A crash this evening led to delays on the M40 in north Oxfordshire. The collision happened on the southbound carriageway between junction 11 at Banbury and junction ten at the Cherwell Valley Services. Slow traffic was reported after
THE NHS trust which runs the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Oxford wants to find out what people think of its outpatients department. The trust has teamed up with networking group Oxfordshire Link to organise an event where people can give their views
ACTOR Dominic West will be among the famous faces from stage and screen at an Oxford Christmas concert. The star of hit US police drama The Wire will attend December’s Spirit of Christmas carol concert at Christ Church Cathedral, which is raising
KATHERINE MACALISTER gets a slice of culture and something more edible at the Ashmolean Museum. While the Victorians were dressing their piano legs, a bunch of artists in Oxfordshire were causing no end of scandal. Not only were they ensconced
KATHERINE MACALISTER, family in tow, is spoilt for choice on a weekend break to Devon. Define happiness. Stretching your face up to the blue sky and feeling the heat on a crisp autumnal day. Sat in the perfect pub, while the kids chase plump
JACKASS 3D (18). Comedy. Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Ryan Dunn, Wee Man, Preston Lacy, Dave England, Ehren McGhehey. Director: Jeff Tremaine. Everything you need to know about the third feature-length
LET ME IN (15). Horror/Thriller. Kodi Smit-McPhee, Chloe Moretz, Richard Jenkins, Elias Koteas, Cara Buono, Dylan Minnette. Jimmy Pinchak. Nicolai Dorian. Director: Matt Reeves. Hollywood has an uncanny knack of turning the silk
Ross Noble is back in the UK. But before he hits Oxford he finds time to talk about losing his home and looks ahead to his future as a game show host. Boasting hair as wild and untamed as his imagination, a blue shirt, khaki shorts and sandals
Marc Collin of Nouvelle Vague tells Tim Hughes why punk deserves a sexy Gallic overhaul. HOW does this sound for a plan…take some of the rawest, darkest and most aggressive songs of the ’70s and ’80s, but deliver them as shimmering works
RESIDENTS in the Vale of White Horse area are being warned about a bogus letter threatening people over the new waste collection service. Two sets of residents in the Wantage area have received a letter claiming to come from the council accusing them
A BURLESQUE dancer who became an overnight sensation on TV show Britain’s Got Talent, has set out to persuade the fashion industry to use larger ladies on the catwalk. Size 18 to 20 Fabia Cerra, from Blackbird Leys, Oxford, stripped to her lingerie in
Andrew Ffrench talks to the author, journalist and cricket nut Matthew Engel about his lecture series. I CATCH cricket fanatic Matthew Engel in Melbourne, Australia, just as he is about to retire for the night. He has only been in Oz for
DUE DATE (15). Comedy/Drama. Robert Downey Jr, Zach Galifianakis, Michelle Monaghan, Juliette Lewis, Danny McBride, Jamie Foxx, RZA. Director: Todd Phillips. Todd Phillips, director of last year’s smash hit comedy The Hangover
Ruby Thomas is a name to watch. Not only is she beautiful, bright and gifted, but she’s also fiercely ambitious. KATHERINE MacALISTER talks to the Oxford University student, about to appear in A Streetcar Named Desire at Oxford Playhouse, about her recent
Richard Bell at Discord @ Wahoo, Hythe Bridge Street, Oxford. One of the most important things for an Oxford club to ensure, particularly in its younger days, is that it carves out a recognisable identity. Catering for the masses is an understandable
Mike Barrett of Fiction, below, leaves Tim Hughes slightly baffled with his heady mix of music, art and science. Mike Barrett is an artist, scientist and philosopher. Oh, yeah, and he’s also a musician. A third-year student at the prestigious
Father Christmas arrives by Helicopter Saturday 27 November 2010 2.00pm - Weather permitting Father Christmas will be in his grotto from approx 2.30pm until approx 4.30pm Yarnton Nurseries, Sandy Lane, Yarnton, Kidlington
A 76-year-old woman fell off her bicycle during a handbag snatch in Headington, Oxford. The woman was riding along Wilberforce Street, close to The Butchers Arms, at about 5.30pm on Tuesday, when she was approached from behind by a man on a
AEA Technology 6.1 BMW 4688 Electrocomps 256.25 Nationwide Accident Repair 104.5 Oxford Biomedica 9.75 Oxford Catalyst 68.5 Oxford Instruments 540 Reed Elsevier 532.25 RM 161.5 RPS Group 221.2 Courtesy of Redmayne Bentley, Abingdon
