Oxfordshire
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Locator map for the English administrative region of Oxfordshire.
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The village of Islip, on Otmoor in Oxfordshire, England. Villages that become important are often those that have a good location for trade. The most accessible sites offer the best opportunities for trade. Islip is close to a number of other villages and hamlets. It provides services for these, such as a local school, church, and railway station, and it is well situated to draw on the skills of people from neighbouring settlements.
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A weathered gravestone at Cassington, Oxfordshire, England. Gravestones are excellent laboratories for geographers. The date on the grave gives us a good idea how long the rock has been exposed to the forces of nature. The gravestone has been subjected to biological weathering (the growth of lichens, ivy and other plants). In the UK, west-facing stones are usually more weathered than east-facing stones, because winds from the west are warmer and moister, whereas east winds are typically colder and drier. Rock type is also important: igneous and metamorphic rocks, such as granite and marble, weather more slowly than sedimentary rocks, such as limestone.
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Baled hay in a field in Oxfordshire, England. Farming removes many nutrients from ecosystems. In a natural ecosystem nutrients are recycled during leaf-fall. In farming systems, however, nutrients are removed during harvest. Some are consumed directly by people, whereas others – such as the hay here – are consumed by animals, which are then in turn consumed by people. The more intensive the farming system, the more nutrients are taken from the land.
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Wytham Woods, near Oxford, England. Bluebells can be seen on the floor of this deciduous woodland. Deciduous trees lose their leaves in autumn, and in the spring this allows high levels of light to reach the flowers on the ground. As the leaves mature, there is less sunlight, and the bluebells die back.
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Wytham Woods, near Oxford, England. In early spring the forest floor was covered in bluebells, but as new leaves grow and cast more shade, less sunlight reaches the flowers, and they die back. Deciduous woodlands thus have pronounced seasonal differences in flower and vegetation growth, to make use of the available light.
County of south central England.
Area
2,610 sq km/1,007 sq miTowns and cities
Oxford (administrative headquarters), Abingdon, Banbury, Goring, Henley-on-Thames, Wallingford, Witney, Woodstock, Wantage, Chipping Norton, ThamePhysical
River Thames and tributaries (the Cherwell, Evenlode, Ock, Thame, and Windrush);Cotswold Hills (in the north) and Chiltern Hills (in the southeast)
Features
Vale of the White Horse (with a chalk hill figure 114 m/374 ft, below the hill camp known as Uffington Castle); Oxford University; Blenheim Palace (a World Heritage site), Woodstock, started in 1705 by Vanbrugh with help from Nicholas Hawksmoor, completed in 1722, with landscaped grounds by Capability Brown; early 14th-century Broughton Castle; Rousham Park (1635), remodelled by William Kent (1738–40), with landscaped garden; Ditchley Park, designed by James Gibbs in 1720; Europe's major fusion project JET (Joint European Torus) at the UK Atomic Energy Authority's fusion laboratories at Culham; Henley RegattaAgriculture
cereals, sheep, dairy farmingIndustries
agricultural implements; aluminium; bricks; cars (Cowley); cement; high-technology industries; medical electronic equipment; paper; publishing; nuclear research (Harwell); biotechnologyPopulation
(2001) 605,500Famous people
Winston Churchill (politician), William Davenant (poet), Stephen Hawking (physicist), Flora Thompson (author)TopographyOxfordshire is bounded to the south by Swindon, West Berkshire, Reading and Wokingham, to the east by Buckinghamshire, to the northeast by Northamptonshire, to the northwest by Warwickshire, and to the west by Gloucestershire. The county was considerably increased in size by transfers from Berkshire (as it then was) at the time of local government reorganization in April 1974. |
HistoryOxford was the chief stronghold of the Royalists during the Civil War (1642–46), and was the scene of many battles. (For more history, see Oxford.) |
Historic remainsThere are several prehistoric remains in Oxfordshire, including the Rollright stones, and the Devil's Quoits. There are also several Roman villas, such as North Leigh. Few old monastic buildings or castles remain, the most important being the abbey church at Dorchester-on-Thames, and the castles at Shirburn and Broughton, near Banbury. There are remains of famous houses at Greys Court, Minster Lovell, and Rycote. Churches of note include those in Oxford itself, and those at Adderbury, Iffley, and Minster Lovell. |
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