Sidewalks, Pavements, Footpaths

I did not do anything touristy this week end.  I am saving my energy to stay up overnight on Tuesday to see the returns come in.  I did bring treats for the Friday afternoon tea at the office. In honor of Halloween, I told the story about the Golden Arm.  I am not a very good story teller, but my colleagues enjoyed the experience.

But I thought you would still like to see something of Oxford.  So I have developed a photo essay of sidewalks or pavements as they are called here. 

Another word that is used in Britain is footpath.  I have seen it on barricades telling pedestrians that the footpath is open during construction.  More often the word is used in a more technical manner, meaning a path from one place to another that is open to the public by virtue of it having been walked on by the public for a set period of time.  One of colleges closes for one day each year so that its grounds will not be deemed public footpaths.  The path which this sign indicates runs from near my house to Port Meadow, part of which is called Wolvercote Common.

The regular pavements that run along each side of a city street are usually quite narrow,

except when they are very wide like these that along the main shopping district.   As you can see, construction is is going on here.  Rather than a couple of guys with a truck of concrete, here the city employs at least half dozen men laying down a bed of sand, leveling it, and placing the paving stone evenly, cutting them to fit.  More labor intensive than in the US, but a beautiful result.

More often the pavements are an amalgam of overlapping asphalt.  When the neighborhood needs a new wire put in under the pavement, the workers cut a narrow trench down the middle, place the wire in and put more asphalt, resulting in something like this.

Walking through Magdalen College, where S. C. Lewis taught, is a memorable experience.  For one thing, the covered walkway was paved with stones that were not entirely even to begin with and have become more so over the years since they were put in in 1474.

Behind the Sheldonian in the center of Oxford, you can find this example of a cobblestone walk.  I found it incredibly difficult to walk on and this is a relatively even pathway.  If it were worn unevenly, it would have been worse.

Some of the pavements are even paved with wooden blocks.  This example can be walked on at Blenheim Palace.  I was intrigued to see the actual tree rings in the paving blocks.

All in all I have enjoyed walking the pavements of Oxford and environs.  Next week I will tell you about my experience of watching the president being elected.  I will be watching with other ex-pats and local Oxford students at the Oxford Union Society.