Wolvercote Walk

Wolvercote is a small village three mile from the center of Oxford.  It was incorporated into the city of Oxford in about 1930.  You enter the village from Woodstock Road at First Turn, taking a bridge across the railway tracks.

Continuing

 down the road

 is the local primary

 school established in 1814.

Across the street is the church, with a cemetery in the church yard.  The interior shows evidence of the rebuilding of the church in the 19th century.  The baptismal font was a part of the original church, from the 14th century.

Continuing down the road, you come to the convenience store in upper Wolvercote which includes a post office. The store is closed because I took this picture on Sunday.  Convenience means

 that it is opened after 5:30 a couple days a week.

Further down the hill is the one of three pubs in the village, the Plough.

The next feature of note is the canal, used until the mid 1800s when the railroads came through.  Today it is used as a tourist attraction with a number house boats, some of which are for rent.  

A real house boat, with a garden on the roof.

 A boat going through a small lock.

Coming up from the canal, we go through the business district of Lower Wolvercote.  This is the convenience store that I frequent.  The proprietor is a congenial person who already knows what my favorite candy bar is.

Continuing down Godstow Road, we pass a number of homes 

 the Baptist Church

go over the Mill Stream and pass the sheep pasture.

At the outskirts of Wolvercote, we arrive at the 

Trout Inn.  This is a popular setting for 

the Inspector Morse series.

Further down the road are the ruins of the Wovercote Nunnery, founded in 1139.  During the British Civil War, Crowmwell used the buildings as his headquarters. This area was the chapel.

 

On the way home we pass a community orchard.  The heritage apples are sold during a fall festival to finance the orchard.

 

Next to the orchard are the community garden plots

 or allotments as they are known here.

We return to the business area of Lower Wolvercote,  with  two pubs

                                                    and the village playground.

Down the block is the Chinese fish and chips shop.  My house is up the block from here.

Eccentric Walk of Oxford

This weekend I went on an Eccentric Walk of Oxford.  This is St. John's college, the only college not established by a person of noble birth or a cleric.  The founder was a tailor. He named the college after St John, the patron saint of tailors.  Interestingly, St. John's is said to be the riches college of the 39 colleges in Oxford.  

This is the court yard of St. John's. It was patterned after an Italian    foundling home.  Tony Blair was a student here and smoked his last cigaret outside the chapel. His wife would only marry him if he quit and he had one last smoke just before the wedding.

This is building that originally housed the Ashmolean Museum. At that time the collection included natural history material such as the last stuffed Dodo bird.  It was burned as trash by a hapless employee.  The basement of the building was the chemistry lab for Oxford colleges from 1635 to 1860.  It has a domed ceiling to contain any explosion that might have taken place. Currently the Museum of the History of Science uses the building. That collection includes a blackboard on which Einstein wrote one of his equations.

This is the Radcliffe Camera (Latin for chamber) where all Oxford students have their orientation and from where they graduate. The building to the left housed the university woman's jail in the 1800s.  The women were, of course, prostitutes who were in the area because the colleges were all male and the faculty was required to be celibate, or at least not married.  The police training manual indicated that one could tell a prostitute because she would be walking alone, after nine in the evening and without a hat.  To which I commented, "So that's why the Queen always wears a hat."  A German who was on the tour commented that it was evident that I was an American, because a Brit would not be so disrespectful as to associate the Queen with prostitution. 

These are the spires of All Souls College, a research college. There are no undergraduates here.  Scholars have research grants for up to five years. T.E. Lawrence wrote Seven Pillars of Wisdom while a fellow at this college.  The college is also known for its Mallard Dinner.

There are many other eccentric bits of information about Oxford, but the tour was only five pounds and I am satisfied that I got my money's worth.

Blenheim Palace

A couple of Saturdays ago, I visited Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Winston Churchill.  Churchill's birth at the palace was a fluke.  His father was the younger son, not the Earl.  The Churchill's were visiting and Winston was born early.

Visitors are not allowed to take photos of the interior of the palace.  You can see some images a their website.

My impression of the place was that it is a museum.  To think that someone actually lives there, as the 11th Earl of Marlborough does, is bewildering.  I have worked hard to downsize my living situation, and here is someone who has responsibility for priceless works of art in his home.

In Notes from a Small Island, Bill Bryson wrote that he thought the Earl of Marlborough was tacky to open his home to tourists and even more tacky to have a small train running from the palace to the pleasure gardens.  I found the train a welcomed convenience.  The day was warm and the distance far enough that I really appreciated being able to ride a miniature train which was not nearly as tacky as it could have been.  The driver wore a white shirt and tie, not overalls and bandana as would have been the case in the States.  What I did find tacky was that the only way out of the palace was through the gift shop.

 

When I read Bryson's comments on the palace, I thought that the pleasure garden was well appointed rural setting made available to palace elite for romantic trysts.  I really was surprised when I realized that it was an area of oversized games and a large maze.  

I really wanted to do the maze.  It included two towers from 

which the maze goer could see the solution. I looked forward to solve the puzzle.  So I entered the maze ready to conquer this puzzle as I did the many sudoku I've solve. 

However, after spending a few minutes between tall hedges, my claustrophobia got the best of me and I had to make my way back to the beginning.

Then I went on to enjoy the lavender garden, 

the Butterfly House

and walked out through the gates of the palace and headed for home.