50 Fascinating Facts About Oxford

50 Fascinating Facts about Oxford

A good friend of mine recently moved to Oxford and today turned 50! To celebrate her birthday, we organized a special walking tour of Oxford and I put together a list of 50 fun facts about this great city, all pulled from various websites. Here is the list: 

1 - Oxford’s Motto is Dominus Illuminatio Mea or 'The Lord is my light' -- the opening words of Psalm 27.

2 - No Women Allowed :  The first colleges of Oxford were built in the 13th century, but it wasn't until 1878 that women were admitted to the university, 1920 when they were awarded degrees, and 1974 when the last of the all-male colleges opened their doors to women.

3 -The Legend of Frideswide:  Even though women were excluded for many centuries, legend has it that Oxford was started by a beautiful and pious young princess named Frideswide. When her dream of becoming a nun was threatened by a king who wanted to marry her, Frideswide ran away to Oxford. The king followed her, but when he reached the town boundaries, he was struck blind. After begging her forgiveness and reluctantly agreeing to give her freedom from marrying him, his sight was amazingly restored. Frideswide went on to set up a nunnery on the site of what is now Christ Church cathedral. The earliest built colleges were set up around the nunnery as learning places for monastic scholars.

4 - Hitler and Oxford:  There is also a legend that Hitler was intending to use Oxford as his capital if he conquered England which is one of the reasons it was not bombed. I've also been told that there is not record anywhere of this so it probably is myth.  

5 - Visit the Ashmolean in 1683: Oxford's Ashmolean Museum was the first museum in the world to be opened to the public when it was officially opened in 1683 according to the Guinness Book of Records.

6 - That Other University: The University of Cambridge was actually founded by Oxford scholars who fled the first of many 'Town versus Gown' riots that erupted in Oxford in 1209 following the murder of a local woman by students.

7 - You're Being Watched:  As you walk around the Colleges, be sure to look up once in a while. All over Oxford's buildings are gargoyles (technically 'grotesques' as these don't spout water) - some in the shape of faces, some animals, some entire people. The keenest of eyes will spot the funnier ones - the one picking his nose, the one going to the bathroom...

8 - The oldest graffiti (the words were nailed into the door) was a protest against the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel who was in office 30 August 1841 – 29 June 1846.

9 - The Real Alice: Alice, from Alice in Wonderland, was a real girl named Alice Liddell. She was the daughter of the Dean at Christ Church, who was a friend of Charles Dodgson (A.K.A. Lewis Carroll), who taught at the College. Dodgson spent much time with Alice and her family, and immortalized her in his books.

10 - Harry Was Here:  The Great Hall at Christ Church was used as inspiration for the Hogwarts dining hall in the Harry Potter films. The staircase leading up to the hall was actually used in several scenes in the films.  The Cloisters at New College were also used in the HP film “Goblet of Fire”. 

11 - Comma-gain? The comma used before a conjunction (such as "and" or "or") in a list of three or more items is known as the Oxford Comma. The phrase "shoes, bags, and hats" is written with an Oxford comma, but "shoes, bags and hats" is not. The term Oxford Comma comes from the Oxford University Press, where the use of the comma is standard.

12 - Warning: Cow Crossing! The name Oxford comes from the old term 'Oxanforda' which literally meant a ford (shallow crossing) in the river where the cattle (Oxen) could cross safely.

13 - What Are the Natives Known As?  Residents and natives of Oxford are known as Oxonians.

14 - Oxford's Oddest College Name:  People often wonder about the origin of the name Brasenose College and how to pronounce it. It's pronounced just as it's spelled - Brase Nose. The college, which dates from the 16th century, gets its name from the unusual bronze door knocker which is shaped like an animal's snout, which now hangs above the high table in the dining hall. The original door knocker dates back to the 11th century, and was stolen by students from Lincolnshire in 1334. It was only returned to Brasenose in 1890 when the college bought the whole of the thieving school just to reacquire the door knocker.

