MEMBERS of an African tribe are visiting Oxfordshire to help people understand the Maasai culture. The three-month visit has been arranged by charity The African Children’s Fund. Pictured from left, Peter Saitaga, John Kantai, Sabina
A CONVICTED paedophile with more than 140 offences to his name has been jailed for two years after befriending an Oxfordshire family and stealing their car. Phillip Topp, of no fixed abode, was sentenced for seven counts of sexually assaulting a child
POLICE have started using a high-tech drug testing machine to detect the controversial drug mephedrone. Officers carry out tests at up to 60 pubs, bars and clubs a month for a range of drugs. Mephedrone – known on the street as MCAT or meow meow –
Police found 29 wraps of cannabis in a house in Pegasus Road, Blackbird Leys, Oxford, today. Officers estimated each wrap had a street value of about £10. A 44-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of possessing a Class B drug with intent to supply
A missing 13-year-old girl from Enstone, near Chipping Norton, has been found safe and well. Shannon Reilly disappeared during a trip to the Odeon cinema in Magdalen Street, Oxford, on Saturday. Police confirmed she was found in Coventry on Tuesday
A CHURCH has been left with a £12,000 legal bill after a judge dismissed its appeal to stop lapdancing at a city club. The Rev Vaughan Roberts, rector of St Ebbe’s Church, took Thirst Lodge to a three-day trial at Oxford Magistrates’ Court
A LANDMARK Victorian building in Jericho looks to have been spared from demolition following protests from local people. Developers had originally wanted to demolish the building on the corner of Walton Street and Little Clarendon Street, famous for
WITNEY’s first dancing festival proved so popular organisers are hoping for a repeat performance. As temperatures soared on Saturday, dozens of people – including Ducklington Morris and dad and daughter Ceroc duo Mel and Rhiannon Lewis showed off their
OUT-OF-WORK people in Oxford branded Government plans to help the unemployed move to find work “poor and unworkable”. Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said he wanted to tackle “ghettos of poverty” by encouraging people without jobs to move
SCIENTISTS at Oxford Brookes University have calculated that the new electric Mini could save up to £1,400 on the cost of fuel over a year. The university, which is analysing performance data from the first phase of the six-month Mini E trials, estimates
Legal firm Peninsula is hosting a free employment law and health and safety seminar. In a recent nationwide survey conducted by Peninsula, research showed that 83 per cent of employers feared being taken to an employment tribunal by staff. And 76
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Banbury shattered Oxford’s hopes of a Bernard Tollett Oxfordshire Cup hat-trick by storming to an emphatic nine-wicket victory at White Post Road last night. The hosts dominated a one-sided final from the moment skipper Ian Hawtin won the toss
For those waiting anxiously for the Oxford Lieder Festival in October, last weekend’s mini festival — a joint venture between Jesus College/Kohn Foundation and Oxford Lieder — was a tasty titbit to be going on with. Sadly, I had to miss the all-Russian
Italian company Teatro Kismet were at the Playhouse last week with their director Teresa Ludovico’s adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, a touching story of a beautiful creature of the sea who gives up her life for an unattainable
Hot days don’t suit organs: they can put the pipework out of tune with a vengeance. So as the sun set on a scorcher, leaving candles to provide gentle light in Magdalen College Chapel (real candles, none of your electric fakes at this address), Daniel
The Bridge Project — trans-Atlantic theatrical brainchild of Kevin Spacey and Sam Mendes — is once again in residence at the Old Vic. Following the success of last year’s Chekhov/Shakespeare lineup, a new company of American and English actors steps up
The Burford Singers can always be relied upon to deliver the goods, and Sunday’s performance was probably the best I’ve heard from them yet. It helped that they had a particularly inspiring programme — Haydn’s glorious Te Deum, written for Empress Marie-Thérèse
Oklahoma! was the one that started it all. A massive stage success for composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II on their first collaboration, it opened on Broadway in 1943, notched up an unprecedented 2,212 performances and went on
Look: if you see this in time and the theatre has tickets available, do please cancel what you have arranged for tonight, tomorrow or Saturday evening and go and see one of the most exuberant shows ever staged at the Playhouse. Even one senior
Duke Alphonso is in love with Margaret, daughter of Count Lasso. But there’s a snag: Alphonso’s son is secretly courting Margaret. Little does the Duke know what is going on as he takes up residence in the Count’s house — his son is bribing Lasso’s main
HOUSEHOLDERS say they feel “under siege” by gangs of youths loitering outside a shop on their estate shop. People living in Blackbird Leys have complained about young people gathering outside Costcutters in Pegasus Road, and have accused them
ALMOST 500 people turned out in Wantage to help raise money for wounded heroes. Soll Leisure staff at Wantage Leisure Centre hosted the fun day in aid of Help for Heroes on Sunday, with jousting, a barbecue, raffle, face painting and live music among
A GRUELLING cycle ride from one end of the country to the other has raised £30,000 for injured soldiers and firefighters. The Heroes 4 Heroes team, featuring 13 firefighters from West Oxfordshire and one soldier from Dalton Barracks in Abingdon, cycled
OXFORD United today boosted their League Two prospects by signing centre back Jake Wright on a free transfer from Brighton. The 23-year-old left-sided defender was on loan to the U's for the second half of last season, and played a major part in their
