First target reached! Stretch target: £50,000
This campaign launches a broader effort to restore the Corpus — as she’s affecti...
Restoration of Historic Oxford College Barge
Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
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Aim: Help the Oxford College Barges Trust reach £100k to save the Corpus Christi Barge —an Oxford river heritage icon. £10k is the first step!
Our goal
The Oxford College Barges Preservation Trust is aiming to raise an initial £10,000 — the first step towards a £100,000 total restoration.
Keep History Afloat! Help Save the Corpus Christi Barge — A Unique Piece of Oxford’s River Heritage
We invite you to support the preservation of one of the last great Oxford college barges — the beautiful Corpus Christi Barge. This elegant vessel is a rare survivor of Oxford’s distinctive rowing and river history, but it urgently needs repair to ensure its long-term survival.
As the barge approaches its hundredth birthday, it’s facing serious structural issues. Two years ago, the hull began leaking. A survey revealed significant rot and advised urgent removal from the water for comprehensive repairs.
Kickstarting Restoration
This campaign launches a broader effort to restore the Corpus — as she’s affectionately known — in time for her centenary in 2030. Your help can ensure this rare gem is preserved for another hundred years, a lasting tribute to these unique riverboats.
About Us
We are the Oxford College Barges Preservation Trust (OCBPT), a charity founded in 1966 by a young art teacher called Sarah Hosking. Her initiative brought in many exceptional writers and scholars including poet Sir John Betjeman, cartoonist Osbert Lancaster, architect Sir Hugh Casson, and architectural historian Sir John Summerson. Our mission: to preserve the architectural legacy of the college barges for future generations and honour the memory of Edwardian Oxford.
We are a volunteer-run organisation — boat experts, river lovers, Oxford alumni, architects, and historians — and we’re passionate about saving this stunning vessel. The barge holds exceptional architectural and historic value. As a registered charity, we can claim Gift Aid on all donations.
The History
You may wonder why Oxford, unlike Cambridge, has comparatively modern boathouses. The reason is that the banks of Christ Church meadow used to be lined not with boathouses, but with barges, which acted as changing rooms for the rowers and balconies for spectators to view the racing.
In the 1940s, they were hailed as “the most magnificent sight on the river”. Imagine the barges lined along Christ Church Meadow during Eights Week — rooftop crowds cheering, flags flying, the river alive with colour!
Sadly, over time, and with the coming of the replacement boathouses, many of the finest barges were demolished or rotted beyond repair.
Years of neglect, vandalism, and even arson followed.
If you’d like to find out more about the barges and their history, including some horror show images of some of the casualties of time, mishap or vandalism, please visit the OBCT website or Instagram page.
St John's Barge being lifted out for the last time, to be broken up in 2022.
It's not known exactly how many barges there originally were, but it was between 22 and 26. Of these, only six survive.
The Corpus Christi Barge, built in 1930, was the last ever constructed. Still afloat and moored at Iffley in Oxford, she features oval windows, oak panelling, and once boasted a carved pelican figurehead — the symbol of Corpus Christi.
She’s hosted countless gatherings, including the legendary “wear nothing but a hat” party. Her walls echo with stories — but her condition is deteriorating.
The Threat
Water ingress, rotting decks, and a rusting hull are now threatening her survival. A recent survey confirmed the need for urgent removal from the water. For many years OCBPT have searched the upper and lower reaches of the Thames for a boatyard and a crane large enough to lift the Corpus. We’ve now found a yard which can crane her out, sandblast, and inspect the hull.
Zanna Hoskins, Chair of the OCBPT, says 'The Corpus is a precious piece of Oxford’s history, and we are determined to keep her afloat’.
‘She is slowly taking in water and we urgently need to have her hull repaired. Only a very few boatyards can accommodate such a big boat – she’s over 45 tonnes, about 5m wide, 21m long and nearly 100 years old, so a bit of a fragile old lady.’
Planned work includes:
Steel hull repairs, re-plating, and epoxy coating
Replacement of timber reinforcing 'knees'
Renovation of the timber superstructure
Repainting of the cabin
reproducing the lost pelican figurehead, wooden balustrades and painted college signage
These barges were unique to Oxford: preserving Corpus means preserving a tangible link to Oxford’s rowing and architectural heritage.
Why Now?
Time is critical. The barge hasn’t been out of the water in over 50 years — delay is not an option.
Restoration Journey So Far
In the 1980s, American marine engineer Robert Maccoun fitted Corpus with a steel hull — a visionary move that likely saved her.
Maccoun's passion for the barges even led him to re-build a replica teak hull for the Jesus College Barge, to preserve a record of what the original hulls were like.
In 2000, the Trust renovated the timber superstructure of the Corpus.
Now, 25 years on, the next chapter of her preservation begins.
A Unique Piece of Oxford’s Story
Why do Oxford’s college boathouses look so modern compared to Cambridge’s? Because until the 20th century, Oxford used floating barges instead — architectural marvels that served as:
- Changing rooms
- Social spaces
- Grandstands for regattas
The inspiration for the Oxford barges came from the London livery companies - the City Companies each owned a splendid civic barge on which to accompany the Lord Mayor annually on his state procession by river to Westminster.