RADIO Oxford broadcaster Roger Clark has died aged 73 following a long battle with cancer. Mr Clark, the station’s expert on trade unions and council affairs, passed away at home in Jericho last Tuesday. Close friend Nicholas Utechin said he was “a
A firefighter who helped a search-and-rescue team in earthquake-hit Haiti has lost his battle with leukaemia. John Taylor, who grew up in Drayton, near Abingdon, was 47 when he died last month. He was one of about 60 UK firefighters to go to Haiti in
THE TRANQUILITY of village life in Fringford has come to a thundering end thanks to rat-running motorists dodging roadworks and diversion signs. Kathy Garner said that since the A4421 Bicester to Finmere road shut last week for a month-long
Police are appealing for witnesses after a man was assaulted in Oxford today. Officers were called to the Abingdon Road, shortly after 6.30am, after reports that two men were involved in an altercation. When officers arrived at the scene
New car sales fell back against last month, dipping 22.2% compared with the scrappage-enhanced figure for October 2009, it has been announced. A total of 131,495 new vehicles were registered in October 2010, the Society of Motor Manufacturers
The Bicester Advertiser’s baby of the year 2010 competition has been won by seven month-old Lola Stafford. Little Lola won first place with 235 votes, while joint runners-up went to Zachary Tyler, one, and Lilly Jones, two-and-a-half.
Toyota has announced yet another recall involving thousands of UK-owned vehicles. The Japanese company said it was recalling about 12,000 UK-registered iQ models because of a steering problem. Cars affected are those produced between September 11
A Second World War veteran has recorded a collection of poems to raise money for the Poppy Appeal. Tom Hedges, 93, was asked by his neighbours in Ramsden to produce the CD after they heard him speak in church. Mr Hedges, who has lived in the village
Precision Break goes for glory for Paul Cole’s Whatcombe stables, near Wantage, in the Breeders’ Cup Marathon (8.10pm) at Churchill Downs tomorrow. The five-year-old, winner of nine of his 21 starts, was last seen finishing down the field in the Cesarewitch
BANBURY Under 13s edged out Effingham & Leatherhead 10-5 in a tight clash at Bodicote Park. Like Banbury, the Surrey side are also ranked in England’s unofficial top ten. Aaron Taylor (pictured) opened the scoring for Banbury with a try and, after Effingham
SHAW GIBBS OXFORDSHIRE FOURSOMES LEAGUE Section 1 The Oxfordshire 3 (4pts), Frilford Heath 0 (0) (The Oxfordshire first): A Stubbs & B Cotton bt B Mann & D Newbold 2&1, M Shimmin & D Knight bt B Patterson & A Walton 1 hole, C Hinton & J Garnish
HANDMADE jewellery, gifts and clothes helped raise more than £500 for a disabled facility at the weekend. Oxsrad, the Oxford and District Sports and Recreation Association for the Disabled, provides facilities for a wide range of disabled and able-bodied
Paul Allott is the guest speaker at Oxfordshire Under 19s’ Australia tour dinner at Oxford’s Hawkwell House Hotel on November 19. For more information or to reserve a place, call Andy Martindale on 07503 183015. The will also be an auction
A FORMER clerk of Didcot Town Council lodged a formal complaint against her old bosses over its eviction of a charity, leading it to concede it ‘could work better’. Julia Underwood, who was town clerk for more than 30 years, argued the council did not
AEA Technology 6 BMW 4600 Electrocomps 257.2 Nationwide Accident Repair 104.5 Oxford Biomedica 9.55 Oxford Catalyst 67.5 Oxford Instruments 542.5 Reed Elsevier 538.25 RM 161.5 RPS Group 220.25 Courtesy of Redmayne Bentley
A MAN who was jailed after trying to steal a £100 perfume set is the first to be publicly named in a shop ban order. Dale Rayson, 22, will join 13 other people banned from dozens of stores in Bicester by the Cherwell Crime Partnership. He was spotted
Chinnor have unveiled new floodlights, which will boost training throughout their age groups. The project received more than £25,000 of RFU funding, plus a donation from Kim Yates, managing director of Chinnor-based Chevron Traffic Management. And the
Alan Goodgame hit a six in his 14 dolls to help Gin’ll Fix It whitewash Unknowns 6-0 in the Kidlington Indoor League. Goodgame was well supported by Roger Goodall with 12. Ady Cross matched Good-game’s tally with 14 dolls for Galacticos – but it couldn
