Facts about Oxfordshire

Overview : where is Oxfordshire?

Oxfordshire, which borders onto Northamptonshire to the North, Buckinghamshire to the East, Berkshire to the South, Wiltshire to the South West, Gloucestershire to the West and Warwickshire to the North. Oxfordshire is famous for the Oxford University with the Colleges in and around the City centre and is the oldest English speaking University in the world. Its name is derived from the ford which was a river crossing in the Thames and known as Isis and the River Cherwell runs through Oxford . Oxfordshire is served well by the A34, A40, A420, A4142, together with the M4 and M40 motorways.

Oxfordshire has some beautiful villages set deep in its stunning countryside and we have often found ourselves surveying properties in many of these including Adderbury , Alvescot , near RAF Brize Norton, Ascott , Ashton , Balscote , Bampton , on the edge of the Cotswolds, Beckley and Stowood , Blewbury , Bloxham, Bradwell Grove , with the Cotswold Wildlife Park nearby, Brailes , Brightwell-cum-Sotwell , Brookhampton , Chalgrove , with St Mary's church and its fine medieval wall paintings, Chinnor , Chiselhampton , Cropredy , Curbridge , Deddington , about 6 miles south of Banbury, Dorchester-on-Thames , Drayton St Leonard , with its delightful thatched cottages, Great Tew , Headington , Hinton Waldrist , Horspath , with its 15 Listed buildings, Kennington , Kingston Bagpuize with Southmoor, Leafield , with its church designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, Longworth , Lower Shiplake , Nettlebed, Sandford on Thames , with its lock and history associated with its location on the Thames, Shiplake , Shipton-under-Wychwood , Somerton , Soning Eye , with its 18 th century flour-mill which is now a theatre, Stadhampton , Stanford in the Vale , the conservation area village of Steeple Aston , Tetsworth , Weston on the Green , Whitchurch-on-Thames , Woodcote with its many bungalows we have had the pleasure of surveying and Wroxton

A34

As surveyors we spend a lot of time on the road and we thought we would show you some of the interesting things we know about and see as we travel around the country and here are some thoughts on the A34.

The A34, rolling hills where there are cuttings you can see the chalk and limestone that makes up the area and many of the surrounding fields are given over the crop farming, the alternative to the motorway when travelling back from the South coast and goes all the way up to Oxford, which interestingly was one time classed as the Midlands, it goes through Dorset and into the Royal County of Berkshire and connects up with the M4, into Oxfordshire with Drayton and Didcot Railway Centre. Places to visit are Newbury, Newbury Race Course, Newbury Show Ground (near here is a living rainforest attraction), Hungerford, Donnington Speen, Chieveley, Millets Farm Centre, near Abingdon, Steepton and Milton and the Ridgeway area. We are officially in the Midlands/Oxfordshire the road starts to flatten out slightly but there are still lots of trees surrounding the A34 but no bracken or heather. You know you are coming into Oxford when you see the Park and Ride. At the Hinksey Hill Interchange you can see the ring road signs as well as the Park and Ride and Oxford Football Stadium signs and Scout campsite sign too. It is also the way to go to Swindon and from Swindon you would go off to the west to Bristol . Other things to look out for on the road are Kidiington and Woodstock which leads to Blenheim Palace and you can get to Cheltenham as well and also Danbury and Northampton as well. At the Oxford end of the A34 and you drive on past that on the A41 into Bicester there is a very popular Bicester Outlet Village and also the Kings unusual objects place (we have made that name up for it) which has garden ornaments made from wrought iron that have been salvaged from here, there and everywhere which are great to have in your garden as a feature, if you can't find it it is just near the Bicester Magistrates Court and the Fire engine place on Kings Clere Rd for those that have a satnav or visit their website KingsofBicester.com, they are at 18 Kings End, Bicester, Oxfordshire. OX26 2AA and class themselves as importers and exporters of the largest stock of garden furniture, bronze statues, water features to pots in marble, cast iron, urns, lamp posts and stoneware, solid teak garden furniture, antique carts and old farm things and we are sure we saw a sign there that they had over 10,000 available and it is all set out in about half an acre of land, this for those that have been there is comparable with another Park over near Cambridge. Finmere Aerodrome is also on the A34 and has a Sunday market and car boot sale, which is the biggest in the area, the website is Finmeremarket.com. The A34 meets the M40 in Oxfordshire.

Overview: what is Oxfordshire made up of?

Limestone

The dreamy spires of Oxford and many of the University buildings as well as the homes that people live in in the Oxford area and nearby Cotswold villages are built from limestone from the Jurassic period (yes that is just like Jurassic Park) that is 206 144 million years ago give or take a few years. The limestone has a honey colour, although I have noted that some people call it a yellowish white, it comes from a shallow sea bed that ran from Lincolnshire all the way to Dorset and covered much of the Oxford area and is known as Oolitic limestone and is generally graded into inferior and dense limestone no prizes for guessing which many of the buildings were built from. The limestone or calcium carbonate composition dissolves with acid rain which we have quite a lot of and pollutants which we also have quite a lot of and it is a major problem with many of the old buildings in Oxford . This together with unsympathetic repairs on many of the older properties for those wanting a more detailed view search on monitoring moisture ratings under deterioration of historic limestone and walls in Oxford from Oxford Universities School for Geography and the Environment.