Drainage of the Upper Thames Valley. 
367 
XIX. — An Account of an Embankment and Cutting in the Parishes 
of Standlake, Northmoor, Stanton Harcourt, and Eynsham, in 
the County of Oxford, made to protect the District from the 
Flood Waters of the River Thames. By S. B. L. Druce, Banister- 
at-Law. 
The drainage of the Upper Thames Valley, and the confining- 
within narrow boundaries the flood-waters of the river in the 
district above Oxford, have long since been a subject of contro- 
versy, and have even of late occupied the attention of the Legis- 
lature ; therefore a short account of an embankment and cutting 
which have lately been executed, for the purpose of keeping 
back the flood waters in a part of the above mentioned district, 
will probablv find an appropriate place in the ' Journal of the 
Royal Agricultural Society,' more particularly on account of its 
proving to be, so far as it has gone at present, a very decided 
success. 
The district which is protected from floods by the works now 
being described commences about ten miles (following the course 
of the riv^er) above Oxford, and is situate within the parishes of 
Eynsham, Stanton Harcourt, Northmoor, and Standlake. The 
whole of the valley of the Thames above Oxford, as is well 
known, is very subject to floods, particularly the low-lying lands 
in the above mentioned and bordering parishes. It was well- 
ascertained that a great part of these floods was attributable 
to the fact that there was not sufficient outfall for the water 
of the river Windrush, a tributary of the Thames flowing into 
that river in the parish of Standlake, close to New Bridge. The 
waters of this stream, when very high, met the main body of the 
flood water of the Thames, and were forced, as it were,; by 
the greater strength of the latter, and driven out into the sur- 
rounding country. The first point to be considered, therefore, 
in protecting this district from flood, was to keep these flood 
waters of the Windrush within reasonable bounds, and prevent 
them from flowing unrestrained over the surrounding country. 
We may then, for the sake of convenience, consider the em- 
bankment and cutting, the subject of this paper, as divided into 
two distinct parts or sections. The first of these extends from a 
point on the Windrush rather more than a mile from New 
Bridge, where, as before mentioned, that river joins the Thames, 
as far as the latter river, and which point is 8 feet higher than 
the point at which the works end. The second part com- 
mences where the first ends, and runs alongside of the river 
bed through the parishes of Northmoor, Stanton Ilarcourt, and 
Eynsham, all in the county of Oxford, at a distance averaging 