FIVE hundred children helped launch a new charity to get more youngsters reading at Oxford Playhouse yesterday. Pupils from 12 county primary schools met author Andy Stanton at Bookfeast’s first event. The charity, which has grown out
Steve Frear and Steve Naylor will boost Woodstock Harriers’ chance of a return to the top flight when the Oxford Mail Cross Country League gets under way at Crown Farm, Ascott-under-Wychwood, this Sunday (10am). Woodstock’s men were relegated from Division
Amy Chalk, from the Bristol & West Club, won the Alchseter-hosted Candleford Canter 10K. The ladies-only race was being held for the seventh year with a record field of 200. Chalk cruised to victory by a massive margin of two minutes
TRADERS are furious that Oxford City Council could allow homes and offices to be built on Summertown’s main car park as part of housing plans affecting dozens of sites around the city. The council has listed the car park off Banbury Road
Oxford Harlequins director of rugby John Brodley is looking forward to fewer selection headaches. Brodley was delighted with how his near first-choice side played in Saturday’s 35-22 victory over Old Patesians. And having had to make several changes
History was made at Burford when Iain Mutch drove in as their new captain. Mutch joined his wife and new lady skipper, Melanie (pictured together) to become the first married couple to share the Burford’s offices. Among other things, the pair will be
Oxfordshire made it three wins out of three in the English Short Mat Association Inter County Competition with an emphatic 32-8 victory over Avon at Bristol. The 218-137 triumph on shots sees Oxon extened their lead at the top of Group 2. However, they
A 12--YEAR-OLD boy broke another child’s arm when he threw a metal bar at him and knocked him off his bike in Oxford. The 10-year-old was cycling along Quarry Road, in Headington, when he was attacked at about 2.30pm on Sunday, October 3. Police want
OXFORD councillors will today be asked to approve a plan to convert a convent into student accommodation. The Convent Of Notre Dame, in Woodstock Road, could be turned into accommodation for 27 students from Trinity College. The city
A HUGE green hoarding over the railway tracks near Didcot Parkway station has posed an eye-catching puzzle for passing rail commuters. It’s a mystery Sherlock Holmes, Britain’s greatest fictional detective, would have liked to get his teeth into. But
OXFORD is used to seeing movie crews on its streets but the filming of a major Hollywood blockbuster in Didcot is a turn up for the books. Didcot Railway Centre is playing host to the sequel of Sherlock Holmes. The erection of green screens has caused
A war of words has broken out in the battle to be the new chairman of the MP Sports Cherwell League. Nominations have been made for Roger Mitty and Clive Ricks to succeed Martin Phillips when he steps down at the annual meeting at Bicester
OXFORD City Stars put in a lacklustre performance to crash 4-3 at home to Streatham Redskins in South Division 1 of the English National League. Oxford were missing defenders Andrew Shurmer and Wayne Fiddes, while playmaker Dax Hedges was also ruled
DEMOCRATS picked up their first victory of the season as they edged past Comrades 3-2 in Section 1, writes PETE EWINS. Chris Storch put Comrades in front, only for John Patey to compile a score of 8,600 to level the match. Undefeated Simon Ellam rattled
OXFORD’s only shop dedicated to selling recycled second-hand cycles is to close. After nine years of trading, Oxford Cycle Workshop’s store in East Oxford will sell its last bike on Saturday, November 27. Staff said the move was so the group could
WELL done to Keith Mitchell for regularly using the pages of the Oxford Mail to inform us of the changes and adjustments he and his team will need to make to control council spending going forward. He now leads a county council that has decided to do
Shaw Gibbs Oxfordshire Foursomes League Chipping Norton clung on to be crowned Section 1 champions by just half a point after a dramatic final day of league action. Three teams all had a chance of the title before the start of play, but Chippy sealed
OXFORD United’s achievements in winning promotion back to the Football League earlier this year brought the club national coverage. However, the club’s status as the county’s top team has passed by researchers for Thomas Cook’s pocket travel guides.
