A ramble in the country -- Oxford

Perhaps I exaggerate a little to call Oxford "the country". But I did have to transfer at Reading from a metropolitan train to a diesel electric, so if that's not a sign of countryness...

Heading for Reading...

and there.

Rachel and Cam had told me to catch the train to Victoria Station and get the bus from there; a wise elderly Indian at Twickenham assured me that the train would get me right there, and he was right.

As an Oxford means, of course, a place where oxen cross a river, it makes sense that there is a statue of a bull near the station.

But I was also distracted from The Big Bull (Oxford's answer to Goulburn's Big Ram) by their environmentally friendly hybrid buses.

Oxford might not be a vast town, but it almost reaches critical mass with the number of things crammed into a relatively small area.

History Faculty building (above). 

Like most earlier universities, Oxford University is scattered through the town, 

not confined to its own field like most Australian universities.

Before making a Tour of the Church towers of Oxford, I also looked at the martyrs' memorial and at the Ashmolean Museum.

The memorial is near the spot where Thomas Cranmer, Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer were burnt at the stake during "Bloody" Mary's persecutions.

Ashmolean Museum

I could spend only a short time in the Ashmolean Museum, but was fascinated by the displays showing such things as the influence of Alexander, and the spread of technological innovations in the ancient world.

My real raison à visiter was to climb as many church towers as possible before the return train arrived. Well, it felt that way, anyway.

First came the oldest in Oxford, an 11th Century Saxon tower, St Michael's. I had a chat to the two girls working in the office: one Japanese, the other German. The Japanese girl was studying English in preparation for further studies.

St Michael's tower and church interior.

The other church tower I went up was at St Mary the Virgin. In this church, I met the woman who was the official Greeter of visitors, Brigitte. I picked a very slight German accent, and asked about it, and she was surprised that I had heard the accent. She had lived in England for about 50 years, and, when her husband had died about two years ago, she began doing this voluntary job.

It turned out that she was originally from Berlin, so she was excited by my intention to go there, and talked quite a bit about the city.

She also told me that, in the early 1930s, Dietrich Bonhoeffer's sister and her husband had escaped to England and had been part of the congregation at St Mary's. Consequently, the minister at the time had arranged for a monthly Lutheran service at the church which continues to this day.

This tower was more difficult to climb as the steps were very narrow and steep, and, to let people pass, I had twice (I think) to climb into niches in the wall probably constructed for this purpose. They were designed for more agile people than myself.

Again, the view was magnificent from the top.

Back downstairs, Brigitte introduced me to her supervisor, also German, and pointed out the pulpit where people like C.S. Lewis and John Wesley had preached. After Wesley preached there, the minister sent him a note to advise him that he would not be welcome to preach there again.

Stairwell views

The pulpit

One interesting feature in this church is the cut-away pillar. During Mary's persecution, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer was tried and initially signed a recantation of his Protestant views, but he later withdrew that recantation and was condemned to be burnt at the stake. He put the hand that had signed the paper into the fire first.

When he was being tried, the hearing was in the St Mary's Church, and a platform was constructed for him to stand on while being charged. To make it fit, part of the pillar was cut away.

Relief at bottom of pillar where Cranmer was tried

I thought I'd put all my photographs from the tops of the towers together. The first of these below shows some of the height of these structures. Others show various views over the city.

Next, some more street views...

By this time, the weather was turning really nasty and my back was aching, so I found Blackwell's bookshop which was warm, had lovely books, and involved what felt like another tower climb to get to the conveniences, but I didn't take any photographs there. Anyway, the view was pretty-well non-existent.

Then I went for coffee and a cake at the Costa shop before continuing to the station and back, eventually, to Twickenham.