Oxfordshire may have suffered a humiliation of England football-like proportions against Cornwall last week, but there is much more to be positive about on the club scene. With Aston Rowant and Thame Town both winning on Saturday, the possibility of
CAMPAIGNERS fighting to save an Oxford swimming pool from demolition have handed a 7,000-name petition to the city council. The Save Temple Cowley Pools group, which has been working for four years to secure the centre’s future, handed the petition backing
Almost three years to the day that floods destroyed Charlbury’s old pavilion, the sun shone gloriously as they officially opened their new facility. Former Zimbabwe Test ace Henry Olonga and Oxfordshire’s cricket development manager Rupert
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PATHOLOGISTS were last night set to carry out more tests to discover how a Benson pub landlord died. The post mortem examination of Wayne Marshall, 42, proved inconclusive and there will now have to be further medical tests to see why he died
Keith Arnold’s impressive longevity is shown by a scan through Oxfordshire’s cricket archives. The 50-year-old seamer, who retired from county duty last week, had the second longest career of any Oxfordshire player. His 30 years in the Oxon ranks are
I WOULD like to say a big thank you to the Oxford Mail for the brief compost article (June 23). As a keen gardener I know the benefits of using compost. It adds in drainage and soil moisture and, in today’s society, we should all be a bit greener,
I GOT into football after the 1966 World cup, at the age of 10. Since then, I’ve had to endure 21 tournaments that have ended in English disappointment, at best, or, at worst, agonising pain – and they are just the ones we qualified for! Just why do
AS William Cowan points out (Oxford Mail, June 22) there have been a number of evolutionary changes in the human line since we left our – and the chimpanzees’ – common ancestor some six million years ago. These changes have been fairly well documented
I note without surprise that the Labour Party’s crocodile tears over the Con-Dem cuts are not matched by any clear statement of what the party that led us into this recession would have done. The cuts are indeed disastrous. They serve Tory ideology at
Before leaving South Africa the England team took time out to visit an orphanage in Cape Town. “It was heartbreaking to see their sad little faces,” said Jamal, aged six. R Lee Burford Road Witney
SOME of the more astute among you may have noticed that this column has been missing for a week or so. Sadly, I cannot put this down to a jet-setting lifestyle taking me away from all of this – I wish! The truth is that there is only so much that a
DANCERS at a lapdancing bar in Oxford breached club rules by dancing within one metre of the customers, a court heard yesterday. In December, Oxford City Council allowed Thirst Lodge, in Pennyfarthing Place, to change its licence to allow lapdancing
THE CLA Game Fair brought Oxfordshire’s roads to a standstill will return to the county next year – and every three years after, it has emerged. In 2008, the event attracted more than 151,000 people to Blenheim Place, near Woodstock, over the course
House price growth stalled during June as the number of homes on the market continued to increase, figures showed today. The average cost of a property crept ahead by just 0.1 per cent during the month to stand at £170,111, according to the Nationwide
A KITCHEN porter died from a brain haemorrhage following a row with a group of men, police confirmed last night. The cause of David Cox’s death came as officers warned against potential vigilante action in Rose Hill, Oxford. Mr Cox,
OVERWEIGHT dad Carl Hobbs shed 100lb on a diet after his father begged him to slim down to prevent another family death. Just two years ago, Mr Hobbs, 46, of Abingdon, would eat a pound of sausages, a pound of bacon and six eggs for breakfast. But when
THE return of the CLA Game Fair as a regular event at Blenheim Palace will be welcome news for the county’s economy but only if the horrific transport problems of 2008 are avoided. Estimates put the revenue for local businesses at £13.2m, particularly
CARL Hobbs has shown what can be done by seriously overweight people when they get enough motivation. No-one would wish the death of a child on anyone. And Mr Hobbs’ father Sidney deserves great credit for some straight talking to his
MORBIDLY obese Tony Roberts was told he could not get weight-loss surgery on the NHS unless he went on a diet. So the 25-stone grandfather-of-two has embarked on a sponsored slim in aid of the Oxford Heart Centre. Mr Roberts, an information officer
The debut of Simon Keenlyside as Rigoletto — while not so headline grabbing as that of Bryn Terfel as Hans Sachs — is nevertheless an opera event of some moment. This fine baritone, with many key roles in the repertoire already under his belt, is rather
Jamie Cook, released by Oxford United, is set for a surprise move to Stevenage. It’s understood that Stevenage boss Graham Westley has stepped in and offered 30-year-old Cook the chance of League football again, following their promotion from the Conference
Buoyant Oxford United return to pre-season training with the players in great shape. Manager Chris Wilder said the results of the players’ bleep tests were so impressive that none needed to come in for extra fitness training. And Wilder admitted they
A PUBLIC inquiry into the future of a piece of land crucial to Witney’s proposed Cogges Link Road is costing campaigners up to £30,000. Owen Edwards wants Witney Meadows Country Park, in Farm Hill Lane, to be awarded Town Green status, which would protect
CHILDREN at an Oxford primary are hoping to have the chance to decide how to spend £7,500 of Olympic-themed improvements to their school. New Marston Primary School is the latest of our five School Olympic Save Our Schools finalists to be profiled
THE Oxford Ring Road has been recognised as one of the most improved for road safety in Britain following improvements made after the deaths of three Oxford schoolboys in 2005. The eight kilometre stretch of road saw a 63 per cent cut in collisions resulting