The Lord Mayor's procession was discontinued in 1856 and the barges were put up for sale. These barges were magnificent river-going craft, over 70ft long, rowed by at least 14 pairs of oars and emblazoned with the arms of the company.
The newly established Oxford University Boat Club of 1848, in an inspired move, had six of these livery barges towed upstream to Oxford (six more set off to Cambridge by sea but sank on the way), and so a new tradition was born.
However, the livery barges were old and the colleges soon needed to replace them.
By the start of the 20th Century nearly every college had a barge which served as changing room for rowers, and viewing platform for race onlookers. The muddy nature of the Meadow banks encouraged the introduction of the barges since they provided a dry and elevated stand from which to watch the races.
Although the newly built barges were basically just sheds on rafts - static and only moved by towing - the scale and ornamentation of the civic barges was retained in the Classical (pillars and Ionic capitals emphasised out of all proportion to the barge's size), Gothic, Romanesque & (later) Art Nouveau styles, each flamboyantly displaying their college icons and designed with echoes of the rising stern of the earlier livery barges or parodies of naval architecture.
No two barges were alike, and every use was made of varying shaped windows, porches, balustrades, figureheads etc. and even some had stained glass windows.
They are completely unique to Oxford.
The Last of Their Kind
Only six barges remain:
- Magdalen - was built in 1886 with a cutting-edge ferro-concrete hull, is privately owned and moored at Pangbourne
- Queen’s - privately owned and moored at Port Meadow, Oxford
- Univ – privately owned and moored at Streatley
- St Edward’s – privately owned and moored in Caversham
- Jesus – privately owned and now the ‘Peggy Jean’ restaurant in Richmond
- Corpus Christi – still in Oxford, owned by the Trust
Pictured: A new hull being fitted to Queen's on Port Meadow in the 1980s.
Queen's is privately owned and moored at Port Meadow in Oxford and retains its original eagle figurehead.
The Corpus Christi barge
She was designed by the celebrated architect Nathaniel Harrison FRIBA, and built as a memorial barge, donated in memory of the Revd. Joseph Hooper Maude and Louis Edward Joseph Maude, father and son, both alumni of Corpus Christi college. The barge was commissioned by Mrs Maude and Dr Cecily Maude 'to fix a last glimpse of Louis,' who died at the Somme in 1916.
Once, she had a pelican figurehead in a heraldic carved style, but that has been lost to time.
Pictured: The Corpus Christi pelican emblem
Built in the Classical style, with distinctive oval windows, she was the last to be built, and is in fact a second iteration (the first was smaller and with fewer, much larger oval windows).
She is arguably the most beautifully proportioned — and she's still afloat. Help us keep her that way!
What Will It Cost?
Your donation helps fund:
- Tug transport downriver
- Crane hire
- Sandblasting & hull survey
- Steel re-plating & blacking
- Timber knee replacements
- Cabin & superstructure restoration
- Reproduction of balustrades, signage & figurehead
- Architectural drawings for records and future conservation
Your Support Matters
Every pound counts. With Gift Aid, your donation goes 20% further.
Your donation doesn’t just fund restoration — it unlocks further grants. Major heritage funders require evidence of community support and match funding. Every pound you give helps us access larger sums.
Help us reach £100,000 for 100 years — and keep the Corpus afloat into her second century.
What Will the Future Hold?
After restoration, we will maintain the barge as a residence. Experience has shown us that unless these barges are lived on, regularly maintained, kept an eye on, and kept warm and dry during the winter months, they are vulnerable to the ravages of time and vandalism. The rental income will continue to be used for her upkeep.
Our charitable mission also includes hosting regular open days for the public — a chance to step aboard this historic treasure:
“Beautiful old barge! Great to see the interior!”
“Fascinating! A hidden gem of Oxford!”
“My dad helped build this boat — wonderful to revisit.”
How You Can Help
You can support the Corpus Barge in several ways:
- Donate via this page — Gift Aid makes your gift go further
- Become a Friend of the OCBPT and join a growing community
- Volunteer your time or skills
- Become a Fundraiser: link your own sponsored activity to this page to help us raise funds and reach your own goal at the same time!
- Spread the word, especially to Corpus alumni, boat lovers, and Oxford enthusiasts.
Get Involved
Anyone can become a Friend of the OCBPT: a growing community of donors, alumni, heritage lovers, and river enthusiasts. Friends will be invited to annual events and kept up to date on progress.
And Yes — There Will Be a Party
If we hit our goal, we'll be hosting some proper barge parties! Supporters, Donors, Benefactors and Partners will be first on the guest list!
Please support our appeal today and play your part in preserving a unique piece of Oxford’s river heritage.
With thanks,
The Oxford College Barges Preservation Trust
www.oxfordcollegebargestrust.org.uk
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 21st August 2025 at 5:31pm