The County of Oxfordshire

Oxford is so exceptional in so many ways that people overlook how beautiful and varied is the county it’s in, an undeniable advantag e over Cambridge. Oxfordshire is centred on the basin of the Thames and the four tributaries that feed it; the Evenlode, the Windrush, the Cherwell and the Thame. The Thames at Henley is almost a substitute for not having a coastline. With the popularity of boating, both social and sporting, this part of the county has places with a holiday resort feel accentuated by the number of cabin cruisers, ever more flash and comfortable.

It is at Goring that the river cuts through the chalk and the scenery is at its most spectacular as the Chilterns and Berkshire Downs rise on either side.

North is the Oxfordshire plain stretching past Banbury to the Midlands. In Banbury, the cross of the nursery rhyme was a victim of puritan fervour in 1602 and what you see is a Victorian replacement. Four miles SW is Broughton Castle, the opulent best of olde England, medieval and Elizabethan. Nearby is Broughton Grange, one of the great contemporary gardens of Britain, designed by the highly acclaimed Tom Stewart Smith: great swathes of strong colours flowing across an enormous plot.

To the east is the steep scarp of the Chilterns, an area of gently rolling hills, beech woods and picturesque villages of which Ewelme is the best. Near Chinnor, by Bledlow Ridge is the Sir Charles Napier, said to be the first gastropub and certainly a place in which it is a treat to eat. For those who like to see a country house, both Stonor and Mr Morris’s Nuffield Place offer very different experiences. Nearby Dorchester was once a capital of England and a cathedral city from 634- 707 but now it’s just a pleasant village with a huge abbey, site of the famous ‘Jesse’ window. If you are easily satisfied with the very best and sensible enough to understand why this is never cheap, then look no further than Great Milton ‘Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons. It shares The Good Food Guide’s top honours with only two other restaurants in Britain, and it is also a luxurious hotel in beautiful grounds.

People travel to distant lands for experiences inferior to this.

In the west the Cotswolds rise gently to their greater heights in Gloucestershire. Before that is Burford, a little gem of a busy town that is yet unspoilt. The High Street is lovely as it sweeps down to the bridge over the Windrush and along it are lots of good, independent shops without the familiar chains. Its most famous old inns, The Baytree and The Lamb are both almost a caricature of what is nicest about Olde England – especially the pub part of latter. Such a high overall quality of building testifies to Burford’s importance in the wool trade and its church is the finest in the county. One of its memorials depicts the Indian people of the New World – the first known example of this in Britain.

Two miles S of Burford on the A361 is the Cotswold Wildlife Park, 160 acres of animals; flamingos, lions pandas and rhinos for starters, birds, an adventure playground, a children’s farmyard and plenty of places for a picnic.

Some may also enjoy the world’s only museum of rowing. In Henley-on-Thames you can see it all from a Trireme of ancient Athens to the latest in Olympic competition. The River & Rowing Museum has a family ticket. Oxford Castle - Unlocked is a new chance to experience the gruesome gore of 1000 years of history and is an awarded attraction.

Woodstock, a small town on the edge of the Cotswolds, is the site of the greatest baroque palace in Britain – Blenheim Palace, built for the first Duke of Marlborough and the birthplace of Winston Churchill. Perhaps only two other houses in the country can begin to compete on grandeur and neither proclaims itself so boldly. The nation, grateful to the man who frustrated Louis XIV’s expansionist designs, paid for most, but not all, of the cost of this trumpet blast of British pride. The architects Vanbrugh and Hawksmoor were engaged in 1705 and it was 1719 before it was habitable. Later, in the 1760s Capability Brown did the park. The whole ensemble packs a considerable punch that makes day-to-day reality seem remote. If your stamina extends to at least one more house then Chastleton House near Moreton-in-Marsh is a 17th century jewel. The nearby village of Kingham has been voted their favourite in England by Country Life readers but this has more to do with quality of life than beauty.

Oxfordshire is blessed with some very good ale and the 150 year-old brewery at Hook Norton repays a visit: steam engine, shire horses, museum and drinks are all in the tour.

I have left to the last, the best: Oxford. Historically and architecturally, Britain’s second most interesting city, as well as the most famous university in the world and one of the oldest. All the colleges are of architectural importance. Some dispute whether University or Merton is the oldest but the deeply medieval Mob Quad in the latter is certainly the oldest actual building. Christchurch is the largest and Magdalen the loveliest. This last alone would be worth visiting England to see.

The two great views of Oxford are from Boar’s Hill, the ‘dreaming spires’ are as from an old print. Then from the top of the Sheldonian Theatre, the domes and spires and towers and pinnacles enchant. From the end of the High Street, you see the majestic curve of colleges that forms ‘Europe’s loveliest street’.

The Ashmolean Museum could claim to be the oldest museum in the world as only the Louvre and the Vatican are older but not as long open to the general public. It is a museum of the first rank and contains such diverse objects as King Alfred’s Jewel, Ucello’s Hunt at Night and Millais’ pre-raphaelite painting of the young Jesus in his father’s carpentry shop. In Oxford itself it is but one of six very fine museums. In matters of accommodation and refreshment, there is the quality you would expect.

This wholly exceptional city must be visited, you will be happier for it.

Ross Harvey