Oxford Water Walks

Oxford Water Walks, Oxford Towpath Talks, and Oxford Towpath Press are brought to you by Mark Davies.

Mark Davies - (photo: The Oxford Mail)

Mark Davies is a historian, author, speaker, guide, and publisher specialising in the history of non-University Oxford, with a particular focus on the city’s waterways. Most of Mark’s early life was spent by the sea – in Hampshire, Sussex, Kent, and South Wales – but his interest in inland rather than coastal waters grew as a result of a chance decision to live on a canalboat in central Oxford in 1992, after living in living in Abingdon for a couple of years.

 Since then Mark has written and published four local history books, three of which are still in print: A Towpath Walk in Oxford (2001/2003), The Abingdon Waterturnpike Murder (2003/2008), & Stories of Oxford Castle (2005/2006). A new title, about the key role of the River Thames in the creation of ‘Alice in Wonderland’, is due out early in 2010.

Mark is a regular contributor of articles on various aspects of Oxford’s local history to the Oxford times’ magazine Limited Edition, and alos writes occasionally for national history magazines such as Ancestors and Family History Monthly. 

Mark speaks to organisations all over Oxfordshire on a variety of local themes, and leads walks through little-visited parts of Oxford for a range of local and international organisations (including Oxford colleges), and at annual events such as the Oxford Literary Festival, Oxford Preservation Trust’s “Open Doors”, and The Story Museum’s “Alice’s Day”.

 Mark still resides on his boat, ‘Bill the Lizard’, in central Oxford, and has been active in the much-publicised campaign of recent years to retain a boatyard in the canalside Oxford suburb of Jericho.