Camping above Sandford Lock, 01865 244088
Kings Arms, Sandford, RIGHT bank immediately above lock. Good moorings for customers.

1906: G.E.Mitton -

and then we come to Sandford itself, with charms almost as great as, though entirely different from, those of Iffley.
The approach is disappointing. The tall mill chimney and the new brick houses are bare and ugly. The mill is a paper mill, and supplies the Clarendon Press.
It stands close to the old-fashioned and pretty hotel, so completely ivy-covered that even one of the tall chimneys is quite overgrown. When close to the lock the mill is not noticeable and has the advantage of affording some shelter.

heigh-ho for the King's Arms Hotel at Sandford,
and a cup of the good hot tea that the landlady knows so well how to make!

1821: The Oxford university and city guide -

On the river, between Iffley and Nuneham, is a pleasant and much frequented house of entertainment for water parties; where fish dinners are provided at a short notice. It is situated in the village of Sandford ...

Kings Arms,Sandford Mill from "Pleasant Spots around Oxford", Alfred Rimmer, 1878

Kings Arms,Sandford Mill and Sandford Lock lantern slide 1883-1906, W.C.Hughes, research by Dr Wilson, courtesy of Pat Furley

Postcard 1900s: Kings Arms

King's Arms Hotel Advertisement

King's Arms Hotel, Henry Taunt, 1904
© Oxfordshire County Council Photographic Archive; HT9204

The Kings Arms, Sandford, 1906, Mortimer Menpes

1955: The King's Arms, Sandford, Francis Frith

From 'The Burden Of Itys', Oscar Wilde
Listen to 'The Burden Of Itys'

Of the lone Farm a flickering light shines out
Where the swinked shepherd drives his bleating flock
Back to their wattled sheep-cotes, a faint shout
Comes from some Oxford boat at Sandford lock,
And starts the moor-hen from the sedgy rill,
And the dim lengthening shadows flit like swallows up the hill.

It was a dream, the glade is tenantless,
No soft Ionian laughter moves the air,
The Thames creeps on in sluggish leadenness,
And from the copse left desolate and bare
Fled is young Bacchus with his revelry,
Yet still from Nuneham wood there comes that thrilling melody
 
So sad, that one might think a human heart
Brake in each separate note, a quality
Which music sometimes has, being the Art
Which is most nigh to tears and memory;
Poor mourning Philomel, what dost thou fear?
Thy sister doth not haunt these fields, Pandion is not here,
 
And far away across the lengthening wold,
Across the willowy flats and thickets brown,
Magdalen's tall tower tipped with tremulous gold
Marks the long High Street of the little town,
And warns me to return; I must not wait,
Hark! 't is the curfew booming from the bell at Christ Church gate.

Above the Kings Arms and Sandford Lock and Mill we are on the mill stream (lock stream) on the RIGHT bank with the bulk of the river below us on the LEFT bank.

Fiddler's Elbow

The bend on the weir stream just above above Sandford Lock
No access for boats