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Did
you know that..
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| Oxford's
Ashmolean Museum |
Oxford's Ashmolean Museum was the first museum in the world to be
opened to the public when it was officially opened in 1683 according
to the Guinness Book of Records.
The Museum of the History of Science in Broad Street claims to be
the first purpose-built museum in the world.
The Ashmolean Museum's treasures include Guy Fawkes' Lantern from
his doomed attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament.
If the thought of a museum makes your head shrink, get along to
the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford - it has several shrunken heads
already.
Check
out Bill Heine's Museum Tour.
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| Sir
Winston Churchill |
Alfred the Great was born in Wantage, Oxfordshire.
In 1154 Nicholas Brakespear, former rector of the tiny Oxford hamlet
of Binsey, became Hadrian IV, England's first and only Pope.
William Morris, the Arts & Crafts Movement designer and artist,
lived at Kelmscott Manor in Oxfordshire.
Artist
William Morris, leading light of the Arts & Crafts Movement,
lived at Kelmscott Manor in west Oxfordshire. His stained glass
can be seen in a number of churches round the county.
Sir Winston Churchill is buried at Bladon, near Woodstock. His ancester,
the 1st Duke of Marlborough, lived at Blenheim and was long regarded
as England's greatest military leader.
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| Jim
Carter as Oliver Cromwell |
The Bear Inn claims to be the oldest pub in Oxford, dating back
to 1242. It has a tremendous collection of snipped-off ties. Bereaved
owners are given a free pint.
Oliver Cromwell planned the Battle of Edgehill in the fine wood-panelled
Globe Room at the Olde Reindeer pub in Banbury. The panelling was
sold by the Hook Norton Brewery in 1912 but rediscovered in a London
warehouse and finally restored to the pub in 1981.
The Falkland Arms at Great Tew still sells its own clay pipes and
snuff (not to be used together).
Reproduction
of Aslan the lion from 'The Chronicles of Narnia' |
Oxfordshire is the only county in England with three Areas of Outstanding
Natural Beauty 聳 the North Wessex Downs, the Cotswolds and
the Chilterns.
Banbury cattle market was known as The Stockyard of Europe in its
heyday, but it closed in 1998. A monthly farmers' market continues
a centuries-old tradition of agricultural trade in the town.
The C S Lewis Nature Reserve at Headington is the woodland that
inspired the forests in The Chronicles of Narnia and Tolkien's Middle
Earth.
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| Abingdon |
Abingdon has two mayors. No, really - there's the council's mayor,
and there's the Mayor of Ock Street, probably the most significant
survivor of England's mock-mayors tradition. He is elected by people
who live and work in Ock Street and every June in "chaired"
between the many pubs in the road (most now closed, along with the
brewery).
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