Wednesday 17th August Oxford - 2022

 After a good nights sleep and a great breakfast, we caught the local bus into the centre of Oxford, which was about a 10 min journey.  The bus driver was really helpful, although a little hard to understand.  He explained that the Hotel in front of us, The Randolph, was featured in the TV Detective series Inspector Morse.

Across the road from the Randolph Hotel was the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, which had some remarkable things to see, including mummies of adults and children

The Ram was carved out of granite and was from 680BC

There was a model of a Neolithic Alpine Lakeside Village from 5000years ago

A beautiful Mughal Carpet 

and lots of absolutely gorgeous ceramics

 

As we only had this 1 day in Oxford we decided the best way to get an overview of the town was to do the Hop On Hop Off Bus. 

St George's Tower is a piece of surviving stone architecture from the conquest period, and was probably the earliest stone building in the castle. The Castle mound is also in the Castle grounds.

Alice's Shop has existed since the Victorian Era, and one of it's customers was Alice

Liddell, the daughter of the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, who used to buy sweets at the shop and was the inspiration for Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.  

                                 

     .                Alice's shop is directly opposite Christ Church, which is one of the largest colleges of Oxford University. It is famous for its connection to  two fictional characters, Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll and Harry Potter, Hogwarts was based on Christ Church Hall.

Photos in the ground of Christ Church

The Eagle and the Child is a pub, nicknamed the Bird and the Baby, and it is reported that The Inklings, which was an Oxford writers group which included C S Lewis, J R R Tolkien, would meet and discuss their manuscripts.

The Martyr's Memorial is a stone monument in Oxford, which commemorates The Bishop of Worcester, Hugh Latimer, and the Bishop of London, Nicholas Ridley, who were burned at the stake nearby on 16th October 1555, after being convicted for heresy because of their Protestant beliefs.  It also commemorates the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, who was similarly executed on 21st March 1556.

The following photos are just some of the sites around Oxford and the various Colleges