15 - They Were WHAT???  The three prominent Protestant church leaders who were memorialized in Oxford's Martyr's Memorial after being burned alive on Broad Street for their religious views during the reign of Queen Mary were all Cambridge educated. (In 1553 when the Roman Catholic Queen Mary came to the throne, Thomas Cranmer (Archbishop of Canterbury), Nicholas Ridley (Archbishop of London), and Hugh Latimer (Bishop of Worcester) were summoned to appear before a commission in the Church of St Mary the Virgin in Oxford to be examined for their alleged Protestant heresies. Unable to admit to a belief in transubstantiation, they were all found guilty. Ridley and Latimer were burnt at the stake on 16 October 1555 in the ditch outside the city wall (which ran alongside St Michael at the Northgate Church). Archbishop Cranmer, who had been given longer to appeal, was forced to watch, and wrote a recantation. None the less he was taken from the Bocardo gaol at the Northgate to the ditch on 21 March 1556 and also burnt to death.)

16 – A College Town:  There are 38 individual colleges and 5 private halls at Oxford.  In addition, Oxford Brooks is right next door in Headington.  Oxford is quite the college town!

17 - What Was He Running From?  Roger Bannister, a 25 year old medical student, was the first man to run a mile in less than four minutes. This feat was achieved in 1954 at the Iffley Road track in Oxford. His time was 3mins 59.4 seconds.

18 - What's In A Name?   There is an Oxford in New Zealand, an Oxford in Canada, 21 Oxfords in the United States, besides a Mount Oxford, two Lake Oxfords and Oxford County, Maine (whose capital is South Paris). The city lends its name to Oxford bags, Oxford Marmalade, Oxford grey (a very dark gray colour - homage to the skies of Oxford perhaps?), Oxford shoes, the Oxford Comma (see fact #11), the Oxford Group, the Oxford Movement and the Oxford accent.

19 - How Did That Get There? Just east of Oxford, in the suburb of Headington, is the famous Shark House - a house with a 25-foot long headless shark protruding from the roof. The shark was commissioned by American Bill Heine, the owner of the house, in August 1986 as a comment on Cold War Politics. You can find the shark house at 2 New High Street, Headington, Oxford, OX3 7AQ

20 - A Simple Thank You Would Have Been Enough: Francis Treasham, the St. John's student who exposed the Guy Fawkes plot, was locked up in the Tower of London and mysteriously poisoned instead of being rewarded for his patriotism.

21 - Is That Also About A Little Girl?  After enjoying Alice in Wonderland, Queen Victoria contacted Lewis Carroll to say that she would love to receive more of his books. Lewis promptly sent her the book he just completed: The Syllabus of Plane Algebraical Geometry.  Not a fact! Sadly, as much as we wanted this to be true because it amused us, it seems it is not. Carroll himself stated in a postscript to Symbolic Logic Part 1: Elementary (2nd Edition, 1896): "I take this opportunity of giving what publicity I can to my contradiction of a silly story, which has been going the round of the papers, about my having presented certain books to Her Majesty the Queen. It is so constantly repeated, and is such absolute fiction, that I think it worth while to state, once for all, that it is utterly false in every particular: nothing even resembling it has ever occurred."

22 - Parson's Pleasure or Dame's Delight?  There's a patch of grass along the river Cherwell, called Parson's Pleasure, where dons used to bathe naked. Women were expressly forbidden, but one day, a punt filled with ladies drifted past. The embarrassed dons struggled to cover their bits as quickly as possible, but one don (from Keble College) covered only his face, exclaiming that he was known in town only by his face! A similar Dame's Delight existed nearby for women. Sadly, both areas are now closed and have been incorporated into University Parks.

23 – The Turf Tavern: Hidden away down a narrow alleyway, this tiny medieval pub is one of the town’s best loved, especially by Inspectors Morse, Lewis, and Hathaway.

24 – Old Tom:  A bell located in a tower of Christ Church Cathedral goes by the name Old Tom. It strikes 101 times each night, once for each of 100 original scholars plus one added in 1663. The bell tolls at precisely 9:05 p.m., a holdover from the traditional curfew time.

25 – Town and Gown:  The St. Scholastica Day riot of February 10, 1355, is another notorious example of the 'Town and Gown' rivalry. The dispute took place in The Swindlestock Tavern (now the Santander Bank on Carfax) between townspeople and two students of Oxford University. Insults grew into armed conflict and local citizens attacked the University which left 63 scholars and many locals dead. The dispute was eventually settled in favour of the university. Every year on St Scholastica's Day from then on, the Mayor of Oxford had to pay a penny to the University for every life lost and attend a Mass for the souls of the dead scholars. The penance continued for 470 years, until the mayor refused to take part in 1825.

