John Slee wrote: > According to my Nicholson map, Butcher's bridge at Braunston is bridge 1 > and Bridge 94 at Braunston Turn is also bridge 3. So I surmise that > Bridges 95 to 108 (excluding 96 which is an Aqueduct rather than a > bridge) were previously 4 to 16 but were absorbed into the GU numbering > system.
I think so. It's complicated by the effects of the N Oxford shortening. The original route of the Oxford southwards was past where Braunston turn now is, then into the marina, past the pump-out machine and in a long loop coming out on the other side of the valley near Wolvercote. Then the GJ joined at the original Braunston junction, making Butcher's Bridge the first on the GJ. When the Oxford was shortened they built Braunston "puddle banks" across the valley creating Braunston Turn as the new junction. So that left a short stretch of the Oxford from Braunston Turn to what is now the marina entrance (where there was also a loop, now absorbed into the basins) and then a short stretch left as a wharf. Mr Blagrove's little book explains all of this complexity very well. This shortening has often done strange things to the Oxford numbering. Add the complexities of the GU, and anything BW have done my mistake in the last 60 years and it's no wonder its odd.
