Duke

Duke’s Cut is a short waterway in Oxfordshire, England, which connects the Oxford Canal with the River Thames via the Wolvercote Mill Stream. It is named after George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough, across whose land the waterway was cut. It is seen as a branch of the Oxford Canal.[2]

The Cut was constructed at the request of the Duke of Marlborough. The Duchy of Marlborough had owned Wolvercote paper mill since 1720, and much of the surrounding land belonged to their Blenheim Palace estate.[3] In the 1790s, the Duke saw the benefit of bringing Warwickshire coal to the area, as the upper Thames area typically only received fuel from the Northumberland Coalfield via London, and consequently little cargo was left by the time vessels reached the upper river.[3] As owner of the land between the Oxford Canal and the mill stream, the Duke was aware of how level it was (and thus suited to a waterway) and permitted constructed a 500-yard (460 m) cut between the two waterways. The millstream provided a connection to the Thames above King’s Weir, bypassing the flash lock.[1]

The cut opened in 1789; the exact date is unknown but an advertisement carried in William Jackson’s Oxford Journal—published by the tenant of Wolvercote Mill[3] and printed on the mill’s paper—showed that the cut had opened by 3 October.[1] It was conveyed in trust to the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford and the Mayor of Oxford in 1792.

Adjacent to the cut is Duke’s Lake, a reservoir also used for carp, roach, tench, and bream angling.[4]

Today, the cut is the preferred boating route from the Oxford Canal to the Thames;[5] the alternative route is at Oxford via and Isis Lock and the Sheepwash Channel. Until 1937, the latter was the only route between King’s Lock and the lower Thames without having to navigate the flash lock at Medley Weir near Godstow Lock.[6]