Located just an hour northwest of London, Oxfordshire is a region replete with picturesque villages, cosy pubs, churches and thatched cottages, with the river Thames running through. Its perhaps the part of England that most resembles visitor’s imaginations – quaint yet full of life.
The ancient college buildings and calm meadowlands running alongside the River Thames have inspired the world’s most beloved stories, from Alice in Wonderland and The Wind in the Willows to the Lord of The Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia.
Christ Church is probably the most magnificent of Oxford’s 38 colleges. Founded by King Henry VIII and built to a palatial scale, the college’s buildings have been the backdrop to countless films – including the Harry Potter and X-Men series. The college boasts a rich history of its own – the training ground for 13 British Prime Ministers and two Kings, as well as the being seat of King Charles I’s parliament during the English Civil War.
Perhaps most famously of all, the ‘real’ Alice lived at Christ Church, where Lewis Carroll taught, and told her stories of Wonderland.
The City of Oxford and its university are twin marvels with a history stretching back more than 1000 years.
Oxford’s skyline, which inspired its moniker ‘the City of Dreaming Spires’ is world famous for its hundreds of intricately pinnacled roofs to be seen all around.
As well as being a centre of radical thought, Oxford has often been a city on the edge.
When founded, it was a walled city, marking the border between the fierce Vikings to the north, and the Saxon resistance to the south.
500 years later it saw some of the fiercest fighting of the English Civil War and served as the King’s capital while the parliamentarians-controlled London.
