.
It’s a bit of a giveaway the word towpath and is derived from its use which was actually for a horse which towed narrow boats on our canals up until mechanisation took over.
So Mr Sephton got it partly right in that a man would walk behind the horse in those days to keep it under control.
Interestingly enough in most cases on the other side of the canal they frequently built what was called a navigation ditch obviously for some kind of drainage. The word navigation was initially used for the waterway itself hence the name. While many of these have now disappeared you can still see them in use on the land that borders the canal at Stratfield Brake.
Nick Duval
School Road
Kidlington,
Oxford
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