Inspecting Port Meadow and Seeking Black Jack's Hole, Oxford, June 20th 2024

In • Inspecting Port Meadow... , at the beginning of June, I tried walking north to Wolvercote up the east (Port Meadow) bank of the Thames, and found the ground still too soggy. Port Meadow is floodplain, after all. In this video, I try again. Hot weather has dried the ground, and I can now get as far as I have time for, about half way. The centre of Port Meadow is still flooded, but it's good to have the route open again, and to see the Meadow's bizarre landscapes.
Along my walk, I look for Black Jack's Hole, apparently the name of a bend in the Thames. In my video, I am sceptical - is this name just an invention of Dark Oxfordshire in the same way that a Bodleian ghost might be - but although I've never heard anyone use it, the links below do suggest it's genuine, even if Black Jack himself is not.
"Flood Meadows": jminnes.wordpr... .
"Port Meadow" in "WHERE THAMES SMOOTH WATERS GLIDE": thames.me.uk/s... .
"The Legend of Black Jack's Hole": www.darkoxford... .
"A walk to Parson’s Pleasure" in "The Oxford Sausage": theoxfordsausa... . "George soon discovered Oxford was full of similarly named ‘bathing places’ as they became known, Long Bridges, Black Jack’s Hole, Tumbling Bay, Footman’s Bath, nicknames that stuck. He was fascinated by the potential mix of social and cultural history."
"People buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery, Oxford whose deaths were followed by inquests": www.stsepulchre... . Mentions Edward SCHÖNBERG (1863-1886) and Reginald Arthur Clayton HESLOP (1874-1890) who died at Black Jack's Hole.
""Episode 62 - Refuge at Black Jack’s Hole" in "Tales From The SwansNeck": • Episode 62 - Refuge at... at 7:30.
"Jenny Greenteeth": en.wikipedia.o... .
"Grindylow": en.wikipedia.o... .