All swimming spots › Oxford, England
Can I swim at Wolvercote Mill Stream?
Oxford, England · River
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Before you get in
Inland water is cold all year, and there are no lifeguards here.
If you get into trouble, float on your back until the cold shock passes. Full advice below.
In an emergency call 999, or 112 in the Republic of Ireland.
Water quality today
The last fortnight
What this verdict covers
Independent site, not an official one. This verdict is about water quality. It does not tell you whether the water is safe to get into today.
How it has been rated
The annual classification for 2022 to 2025. Each one is calculated from samples taken over up to four bathing seasons, so these overlap and none of them describes today.
Every sample, 2024 to 2026
45 samples, 2024 to 2026. The highest E. coli count in them was 1,700 per 100ml, on 3 September 2025; the standard for Excellent is 500 or below and for Good 1,000 or below.
One bar for each sample, oldest on the left. The taller the bar, the more E. coli that bottle held.
The scale is the same on every beach on this site, which is why a clean beach looks flat — the bars are measured against the standard rather than against that beach’s own worst day. Hover or tap a bar for that day’s figures. A single count over a line is not a failed beach. The classification is worked out as the 90th and 95th percentile of four years of samples, so one bad morning does not decide it — and one good morning does not either. 2 of these are above the Good standard, so they are pinned to the top with a notch rather than the chart stretching to fit them.
What these bacteria mean for you
Neither one is what makes people ill by itself. They are markers: they live in the gut, so finding them means sewage or animal waste has reached the water, and whatever else came with it is likely there too.
The usual way to catch something is swallowing the water, and the usual result is a stomach upset. Ear, eye, chest and skin infections are the other common ones. Putting your head under and swimming with an open cut both raise the odds.
The riskiest time is the day or two after heavy rain, when storm overflows discharge and rain washes off farmland — including at beaches rated Excellent for the rest of the season. That is the whole reason this page shows you rainfall and discharges alongside the grade.
Wolvercote Mill Stream was rated Poor for 2025, below the minimum standard, based on samples taken across recent seasons. That grade comes from bacterial samples taken over several seasons rather than from the water today — but a Poor rating does not only describe the past. Advice against bathing is posted at a Poor bathing water for the whole season, which is why it sets the verdict at the top of this page every day until the season closes.
The Environment Agency issues a pollution risk forecast each morning during the bathing season for nearly every bathing water in England, and the water company publishes the status of its storm overflows every few minutes.
The rest of its file
What the regulator holds for this place. None of it describes the water today.
- Water
- River
- Area
- Oxford, England
- Monitored outfalls within 5km
- 3 (nearest 2.3km)
Wind, water and weather
The weather here today and for the week ahead. Not the water quality verdict above.
Today
Rain, the week behind and ahead
The weather for the week ahead
Water temperature
There is no water temperature for this place, and no honest way to give one. Nobody publishes a live temperature for Britain and Ireland’s rivers and lakes: SEPA and Natural Resources Wales measure none at all, and the satellite products that cover lakes do not include this one and run weeks behind.
Air temperature is not a substitute. Inland water stays cold through the summer, and it is coldest relative to the air on the warm still days when most people get in. The RNLI says inland water like lakes, rivers, lochs and reservoirs can be colder than the sea, even in summer, and it defines cold water as anything below 15°C. Cold water can seriously affect your breathing and your ability to move. Treat this water as cold, get in slowly, and know how to float.
Where it is, and what discharges near it
Directions to this bathing water
That is the Environment Agency’s sampling point, which is at the water rather than at a car park. Your maps app will take you to the nearest road it can reach.
The nearest mapped car park is about 80m away in a straight line. That is not a walking distance: OpenStreetMap knows where the car park is and nothing about the path, which may be longer, steeper or not there at all. It is tagged as free, as the mappers wrote it.
What is mapped at this beach
- Toilets about 110m away — free, step-free
- Drinking water about 230m away
- The Mill Cafe about 380m away
Straight-line distances from OpenStreetMap, not walking distances, and only what volunteers have mapped — something missing here may still be there.
Getting here without a car
- Nearest bus stop Home Close (opp), Godstow Road, about 430m away
- Nearest railway station Oxford Parkway Rail Station, 3.0 km away
Straight-line distances to where the stop or station is, from the national registers of them. That a stop exists is not a promise that a bus calls at it — timetables are somebody else’s data and this page does not read them, so check the operator before you rely on it.
