Walking into the city from Wolvercote along the towpath beside the Oxford Canal makes for a quiet entry into the centre. The broad track emerges just short of the screech of traffic on Hythe Bridge Street, and the station close by.

You can join the path anywhere along a 77-mile walk starting at Coventry, and routed via Rugby and Banbury. The canal passes through Warwickshire, Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire.

Through this journey, it’s possible to follow the 250-year-old route of coal barges. Their final destination in Oxford was abruptly diverted when Baron Nuffield purchased the wharf site in 1937, which later became the location of Nuffield College, and the Worcester Street car park.

Long after other narrowboat dwellers had converted their craft to diesel power, the Oxford Canal community continued to use horse traction. The last canal boat drawn in this way was the Friendship. The Skinners – one of the most respected canal boating families – still had their mule in harness in 1959.

In some ways it was Labour’s celebrated flame-haired Minister of Transport, Barbara Castle’s cruise on the Oxford Canal in the 1960s that proved its saviour. Castle vetoed the planned closure of many of England’s industrial waterways against fierce opposition. Her committed political advocacy provided a welcome hiatus which ushered in the advent of boating holidays, still a popular leisure activity 50 years later.

Thanks to a Heritage Lottery Fund award, Oxford residents and visitors will be much better informed about the Oxford Canal’s remarkable industrial and cultural history in future. The culmination of a year-long heritage project is being celebrated in a series of events. The first coincides with Oxfordshire’s ArtsWeeks. Through a competition organised by the Oxford Canal Heritage Project, prize-winning community art work will be displayed at the Jam Factory, alongside that of professional artists until April 27.

On May 3, a new Oxford Canal Heritage Trail will be opened, followed by a free Oxford Canal Day – a mix of talks, performances, drama, music, children's’ activities, books and stalls at the Old Fire Station. In the evening, the Oxford Canal Concert will take place – a programme of music, poetry and dance. The event showcases a huge amount of work carried out by the project manager, a steering group drawn from trustees of the Jericho Living Heritage Trust including local historian Mark Davies and Oxford schools, communities and organisations.

Oral histories have been collected by volunteers who have interviewed 25 local people. These include boaters whose parents brought coal barges into Oxford in the 1920s and 1930s. Some interviewees had a more modern take on the canal, including author Phillip Pullman whose trilogy His Dark Materials included the Gyptians – a fictional boating community inspired by the Oxford Canal. Interviews are being edited for future open access at the Oxford History Centre.

A short play competition has been organised by Katie Baxendale, a TV scriptwriter living near the canal. Four shortlisted entrants were mentored, by a panel of playwrights, novelists and producers including Ms Baxendale, Mark Haddon, Paul Rutman and John Retallack. The winner will be chosen by Mr Pullman, and the play performed on June 5 at St Barnabas Church, Jericho.

“It’s not about increasing the number of tourists walking the Oxford Canal. It’s about local people and appreciating more deeply its extraordinary industrial and cultural heritage,” says Maria Parsons, Oxford Canal Heritage Project Co-ordinator.

Further information at oxfordcanalheritage.org