The bridge over the Mill stream (as we called it) at Wovercote, feeding the Thames proper at Godstow lock and weir, just a few yards upstream of the former Wolvercote bathing place, and (a further few hundred yards) of St Edwards School boathouse at The Perch, Godstow. As the shot shows, the date is 12.08.2009, and about 60 (and a few) years since this very bridge, substantially unchanged was our venue for many-an-afternoon’s fishing and bathing, of a sunny (and not-so-sunny, sometimes, of course) summer afternoon. But in 2009 the place is almost deserted, whereas post-war Wovercote riverside was a hive of activity for local and not-so-local (eg from Headington, in our case) children. All doing the usual children’s things, and lightly supervised by a weatherbeaten man operating out of a hut conveniently close to the children’s activities. My brother Michael used to fly-fish sometimes on the far-side of the river here, and perhaps up the Mill Stream, and once (I think I recollect) caught a respectable trout there. I used to catch gudgeon, roach, dace, and occasionally a perch. Golden Country and golden days, as I look back. As we got older (7 and 9 years perhaps, possibly slightly younger) we were allowed to catch the bus to Wolvercote, without dragging our mother, Gwen, to accompany us. It was a case of going to the end of the (?) No.4’s route at Cutteslowe estate (infamous for the Cutteslowe Wall - of which I knew nothing in those days), and changing there for the Wolvercote bus. I famously left on the bus at Cutteslowe, a very valuable fishing rod given to us by the family’s benefactor, Miss Parrot.