Oxford Events
The Oxford Jubilee Walk
Our group worked with
Oxfordshire County Council and the Countryside Commission to produce, in
1985, a walk to commemorate the first fifty years of The Ramblers. That walk
is "The Oxford Jubilee Walk" and here you can see and reprint the
pamphlet.
Our Webmaster says: two of the pixels on the map represent the house
that I once lived in and helped build.
Milestones to Millstones
– Mill Walks in Oxfordshire and Beyond by Elaine Steane
ISBN 978-1-909116-58-0 available from the author, local bookshops or Amazon; price £9.99 + p&p.
See also the website milestonestomillstones.co.uk that supports the book.
This newly published walking guide of local windmill and watermill walks by an Oxfordshire Rambler could make an ideal Christmas present!
Included are 17 circular walks averaging 9 miles with lots of information about shorter options, refreshment stops and public transport access.
Included, many of the milling-related idioms such as 'Keep your nose to the grindstone' and 'Having a millstone around your neck'.
For more information contact Elaine Steane
Ardington Mill |
Ford End Watermill |
|
Tysoe Windmill
|
Great Haseley Windmill |
May 2015
Oxford Group returning trom the Area picnic
Water Eaton Manor
Picnic
|
Smelling wild marjoram on
Aston Rowant Nature Reserve
Down an Anglo-Saxon sunken way
on Aston Rowant Nature Reserve |
Oxford Group strides into the paper on 23 April 2015
See the
Oxford Times report (
local copy ).
May 2014
Walking through the floods in Great Hasely
Oxford City Joins the Walking Partnership
Oxford City group has recently joined The Walking Partnership. This new partnership, supported by Ramblers Worldwide Holidays, provides direct financial contributions to local walking groups to help with organising group walks, encouraging people to get out walking, helping to clear and improve footpaths, providing equipment to help walkers etc. Over the past 65 years, Ramblers Worldwide Holidays has given many millions of pounds to assist walking charities and conservation projects in Britain and the countries they visit on their worldwide holidays. Now our group can benefit directly.
Remember when you book to quote the name of our group, and we will then receive a contribution of £10 per person on UK holidays, £20 per person on short haul holidays, and £30 per person on long haul holidays. This extra funding could really make a difference to us!
You can take a look at the website on
www.ramblersholidays.co.uk or call on 01707 33113 for more details or to order a brochure. For more details, visit The Walking Partnership website at
www.thewalkingpartnership.org.uk
The Roman Way
The first photo shows the Roman Way walkers from the Oxfordshire Group as we were completing the last day (Day 17)
marching on the agger (a linear mound on which Roman roads were built) of Akeman Street on our way to Alchester
(a Roman marching camp) near Bicester, Oxfordshire. We had started 174 mile journey in October 2009, and have
walked a section (usually about 10 miles) each month since then, with occasional gaps during snow and ice and
August holidays.
The logo and map are self explanatory, and the last photo shows us walking on Sand Lane north
of the village of Beckley.
This is a remarkable example since it shows how the Romans carried a road over a
steep hill and it also preserves the original dimensions, wide enough for a wagon and wider than some of the
streets in Pompeii.
We followed the route as it crosses the limestone of the Cotswold hills to the Roman amphitheatre at
Cirencester, then turned south east following the Ermin Way across the Wiltshire downs, to descend and cross
the River Kennet as the Romans did.
At the Roman walled town of Silchester in Hampshire we struck north through
Berkshire to Dorchester on Thames. The way took us beside Oxford and across Otmoor, (see first photograph,
author front, second from left), the marsh where Romans built a bridge to reach the fort at Alchester.
We were using the Roman Way guide by Elaine Steane, published by Reardon, available from local bookshops,
libraries, the Ramblers Boookshop or
www.amazon.co.uk.
For more details on the route see
http://www.theromanway.co.uk/4.html
and/or click on this small map to enlarge it.
