THE man who died in the River Thames in Abingdon last Friday was named tonight as Gavin Dible. The 32-year-old, from Andover, in Hampshire, was travelling on a boat when the incident happened near Abingdon Marina at about 4.20pm. A Thames
ABANDONED bikes littered across Oxford are to be removed in a new clampdown. Police and Oxford City Council officers are joining forces to clear the city of cycles left chained to lamposts, railings and stands. Under the scheme, all abandoned bikes
PART of the old Morris Cowley station yard could be given a new lease of life if a planning application wins the backing of Oxford City Council. The site, next to the Cowley branch line off Watlington Road. is currently used as a storage area for plant
ADVANCES in forensic science caught up with farm labourer John William Cooper more than 20 years after he shot dead a couple from Oxfordshire, it was claimed today. Roger Robson, a fibres expert with LGC Forensics, said new tests had not been
A MOTORIST has vowed to pay a £50 fine in 20p coins after a change in parking charges caught her 20p short. Dr Marie Mullier thought she had to pay £1.20 for two hours parking at Bure Place, Bicester. But it went up to £1.40 from April 4, and the shortfall
AN 86-year-old woman died after inhaling asbestos at the Morris Motor car factory in Cowley, an inquest found. Elizabeth Stephenson, of Evans Lane, Kidlington, worked at the car plant for six months during the late 1950s. She died at Sobell House Hospice
Police are appealing for witnesses following a burglary at a house in Great Coxwell, near Faringdon. The house, which is near the Tithe Barn, was broken into between 5pm on Easter Monday and 2pm the following day. The offender gained access through
Police are appealing for witnesses to an altercation between two men in Wantage. At 7.30pm on Sunday two men aged between their mid-fifties and mid-sixties were arguing at the junction of Harcourt Way and Grove Street (A338) near traffic lights
ABINGDON’S youth centre will get a £425,000 makeover after surviving a raft of countywide cuts to young people’s services. The Net in Stratton Way is among seven Oxfordshire youth centres set to provide more services for the most vulnerable, covering
A DJ completed a 24-hour music set to raise cash for victims of the recent Japanese and New Zealand disasters. Gary Smith, aka DJG, streamed the set online from his Bicester home between 7pm on Friday and 7pm on Saturday, playing nearly 500 house tracks
IN THE days of the Wild West, the sheriff was always a man. But these days the more noble position of High Sheriff is falling to Oxfordshire’s women. For the first time in the county’s history, a woman handed over the prestigious ceremonial
STAFF at a Barnardo’s respite care centre in Oxford have called on the community to help them refurbish the building. Viking House, in Saxon Way, Headington, is run by the charity with Oxfordshire County Council and gives parents a break by looking after
AEA Technology 4.85 BMW 5547 Electrocomponents 273 Nationwide Accident Repair 101.5 Oxford Biomedica 5.65 Oxford Catalysts 96.5 Oxford Instruments 749 Reed Elsevier 524.75 RM 147.75 RPS Group 225.6 Coutesy of Redmayne Bentley, Abingdon
The name of a man who died in the River Thames is to be released today. An inquest into his death will be opened this morning. The man, in his 30s, was with his family when the incident happened near Abingdon Marina on Friday. He had been travelling
Prince Edward will be in the city today to officially reopen the refurbished Pegasus Theatre. The theatre, in Magdalen Road, has had a £7.4m rebuild, including a new cafe, foyer, dressing rooms, workshop room and a new dance and rehearsal studio. The
Team Lotus Enterprise today announced that it had purchased British sportscar maker Caterham Cars. The acquisition by Tony Fernandes, Kamarudin Meranun and SM Nasarudin, the men behind the Team Lotus Formula 1 squad, from the shareholder consortium
THIS week’s Face In The Crowd nearly missed claiming his £75 winnings, after forgetting to read his daily paper. Neville Bowyer, from Bicester, gets the Oxford Mail delivered to his house every day. But he missed spotting himself in the paper, after
