A spicy mix of Oxford stories from a house once belonging to a city sausage maker.
Once upon a time there was a sad, unloved, alleyway. It was overgrown with weeds and brambles. And strewn with cans and broken bottles. Shopping trolleys, mattresses and building rubble…
I cannot count the number of times I have been inside the Oxford University Natural History Museum. A short walk from my home, I come to marvel at its glorious…
Despite its pretty 15th century Oxford shop front, most passers by will not give number 130 High Street a second glance. But down past an ancient oak gateway to the…
Imagine if you could design your own currency. Decide on an image to represent you, pop in your initials, a date and a pretty border, make the die, and then…
It is easy to miss Annora’s grave. For she is buried under a moss covered stone slab lying flat on the ground, close up against the south wall of the…
Peter Forbes, has been setting up at Gloucester Green market since six thirty in the morning when I arrive at nine. You can’t miss him. “I’ve got the best pitch,”…
Antonia Hockton has been coming to New College in Oxford twice a year for the past 26 years. She arrives as the students leave, for the long vacation. For this…
Exactly this time last year my neighbour and go-to flora and fauna guru Beatrice Groves took me to the Lye Valley in search of the elusive flower, the Grass of…
The weather has perked up, the sun is out, and so what better than to take a walk along the river for a drink at the Perch Inn on Port…
The date is 30 June 1860. The location is the new University Museum (now the Oxford University Museum of Natural History). Upwards of 500 people have squashed into the first…