26 - Oxford as the Capital: Oxford was once the capital of England during the English Civil War when Charles I held his court here from 1642, following his expulsion from London by the Parliamentarian forces lead by Oliver Cromwell. Oxford itself supported the Parliamentarian cause, but the University was a strong supporter of the king. From 1642 to 1646 King Charles stayed at Christ Church College.

27 - North and South: In North Oxford, there are two roads about two miles apart, running parallel to each other, that connect Woodstock Road and Banbury Road. Confusingly, the northernmost road in Summertown is called South Parade and the southernmost road is called North Parade. This is because during the English Civil War when Oxford was being besieged by Oliver Cromwell, North Parade represented the King's Northern Front, while South Parade was Cromwell's Southern Front.

28 - Oxford has more published writers per square mile than anywhere else in the world.

29 - Oxford University has educated 26 British Prime Ministers

30 - Oxford has over 1,500 listed buildings including Gibb's Radcliffe Camera, Wren's Sheldonian Theatre, and Hawksmoor's All Soul's.

31 -Students who receive a bachelor’s degree (BA) from Oxford are also given a complimentary masters degree (MA) four years later without the need to take any further exams. It is intended as compensation for the additional work required for an Oxford undergraduate degree.

32 - Every member of Oxford University upon joining the University swears an oath stating that they will not light a fire inside the world famous Bodleian Library: ‘not to bring into the Library, or kindle therein, any fire or flame’. Today, this oath is still taken by all students.

33 - In Oxford colleges the 'dons' or professors eat in the college dining halls at a long table 6 inches above the students. This is called 'High Table'. All students must remain seated while the professors are eating at high table so that the students are always below the professors.

34 - On May 1st at 6:00am each year Magdalen College choir sings in Latin from Magdalen Tower to public crowds below to celebrate the beginning of spring. This is followed by lots of dancing and all the pubs in Oxford open at 6:00 am to server beer and breakfast. This tradition goes back nearly 500 years.  

35 -The word ‘snob’ originates in Oxford as an abbreviated form of the Latin phrase sine nobilitate, meaning 'without nobility'.

36 - The only graffiti permitted on Oxford college walls is to celebrate rowing victories over rival colleges' boat crews. Some are so large that they require scaffolding for their execution.

37- After completion of a student’s final exam at Oxford, there is a tradition of ‘trashing’ the student, where friends cover the student in glitter, food, and champagne upon leaving the exam hall to celebrate their end at Oxford University.

38 - Sir Christopher Wren designed Oxford's magnificent Sheldonian Theatre.  It was his first major commission.

39 - Oxford's Botanic Garden is the oldest in the world, having been founded as a physic garden in 1621.

40 - The Holywell Music Room, built in 1748, is the oldest music performance hall in Europe.

41 - Oxford is the home of the world famous Oxford English Dictionary.

42 - The Bear Inn claims to be the oldest pub in Oxford, dating back to 1242. It has a tremendous collection of snipped-off ties. Bereaved owners are given a free pint.

43 - Oxford University is the oldest English-speaking university in the world.

44 - Books have been printed in Oxford since 1478.

45 –The Hertford Bridge is often referred to as the Bridge of Sighs because of its supposed similarity to the famous Bridge of Sighs in Venice. However, it bears a closer resemblance to the Rialto Bridge in the same city.

46 - Inspector Morse writer Colin Dexter has calculated that he killed off 81 Oxonians including three heads of colleges in his crime novels.

47 - Fictitious Oxford colleges include Jordan College (Philip Pullman), Wolsey College (Inspector Morse), Lazarus (Trollope), Biblioll, Episcopus and Simon Magus.

48 - Rock bands Supergrass and Radiohead come from Oxford.

49 - Oxfam, the Oxford Committee for Famine, was founded in Oxford in 1942 and the original building is still an Oxfam store and it’s on Broad Street.

50 - Carfax Tower is the center of Oxford and at 74 feet, its tallest building – no building can be higher than it.