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OXFORDSHIRE DID YOU KNOW?

The Royal Connection

During the English Civil War, between 1642-46, Oxford was, for a time, an important city. When the war started the King, Charles I, left London and moved north. He moved around for a bit and then, after The Battle of Edgehill on 23rd October 1642, he was forced to withdraw to Oxford.

For 1643 Charles decided to use Oxfordshire as his stronghold from which he could ride out with his army in all directions. In the early part of 1643 there were attempts to negotiate a truce and the intended treaty was known as the Treaty of Oxford. However our picture shows Charles refusing to sign it so the war continued. Charles remained based in Oxfordshire with main camps at Newbury and Donnington as well as within the city itself. In 1645 Oliver Cromwell and his New Model Army were on the warpath. He and a fellow Parliamentarian leader, Fairfax, decided to besiege Oxford shortly after Charles left to head north. Charles then turned back to relieve the city.

By 1646 it was all over. and the Battle of Stow-on-the-Wold on the 21st March 1646 was the final battle of the First English Civil War. On the 9th May Banbury, and its cakes (see next section) surrendered and on 24th June Oxford followed. The King meanwhile, knowing he was outnumbered fled the city and gave himself up to a Scottish Army, who handed him over to Cromwell.

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Oxfordshire Eats

Banbury is a small town in Oxfordshire and since about 1586 has been the home to the Banbury Cake. In olden days the cakes were made and sold only in Banbury but then they began to be sent to other places. The cake is an oval shaped spiced currant filled pastry. Besides currants the filling can include mixed peel, brown sugar, rum and nutmeg.

The original recipe also may have included flavourings such as musk and rosewater and were a great favourite of Queen Victoria. Each summer when she travelled from her favourite home at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight to Balmoral Castle in Scotland she would be presented with some Banbury Cakes for her journey.

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Oxfordshire VIPs

Seven random people who were born in Oxfordshire in the last 100 years:-
Stephen Hawking (Physicist), Hugh Laurie (Actor), Charlotte Johnson Wahl (Mother of Boris Johnson - bet you didn't know that), Miriam Margoles (Actress), Yasmin Le Bon (Model), Sophie, Countess of Wessex (Member of the Royal Family) amd David Oyelowo (Actor).

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Richard Remembers

Nowadays, if I drive the M40 which I have done a few times recently, I will go through Oxfordshire but not into the city of Oxford. In fact the first, and so far only, time I went to Oxford was sometime in 1971. I had worked with someone who was earning some money by doing a gap year at the company I worked at and, after she left and went on to university at Oxford, she invited me to come down and see her one Friday night. If memory serves I left London about 5pm and returned home by midnight. It was a short visit.

There are two things that stick in my memory. First the architecture of Oxford. It is known as the city of dreaming spires and almost all the colleges seemed to have buildings with spires. It was aptly named in my view. The other thing, as we walked around, was the structure of the college system. Most colleges we passed had gates and a grass area inside with the college buildings all around this green space. It was also very formal. I remember that Jan, the student, had to ask the gatekeeper to allow us in, I was there with my fiancee, and we actually had to sign a register. Is it still like that now?

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Owlbut's Birdwatch

I'm hoping that when you find out about my feathered friends you might decide to go out and try to spot some. This week it is the woodlark and to be honest you might find it difficult to spot even one. It is quite a secretive bird. It is about 15cm long, has a wingspan of nearly 30cm and weighs about 30g.

It is stripy brown with a white eyesstripe and a spikey crest on its head. It has a short tail. It makes its nest on the ground, sometimes digging out a little hollow. It feeds on insects and seeds. It likes dry places with short grass. It breeds all over Eastern and Southern England.

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Two extra sections, "It Happened Here" and "Now That's Weird", will appear on 13 January 2025