• Sarah Cooper and her jars of sunshine

    One of the regular activities that perks me up as I claw my way through dull grey January is marmalade making. A couple of weeks into the New Year, crates of the bitter Seville oranges needed in its production (smaller and more pitted than their sweeter counterparts) being to appear in the shops. They are available for a short period only, a couple of weeks if you are lucky. So as Oxford is a city of marmalade eaters you must be quick to secure your basketful of Spanish sunshine, sufficient to fill enough jars to last a good way into the coming year.

    January 17, 2026
    Trade and Industry

  • At the Elijah Terrace with Cordelia

    Just before Christmas I get a call from my friend Cordelia. She asks if I’d be interested in meeting her by what is affectionately known as the Elijah Terrace on Walton Well Road just north of Jericho. For she wants to explore the story of the Old Testament prophet as told in the magnificent stone carvings that decorate in exquisite detail the lunettes above nine of the first-floor windows here. It is from these that this row of houses has derived its nickname. 

    January 10, 2026
    Angels & other flying things, Builders and buildings, Trade and Industry

  • Elizabeth Jennings Way

    It was on the way to have lunch with a friend last week in Summertown that I first encounter the name Elizabeth Jennings. I’d decided to take the scenic route north out of the city along the Oxford Canal. Starting at Hythe Bridge, over Isis Lock, under Walton Well, Aristotle Lane and Frenchay Road Bridges, and then just at the point at which I need to peel off to reach my destination there it is; Elizabeth Jennings Way Bridge, the painted words on the arches of its underbelly part of a fun folk-artsy mural portraying the story of the neighbourhood.

    January 3, 2026
    Books and book folk

  • Farewell Simon Murison-Bowie, photographer 1940 – 2025

    In between showers I cycled over Magdalen Bridge to East Oxford to meet with photographer Simon Murison-Bowie. He’s written a book in which he explores some of the very first photographs taken of Oxford, back in the 1840’s. What were the images of? From what vantage points are they taken? At what time of day and year? Might it be possible if he were able to find the exact same spot, to make the same composition with his own camera? Or has too much of our cityscape changed over the last 180 years or so? It all sounded right up my street.

    December 27, 2025
    In memoriam

  • The Marvellous Mary Murals at Campion Hall

    Once inside you are immediately transported into a painted ivy clad walled garden, set in the English countryside with summer skies and well-tended flowerbeds. The architecture of the windows, doors and vaulted ceiling are cleverly incorporated into the pictorial rich scheme, white arched recesses framing the colourful narrative of Mary’s life. Here is portrayed her birth to elderly parents, her betrothal to Joseph, the Annunciation, the Nativity, as well as the family’s flight to Egypt, her crowning as Queen of Mercy, and her Dormition, the ‘falling asleep’ or leaving of her earthly life. 

    December 20, 2025
    Angels & other flying things, Arts and crafts, Feasts & festivities

  • A magical mistletoe tour from Magdalen College to Music Meadow

    It’s at this dead time of year that the stuff becomes suddenly visible. When the leaves have fallen from the trees, revealing what appear to be giant birds’ nests perched amongst the fragile beauty of the bare winter branches. But these hanging baskets of vibrant green foliage are in fact huge balls of mistletoe. Magically, mysteriously, bearing fruit even through the shortest and darkest days of the year.

    December 13, 2025
    Feasts & festivities, Flora and fauna

  • Hunting for Beaumont Palace

    Down I go and on reaching ground level it becomes clear exactly what it is that I have just traversed. A high wall of roughly hewn field stone. Not grand by any means. But exciting nonetheless. For this was once the western boundary of a royal palace. The curtilage wall for the King’s Houses or Beaumont Palace as it became known. Built around 900 years ago in the 1130’s for William the Conqueror’s youngest son Henry I. And as I was on a mission to uncover anything that might remain of this royal residence I was absolutely delighted. 

    November 29, 2025
    Builders and buildings
  • the crooked house

    Kybald Twychen

    I have long been intrigued by the pretty gabled house that stands in a quiet cul de sac near Oxford’s High Street. For it is a miracle as to how the place stays upright. The walls sag, the windows are wonky and the drainpipes don’t quite run in straight lines. I often wonder whether the Corpus Christi students who now live here negotiate the lopsided landings and how they keep their books and belongs from sliding from the sloping shelves.

    November 16, 2025
    Builders and buildings

  • The Vacant Chair

    The photograph above shows the latest cohort of undergraduates coming to study at Hertford College, Oxford. It is taken on the west side of the Old Buildings Quadrangle – you can just glimpse the corner of the famous stone spiral staircase that leads up to the dining hall on the left. But this is 1919, one year after the end of the Great War. Some of the men smile but the general air is one of pensive seriousness. Look closely and one man wears a black armband. And there’s a vacant seat in the middle.

    November 8, 2025
    In memoriam