Christ Church memorial garden: our equipment
included candles for the darkness, and a pistol to waken the echoes beneath
St. Aldate's. As I embarked, very much a 'passenger', Lawrence said: 'Be
careful: you have there the most precious life in Oxford!' I did not miss
either the irony or the friendliness of the remark.
T. W. Chaundy, in The Boy and The Man [in T. E. Lawrence By His Friends,
ed. A. W. Lawrence] (Cape, 1954).
11
The episode of the Trill Mill stream at Oxford was no madcap adventure. On
the contrary, it was planned in every detail. He had been probing into the
history of old Oxford and had read in Wood of the existence of this stream.
He had established its identity at the mouth of a sewer at Hythe Bridge
and desired to know if the other outlet was at Folly Bridge. He had
brought a candle to stick in the bows of the canoe, and an acetylene
cycle-lamp at the stern. As we drifted down the darkness of the sewer, he
remarked casually that it would be interesting to notice, as the foulness
of the air increased, which light would be extinguished first, also what
the attitude of rats might be. 'At any rate', he added, as we lay prone in
the canoe, touching the walls of the sewer as we guided it in the darkness,
'there is no room to turn back.' [He had wondered, says another school
friend, what would happen if they came to a grating; it is impossible to
paddle in some parts of the tunnel, but the draught keep the air pure. —
Ed.]. But Folly Bridge was reached in under twenty minutes – in fact, the
trip became quite popular, until it was stopped by authority.
Archdeacon E. F. Hall in The Boy and the Man [in T. E. Lawrence By His
Friends, ed. A. W. Lawrence] (Cape, 1954).
12
We matriculated in Michaelmas term, 1907, but to different colleges.
C. F. C. Beeson in The Boy and the Man [in T. E. Lawrence By His Friends,
ed. A. W. Lawrence] (Cape, 1954).
13
The same friend was present at the over-advertised canoe trip down the
underground Oxford sewer, the Trill Mill stream. From published accounts I
had reached the baffling conclusion that there must have been two or even
three first occasions on which this exploration took place. It seems that
earlier accounts simply failed to mention that there were three canoes.
According to Mr. Mather's recollection, the party included, besides
Lawrence and himself, a future bishop (A. T. P. Williams), a future canon
(E. F. Hall) and V. Richards. The sixth person was probably T. W. Chaundy,
who has also left an account. The main purpose of the trip seems to have
been to épater les bourgeois of Oxford by firing blank pistol-shots under
the gutter gratings in the streets. It cannot have been very perilous
since it was afterwards frequently repeated by Oxford girls, but then il
n'y a que le premier pas qui coûte.
Richard Aldington, Lawrence of Arabia (first publ. Collins, 1955; this
edition Four Square Books, 1960).
14
Perhaps typical of this is the incident when Lawrence with a few friends
led an underground exploration in a rowing boat of the Trill Mill stream,
which runs underneath Oxford, in order to find a Saxon sewer. Amongst the
essential equipment, Lawrence took along a .45 revolver and a box of blanks
to scare the residents above by firing through the gratings – according to
one story 'as a token against the bourgeoisie'. Another account even claims
his mother was a passenger.
Michael Yardley, Backing Into the Limelight: A Biography of T. E. Lawrence
(Harrap, 1985).
15
The celebrated exploration of subterranean Trill Mill stream was inspired
by a reading of the seventeenth-century Oxford historian and antiquary
Anthony Wood.
M. D. Allen, 'Lawrence's Medievalism' [in The T. E. Lawrence Puzzle ed.
Stephen E. Tabachnick] (University of Georgia Press, 1984)
pa...@plsoft.co.uk
mcsano...@gmail.com
There is certainly no sharp right-angle bend, but at numerous points the water level is perhaps ~50-60 cm from the roof (which is thickly layered with spiders), which would be challenging in a boat of any kind, and required considerable stooping.
The walk is generally speaking uneventful, at one point there is some kind of metal object loose on a kind of shelf structure at one side. It turns in the middle from a brick archway to a concrete, rectangular tunnel, and then back again (this section could have been redeveloped during the building of the car park).
I believe that the entrance near the car park has now been locked.
fishy...@googlemail.com
Ian Clifton
Westgate Centre?
--
Ian ◎
taylorc...@gmail.com
It took us about 45 mins to get through there was just enough water to float through on lots of muddy silt.
Initially there were lots of old broken bottles from the old halls brewery.
We emerged in Christchurch grounds.
I have film of us doing it.
Lots of horrid old cobwebs and rats down there .it kept changing from victorian brick work to modern concrete where the west gate was redeveloped.Happy to answer any questions .