Oxford: A Potted History by retired clergyman David Meara offers an accessible history of Oxford from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day highlighting the city’s significant events and people.
Oxford’s history begins with the story of a king’s daughter, Frideswide, who founded a nunnery in the meadows where the River Thames and River Cherwell meet. A settlement grew up around her shrine, which was built on the site of the present cathedral and it was also a good place for cattle to cross, hence the name “Ox-Ford”.
A Norman castle built after the Conquest, and students were first attracted there in the reign of Henry I. The town and university continued to grow through the ravages of the Black Death, and in the Civil War became the home of Charles I’s royal court. The pioneering Radcliffe Observatory was built in the 18th century and railway network, printing and publishing, car manufacturing and brewing among other industries, and suburbs were built to house the working population.
Today, alongside its universities, its role as a technological and medical hub is demonstrated by its development of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, but it is also home to the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, founded in 1942, which opened its first Oxfam shop in 1949. The shop is still there on Broad Street today.
This book will look back over the centuries to uncover the fascinating history of the city. This accessible historical portrait of the transformation that Oxford has undergone through the ages will be of great interest to residents, visitors and all those with links to the city.
David Meara is a retired Church of England clergyman who worked in the Oxford Diocese for 27 years, and then served as Rector of St. Bride’s Fleet Street and Archdeacon of London until 2014. He has made a lifetime study of Church movements and brasses and has published extensively on the subject.
He has published on a range of topics, including Anglo-Scottish sleeper trains and the scuttling of German ships at Scapa Flow. His father-in-law fought in Burma in the Second World War.
Oxford A Potted History, £15.99, ISBN: 9871398116801 https://www.amberley-books.com/oxford-a-potted-history.html
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