The record since 2022
In 2025, the 1 monitored overflow the Environment Agency lists against this bathing water spilled 0 times, for about 0 hours in total. Over the 2025 bathing season alone, 1 May to 30 September, 0 of those spills happened.
- 2022274 spills · 3,818 hours
- 2023729 spills · 12,768 hours
- 2024866 spills · 15,444 hours
- 20250 spills · 0 hours
These are annual totals for the whole year, not readings from today — today’s answer is the verdict at the top of the page. Figures come from the Environment Agency’s Event Duration Monitoring annual returns, which the water companies submit and the EA publishes, and the EA decides which overflows count as belonging to this bathing water.
What the regulator says about this swimming spot
From the Environment Agency’s published bathing water profile for 2026. It describes the place and its catchment, not today’s water.
The place itself
Wolvercote Mill Stream is a branch of the River Thames that runs between King's Lock and Godstow Lock at North Oxford. The bathing water site is located in the northeast corner of Port Meadow, immediately downstream of Wolvercote Bridge. Access to the swimming area is via the Wolvercote car park. The site is around 1 mile north of Oxford City Centre and can be easily accessed by foot or bicycle.
What drains into it
The River Thames originates in the Cotswolds, where it begins as a groundwater fed small stream. As it makes its way toward Oxford, the river gradually widens, deepens, and gains flow from tributaries such as the Churn, Coln, Windrush, and Evenlode. Their influence, and the management of the river for navigation by locks and weirs, transforms the narrow headwater channel into a slower moving lowland river.This catchment is generally sparsely populated, characterised by small villages and market towns across a predominantly agricultural landscape, with Cirencester and Swindon being the principal urban centres.
More from the profile
Where the sewage works discharges
The closest sewage company discharge to Wolvercote Mill Stream is Cassington Sewage Treatment Works, which is around 4km upstream the bathing site. As part of WINEP, Thames Water is in the process of installing UV disinfection to the treated effluent.
What has been done about it
The Environment Agency works closely with Thames Water to identify sources of faecal pollution and deliver significant investment in sewerage infrastructure.
What the samplers see at the water
Environment Agency samplers make observations of litter present on the beach at every visit, this includes assessments of sewage debris, litter and tar. At Wolvercote Mill Stream for the four year (2022-2025) assessment period where data is available, sewage debris was not noted at this site. Litter was assessed as being sufficient to be objectionable for 9% of visits, with 50% of visits noting the presence of litter. Tarry residue was not assessed as being sufficient to be objectionable, but was observed as being present on 6% of visits.
Published by the Environment Agency under the Open Government Licence. The full profile carries more, including sections repeated for every beach that are not reproduced here.
Other swimming spots nearby
The closest bathing waters on the regulators’ lists, straight-line distance. Each has its own checks and its own verdict.
Check the official source
The regulator’s own page for this bathing water. If it disagrees with this one, believe theirs.
Wolvercote Mill Stream's official page at the Environment Agency · See it on a map
This page is not official. It reads published data and presents it plainly; if a sign at the water says otherwise, believe the sign.
If you get into trouble
This is the RNLI’s advice, not ours.
Float. Tilt your head back with your ears in the water. Relax and let your breathing settle. Move your hands and legs gently to stay level. Your legs may sink, and that is fine, everyone floats differently. The first shock of cold water passes in less than a minute, so do not try to swim straight away. Once it has passed, call for help or swim to safety.
In an emergency call 999 and ask for the fire service, or for the Coastguard at a tidal river. In the Republic of Ireland call 112 or 999.
Inland water has its own hazards and none of them are visible from the bank. The bottom shelves away without warning, weeds and submerged branches catch legs, and a river runs faster and colder after rain than it looks from the side. There are no lifeguards and no flags at almost every place on this list.
Never jump in. You cannot see what is under the surface, and the cold on entry is what causes the gasp, not the depth.
This advice is the RNLI’s. Their Float to Live pages are worth two minutes of anyone’s time.
Use this page elsewhere
One sheet of A4 with a QR code to this page, for a clubhouse, a campsite reception, a surf school or a harbour office. The address is printed underneath in words, so it still works for anybody who would rather not scan a code.
Print a sign for Wolvercote Mill StreamOr put today’s verdict on your own site.
Put this swimming spot on your own site
A small card showing today’s verdict for Wolvercote Mill Stream, updating itself. Paste this where you want it to appear. It loads nothing of yours and sets no cookies, and it costs your visitors about ten kilobytes, most of it the readings themselves.
Click the box to select it all. There is also a feed for this swimming spot, if you would rather be told than have to look.