Oxford College Barges, The

Today, only a few of the Oxford College Barges survive, and none of the original moorings lining the bank of the Isis at Christ Church Meadow where, in their heyday, there were some twenty-five. In researching the history and architecture of the barges, Clare Sherriff has examined the University and college boat club records, collecting rare photographs with which to illustrate and compare their design and use from Victorian and Edwardian times through to the 1970s when the last of them was towed away to retirement. The process of research has included many conversations with those who can still recall both amusing incident and disaster aboard the barges. This is a part of vanished Oxford social and sporting life, well worth recording and preserving while there is still living memory.