I AM thrilled that the grant of £47,000 for the adventure playground in South Oxford will now go ahead after all. It makes sense to invest in adventurous and imaginative play for the next generation, especially in our urban areas. I would like to thank
OXFORD United fan John Tyrrell thinks he might regret winning our Face in the Crowd competition. The season ticket holder said the £75 he won after being photographed in the Kassam Stadium crowd at Tuesday night’s game was already spoken for, to buy
Oxford University head coach Murray Henderson has given his injured players a November 22 deadline to prove their Varsity Match fitness. That is the date the Dark Blues host Saracens in their penultimate warm-up game and Henderson requires all potential
YES, we have all been there. We phone the council and what do we get? Firstly, we get four options. You then think you will be put on to an operator, but do we? No, we get another six options all being given to us by a recording. But you think, well
EX-councillor Bill Buckingham criticises Peter Wilkinson, chairman of the tenants and residents’ association, for not praising the city council for the new housing development at Lambourn Road, Rose Hill (Oxford Mail, October 19). If he attended the
LOCAL traders are correct (Oxford Mail, November 2) 2010) that a new supermarket in Oxford’s Cowley Road is both unnecessary and would be damaging to the many small businesses which add to the area’s character and diversity. Successive governments and
NEARLY 18,000 Oxford homes and businesses will not benefit from the city’s new superfast broadband next year. Oxford’s central telephone exchange, plus those in Summertown and Headington, are all due to be fitted with BT’s new Infinity fibre
Two new houses on the edge of a south Oxfordshire village back on to open pasture land. Each of the detached properties at Burr Court, in Harwell, has a drawing room, dining room and family room. A kitchen/breakfast room includes built-in appliances
FREE and cheap travel for hundreds of pensioners faces the axe while day centre prices could rise under new council cost-cutting plans. Moves by Oxfordshire County Council would: End free travel on the Dial-A-Ride service for national free bus pass
Two new houses on the edge of a south Oxfordshire village back on to open pasture land. Each of the detached properties at Burr Court, in Harwell, has a drawing room, dining room and family room. A kitchen/breakfast room includes built-in appliances
Five acres of land including paddocks, a patio and a garden with a stream running through the middle come with a detached house near Bicester. Firethorn, in the village of Blackthorn, has open views from the back and overlooks a pond at the front. The
POLICE chiefs said they have no choice but to reactivate Oxfordshire’s speed cameras to maintain safety on the county’s roads. On Monday, it emerged Thames Valley Police is poised to sign a deal with County Hall to turn the cameras back on
OXFORD Ice Rink is to close for three weeks for a major revamp. The 26-year-old rink in Oxpens Road will shut on November 15 for improvements costing £700,000, including a new refrigeration unit. Changing rooms and showers will also be refitted, while
A Grade II-listed barn conversion with a potential annexe is on the market for £650,000. Grove Barn in Deddington, near Banbury, was converted about nine years ago and still has many character features such as exposed stonework and timbers and arrow-slit
AN ELECTRONIC chip which could restore eyesight to the blind will be trialled in Oxford, giving hope to more than 200 county sufferers. Experts are now appealing for people with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) to take part in the trial at the John
THE launch of a trial of an implant which would allow some blind people to be able to ‘see’ again is exciting news. If successful, the amazing device could mean that those suffering a particular kind of blindness would get some sort of vision that could
The Golden Prince Rebecca Dean (Harper, £7.99) Anyone suffering withdrawal symptoms from the TV series Downton Abbey could try this book. The Houghton sisters — Rose, Iris, Marigold and Lily — live at Snowberry. There is a Suffragette, a marriageable
Dan Cruickshank’s boundless enthusiasm is his calling card. The architectural historian has become an increasingly in-demand TV presenter of upmarket, highbrow documentaries over the past few years. On screen, he is ebullient, eloquent and infectiously
