Apr 24th, 2013 at 12:00PM: Behind an eighteenth-century facade in downtown Oxford, just above a clothing shop, is a bedroom that was once used by William Shakespeare.
It was part of the Crown Tavern, owned by Shakespeare's friend John Davenant. The Bard frequently stopped in Oxford on his trips between Stratford-upon-Avon and London. A nearby courtyard may have hosted his troupe's performances.
Known as the Painted ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
oxfordshire posts
Shakespeare Slept Here: Hidden Old Room In Oxford Once Hosted The Bard
Apr 24th, 2013 at 12:00PM: Behind an eighteenth-century facade in downtown Oxford, just above a clothing shop, is a bedroom that was once used by William Shakespeare.
It was part of the Crown Tavern, owned by Shakespeare's friend John Davenant. The Bard frequently stopped in Oxford on his trips between Stratford-upon-Avon and London. A nearby courtyard may have hosted his troupe's performances.
Known as the Painted ...Bumping Into Queen Elizabeth II In Oxford
Mar 28th, 2013 at 3:00PM: It's not every day that you bump into Queen Elizabeth II on your way to work.
Walking from my house to the Bodleian Library in Oxford to research my next book, I noticed a large crowd and dozens of cops outside Christ Church College. It turned out the Queen was coming to take part in an old English tradition – giving away Maundy Money.
Today is Maundy Thursday, the day before Good ...Hiking A Roman Road In England
Sep 4th, 2012 at 2:00PM:
At first glance this looks like a muddy field with an Australian contract lawyer walking away into the middle distance. Look again, though, and you'll notice something strange. Why is there no substantial vegetation in a big straight swath through this field?
The answer is that it's a Roman road. Only a few inches below the soil are the original stones laid down 2,000 years ago when this was ...A Drive Through Rural Oxfordshire And Buckinghamshire
Aug 25th, 2012 at 10:00AM:
England is so much more than its cities.
Most itineraries take in London and one or two more: Oxford or Cambridge, Brighton or Bath. While I love all these places, and live part time in Oxford, it's the countryside that I truly enjoy. Glimpsed from the motorway it makes a pretty backdrop, but get off onto the country lanes and you'll find villages filled with history, old inns with great ...Bee Gees Getting Blue Plaque While Monty Python Passed Over
Aug 9th, 2012 at 1:00PM: Any traveler in the UK is familiar with the Blue Plaques. The plaques mark the spot of a famous event or building, or where a famous person has lived, worked, or died.
English Heritage has recently announced that due to government budget cuts, half of the shortlist for new plaques will be canceled, with such big names as Beatles manager Brian Epstein and Monty Python's Graham Chapman missing ...New Ancient Egypt And Nubia Galleries At Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Apr 14th, 2012 at 2:30PM:
The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford has always been famous for its collection of art from Ancient Egypt and Nubia (Sudan). It recently revamped these galleries as part of a major remodel.
While the new galleries reopened in November, I didn't want to write it up until I got to see it for myself. The old galleries were dark, cramped and had endless cases crammed with artifacts. In other words, they ...A rural ride through Oxfordshire
Aug 17th, 2011 at 1:00PM:
Yesterday was my birthday, and now that I'm halfway to 84 I figured the best way to spend it was with other decaying leftovers from ages past. I mean medieval buildings, not my travel companions.
Oxfordshire offers plenty of hikes, historic buildings, and good restaurants. To celebrate my increasing decrepitude, some friends drove my wife and I from Oxford to the nearby village of Great ...Hiking in Oxfordshire: follies and fields near Faringdon
Aug 15th, 2011 at 12:00PM: I'm spending the summer in Oxford, and so far the English weather has been pretty disappointing with rain, clouds, and cool temperatures that are already making the leaves change color.
Whenever the weather is good here I'm out in the countryside hiking. The weather hasn't been cooperating, so I and a friend went anyway. We chose a hike from Faringdon to Buckland. Faringdon is an old ...Hiking England's oldest road
Feb 8th, 2010 at 11:00AM: England is an old land where you can drink in the same pubs as the Crusaders did and watch a play in a Roman theater, so it's a rare treat to touch or experience anything that can legitimately boast of being the "oldest."
The Ridgeway Trail in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire in southern England just might have the claim of being the country's oldest road. The 87-mile route runs along a chalk ...Museum Junkie: Oxford's Ashmolean reopens today
Nov 7th, 2009 at 9:00AM: The long wait is finally over for the grand reopening of Oxford's Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology. After being partially or completely closed for the past three years, the museum's vast collection is finally open to the public again, with twice the exhibition space it once had. The Ashmolean is the oldest public museum in the world, having opened in 1683, and while there have been a lot of ...Holidays to make you feel smart: summer courses at Oxford
Aug 12th, 2009 at 11:30AM: If you're like me, you went to a state university. The education may have been good, but your student union looked like a shopping mall and your dorm resembled a Soviet prison. Here's a chance to relive the youth you never had by studying at one of the world's greatest and most beautiful universities.
Recently I checked out out two summer school options at two historic colleges at Oxford ...A medieval church, a lost village, and river walk in England
Aug 9th, 2009 at 2:30PM: I've written about the Thames Path in an earlier post, but I recently discovered an even better stretch of that river trail that starts at a beautiful medieval abbey. So of course you folks get to enjoy the view without having to do the footwork. Aren't I nice to you? Like all my hikes so far, this is an easy day trip from Oxford or London.
Dorchester Abbey is in the little village of ...A legendary stone circle in England
Jul 14th, 2009 at 2:00PM: Everyone knows about Stonehenge, England's most famous ancient monument, but did you know that there are nearly a thousand similar stone circles in the United Kingdom? Some are almost as big as Stonehenge, and all are steeped in folklore and legend.
A favorite of mine are the Rollright Stones, which you can get to as an easy day trip from Oxford or London. They're near Chipping Norton, a ...A hidden church near Oxford
Jun 17th, 2009 at 11:00AM: Yesterday I reviewed Michael McCay's Hidden Treasures of England, a book filled with wonderful places that most people miss. Here's one McCay missed.
Not far from the popular destination of Oxford is the little hamlet of Binsey and its historic St. Margaret's Church.
St. Margaret's is reputedly founded on the spot where St. Frideswide (pictured here) built an oratory in the seventh century. The ...English Country Walks: Hiking along the Thames near Oxford
Jun 5th, 2009 at 2:00PM: Spring has sprung, and while I have a reputation as a museum junkie, I love to be outside too. Over the next few months I'll be bringing you lots of guides to hiking in England, which in good weather has the most beautiful countryside in the world.
Today I'll tell you about an easy, scenic, seven-mile hike from historic Oxford along the Thames to the little town of Abingdon. It forms part of the ...Museum Junkie: England's most unique museum reopens
May 21st, 2009 at 4:30PM:
Oxford's famous Pitt Rivers Museum has reopened this month after more than a year of remodeling.
The famous Victorian displays, a massive collection of diverse anthropological objects in a large gallery and two upper floors, have remained untouched, preserving an almost unique set of displays dating back more than a century.
One of the most popular cases is the one involving death rituals, ...
