There's something "wrong" with this towpath

I was interested to see the cattle coming up to the water's edge on the Oxford Canal at Somerton, and it took me a few moments to realise what was different from normal.


This was the towpath side - and there was no hedge. There must be very few lengths of canal without some sort of towpath boundary, and, from the evidence of my own travels, it is usually a hedge. (The photo is taken looking back towards Somerton Bridge 196.)

15 minutes earlier the low autumn sunshine was giving a warm glow to the scene at Meadlands Bridge 195.