THE BERLIN-BAGHDAD EXPRESS Sean McMeekin (Allen Lane, £25)It was a politically powerful idea of the Germans to invade the Middle East through Islam at the time of the First World War. The key to it was The Berlin-Baghdad Express, a railway line pointing
ENGLISH LITERATURE: A VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION Jonathan Bate (OUP, £7.99) It is difficult to write a very short introduction to a subject as vast as English literature, but few people are better qualified to do so than Bate, an eminent Shakespearean
The award winning artists and authors in these new picture books are gifted and wise. Their simple stories prompt fundamental questions about life. The Julia Donaldson and Axel Donaldson of Gruffalo fame give us Zog (Alison Green, £10.99) a charming dragon
Flexibility, a BMW manager in Munich told me when the company was first proposing to buy the Rover works in Cowley in 1994 from British Aerospace, is the name of the game in the car industry. The business is as seasonal as farming, with most customers
A DRIVER was trapped after a collision on the A34 last night. Fire crews were called to the incident near the turning for Botley on the dual carriageway at 9.36pm. A car had landed on its side. Two vehicles were involved. They were
Chris Wilder says it’s decision time for several of his players. The Oxford United manager says he is taking stock, with the season a third of the way through, and decide which players need to come in and go out. He believes he has given enough chances
Why do architects love the buildings we hate? That’s the question dons at The Queen’s College, Oxford, posed to architect Alan Berman when they asked his company, BGS, to investigate the controversial Florey Building in St Clements. At the official opening
Writer-directors tend to struggle when working in a second language. It was never an issue for the many European exiles who found sanctuary in the Hollywood studio system in the 1930s, as while the likes of Samuel Goldwyn and Michael Curtiz could mangle
Seventy-four years after he made his first short at the age of 14, Alain Resnais remains one of France's most innovative and engaging film-makers. Adapted from Christian Gailly's novel L'Incident, Wild Grass is his 17th feature and continues his
TWO CAR parks in Summertown are being earmarked for development, a week after plans were unveiled to build on St Clements car park. The Oxford City Council-owned car park serving Summertown’s main shopping area is on a list of 100 potential
Sir – Oxford needs a purpose-built concert hall for all the excellent orchestral concerts in the city. The Sheldonian Theatre is a beautiful building but quite unsuited as a concert hall. Oxford is a city of learning and culture. However, the recent
THESE two youngsters were making the most of what experts are calling one of the most beautiful autumns in recent years. Brothers Fergus Fleming, seven, and Patrick, four, played among the vibrant yellow, gold and orange leaves in Steventon, near Abingdon
THREE years ago, it was an overgrown toxic wasteland, the haunt of antisocial youths. Now it is a green oasis, attracting wildlife and people keen to get back to nature without leaving the city. Barracks Lane Community Garden, in Cowley, Oxford, was
The birth of a child for most of us is a moment of joy and celebration. However, in some cases it becomes a moment of joy tinged with anguish. It can happen in moments, an unexpected birth trauma, and your life and your child's life will be changed
Flash the cash The news that Oxfordshire’s speed cameras are to be turned back on came as little surprise. The reason they were switched off, we were told, was financial, with Oxfordshire County Council withdrawing £600,000 funding to the Thames Valley
Sir – Surely the answer to the St Clements parking problem is to utilise the vast unsued expanse of South Park, as it is confusingly known, at the foot of Headington Hill and a mere stone’s throw from all the frenzy you report from shops in St Clements
Sir – I am a junior doctor working at the Churchill Hospital. The Government has just announced it may not implement a new law to scrap cigarette vending machines and tobacco displays in shops. We all know that vending machines are an easy source of
Sir – Last night, as most evenings, I was walking down Morrell Avenue. I was passed by about 60 car drivers, 80 per cent of whom were breaking the 20mph speed limit. A harmless pedestrian, I do not want to be at risk of being killed or injured by one
Sir – I would like to reassure local people that at South Oxfordshire District Council we’re doing our upmost to make the district more affordable for first-time buyers (Report, October 14). We have an ongoing programme, which promotes a range of low-cost
