Sandford to join the battle of Cropredy. Within living memory there was still a ferry (later a toll bridge) at the King's Arms public house by the river taking traffic, including horses and carts, over the river to Abingdon, once the county town of Berkshire. An ancient mounting block can still be seen on the western river bank just below the lock, which travellers would have used to remount their horses having crossed the river on foot. In his book Three Men in a Boat, Jerome K. Jerome described the pool under Sandford lasher as "a very good place to drown yourself in". The watercourse behind the lock-keeper's house (dated 1914) flows from the "big lasher" weir which creates strong currents and eddies. In spite of the danger, this was a favourite swimming place up to the mid-20th century. In 1921 the river here claimed the lives of three Christ Church students, including Michael Llewelyn Davies, the adopted son of J. M. Barrie, who was the inspiration for Peter Pan. An obelisk that has stood here since at least 1821 records the deaths of six Christ Church students who drowned here in three separate incidents between 1843 and 1921. Even into the 1950s the river at Sandford-on-Thames was still regarded as a place to come and relax. On Sundays people came from Oxford to swim at The Lido below the lock and to picnic. The King's Arms had extensive tea-lawns on which to spend lazy Sunday afternoons. The first lock at Sandford was the navigation weir or flash lock situated on the old river channel at the site of the lasher today. This was described in 1624 as "Great Lockes" and was replaced in about 1632 by one of the first pound locks to be built in England. Iffley, Sandford and Culham locks were built by the Oxford-Burcot Commission following the Parliament Act of 1623. The old lock has since been filled in but its position can still be seen (the position of the upper gates can be seen in the stonework above the present upper gates). A new lock on the present site was opened in 1836 which lasted until the most recent improvements when the present lock was built in 1972. Littlemore Brook joins the River Thames near Sandford-on-Thames. Farms The Knights Templar name lived on until recently in Temple Farm, which was acquired by Magdalen College, Oxford