Downstream

lasher is described on modern
maps as a treacherous weir
pool with a very strong
undercurrent, while the lock
has the deepest drop on the
non-tidal Thames.
While people still swim at
Tumbling Bay and Port
Meadow today, bathing in the
Thames around Oxford is the
subject of repeated warnings
in the local press. It may once
have been normal for
schoolchildren to be taken to