Sir – Your report that last week, for the first time in its 400-year history, a Muslim Imam delivered a sermon in the chapel of Pembroke College, Oxford — the service preceded by the Muslim call to prayer — will these days raise few eyebrows. The great
Sir – We the undersigned Oxford charities would like to place on record our gratitude to the Oxford Food Bank for its first year of service to charities in Oxford — and to wish it a very happy birthday. For the past year volunteers have delivered fruit
Sir – Councillor Tanner (Letters, October 28) is unjustifiably smug about the Oxford recycling programme when he writes that it has “....gone remarkably well so far”. If the Botley Road near the railway bridge, or South Street on Osney Island, are exemplars
Sir – The traders of St Clements are right to feel aggrieved at the threat to their livelihood posed by the plan for student accommodation on the car park adjacent to the Florey Building (Report, October 28). Leaving aside the question of the creeping
Sir – I am writing to protest at the development of the St Clements car park site. As a business owner in the Iffley Road we have scarcely any parking available for customers at present in the area. Further diminution of the facilities at St Clements
Sir – I agree with Oxfordshire MEP James Elles that rural areas of Oxfordshire are stuck in the broadband ‘slow lane’ (Feature, October 28). The Cumnor exchange area stretches out as far as Farmoor and Appleton. Users near the far limits of the
Not far from me there is a fairly smart gastropub with rooms that serves good food. It is sensibly priced and the views on a sunny day are smashing. I would love to go more but the reason I do not is that it has an altogether shocking wine list. It
Sir – If any eighty-somethings wish to risk falling in the street by trying to run for a bus, I recommend that they do so close to Hope House in Woodstock. I did just that last Saturday. The care and concern of the owner, Paul Hageman, and the passers-by
Sir – I was delighted to read earlier this year and again (Report, October 21) about Oxford University’s plans to redevelop the Iffley Road sports facilities, despite the fact that, as a current student at the university, I am unlikely ever to benefit
Sir – In our so-called animal-loving society, even though most people are responsible pet owners, every day there are fresh cases of cruelty reported where animals are being kept in dreadful conditions, ill-treated, or abandoned. They cannot speak, so
Sir – A few weeks ago a new rubbish bin arrived at my house. I hadn’t requested it but on reading the label I understood I was to use it and my existing one could be used for green rubbish or be collected, I just had to ring the number. Well, the number
South Africa’s star is in the ascendant. The exchange rate is very favourable, the tourist boom has helped to bring these great wines to the public’s attention, and a new generation of smart young winemakers is emerging. These talented youngsters are
One hundred sites in Oxford have been identified for possible development to address the city’s housing shortage. A list has been drawn up by Oxford City Council after landowners and developers were invited to submit sites that could be built on. The
It’s seems strange to think of planting at this inhospitable time of year when the the grey days of winter are almost upon us. However we are coming up to Bonfire Night and this is the very best time to plant ‘Aquadulce Claudia’ broad bean seeds (see
Spare a thought for wildlife at Guy Fawkes: This weekend I’ll be wrapped up warm and crowding round a roaring fire along with thousands of others across the country, cheering at the spectacular lights and colourful explosions in the night sky. Although
Sitting in a row in front of me were three highly accomplished, professional actors, awaiting my first question. It was, I must admit, just a little intimidating — almost as if Dames Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, and Helen Mirren were lined up for interview
The stage is covered with bunches of flowers. It’s like a fatal accident site, but the teenage girls all around me in the audience are rocking with laughter. The laughter gets even louder when a tall and sturdy flower is picked up, only to
On the 2nd November , six pupils from Burford School were presented with their Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award at a ceremony in St James's Palace. The pupils: Lizzie Adams, Hannah Brown, Eleanor Corbett, Scott Meridew, Sarah Parsons and Francesca Snare were
