Alongside the Thames runs a towpath, which was used by horses to pull barges carrying freight along
the waterways. The Thames was connected to an extensive network of canals and rivers, and Abingdon was
a key link between such places as Bristol, London, Birmingham and the Black Country - a major industrial
centre in the Midlands, which got its name in the mid nineteenth century from the smoke from the many
thousands of ironworking foundries and forges and also from coal mining in the region.
Canal and river freight disappeared with the introduction of the railways.