AFC Jericho had to work hard to secure the UTV Sunday League Division 2 title with a 2-1 home victory over Didcot Casuals. Needing a point to be champions, Jericho threatened with a Dan New header. After the break, Didcot defender Dave Wyatt inexplicably
Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers is a serious and affecting work of art. Having begun life 30 years ago as a school play, the piece was fashioned shortly afterwards into a musical, with songs by the versatile Mr Russell himself. A West End revival
Police today appealed for information about the theft of caravan hitchings from a caravan centre in Thame. Police said CCTV footage showed two men climbing over a gate before loading a trolley with caravan hitchings, which they took across
Police today confirmed that an absconded prisoner from HMP Springhill, at Grendon Underwood, was back in custody. Jarreau Alexander Charles, 24, handed himself in at Aylesbury police station last night. Charles absconded from HMP Springhill on April
COUNCIL services could be offered at post offices, as part of a venture to save branches from closure. Oxford city and Oxfordshire county councils are exploring the possibility of a partnership which would see services, such as the payment of rents
Oxfordshire's Jordan Ayris was unable to add to his goal tally as England Under 18s lost 1-0 to Scotland in the Centenary Shield at Inverness Caledonian Thistle. The 18-year-old Bicester Community College student, who scored England’s winner in their
Special Occasions is a two-character play by Bernard Slade which is described as a comedy — at any rate in the Mill’s publicity — but really supplies us with very little to laugh at. Divorce, bereavement, emotional and medical crises of various sorts
‘Double, double toil and trouble: Fire burn and cauldron bubble” . . . not, most surprisingly, in the new production of Macbeth which the RSC’s artistic director Michael Boyd is offering, under his own hand, as the first production designed for
Laurel and Hardy. Morecambe and Wise. To those illustrious names you could possibly add those of Sir Humphrey Appleby and Jim Hacker in Yes, Prime Minister. Yes, I know they’re fictional characters, but they are still an immortal comedy partnership
A man was punched in the face in East Oxford. The 22-year-old asked a group of people to help him move his car in Luther Street, but said he saw one of them lean in and steal his Blackberry mobile phone as they pushed the vehicle. He chased the man
SAXTON Rovers kept alive their North Berks League Division 1 title hopes with a 1-1 draw at leaders Lambourn Sports, writes Phil Annets. Kirk Willmoth put Lambourn ahead, but Kyle Ald-worth snatched an equaliser for Saxton, who are ten points adrift,
CRAIG Dean bagged a brace as Crown & Thistle beat Cowley Crusaders 2-1 to land the RT Harris Oxford City FA County Junior League Cup final at Rover Cowley. Dean fired his side in front before neatly heading home to double the advantage. Crusaders came
Oxford’s hospitals have not recorded an increase in the number of smog-related admissions after the Easter weekend. On Friday the Government raised the smog warning to ‘high’ for most of south, east and central England as sunshine and still conditions
Vale of White Horse Under 14s experienced mixed fortunes at the ESFA Isle of Wight Festival. After kicking off with a 7-2 win over East Cornwall, they lost 3-2 to East Riding before drawing 3-3 against West Cornwall and 2-2 with Bishop Auckland. George
Oxfordshire County Council has made a shortsighted decision that will hurt thousands of young people and impact on all of us (Protests as county cuts youth service, Wednesday, April 20). The council is cutting its funding for 36 youth centres and projects
Witney & District FA HANBOROUGH were crowned Premier Division champions for the first time since 1976 with a 1-0 midweek victory over Spartan Rangers, writes Anthony Barlow. Dan Haggie scored the only goal in the 75th minute from the
Oxford Yellows edged out Kings Arms Wheatley on penalties at Abingdon Town, thanks to a super goalkeeping performance from man-of-the-match Ryan Davies, writes TIM SIRET. It was 1-1 after normal and extra-time, with Yellows clinching the final
Did Keith Mitchell (Oxford Mail, April 22) really accuse an opponent of brass-necked audacity? That sounds to me like the pot calling the kettle. Chris Robins, Parish councillor, Foxdown Close, Kidlington
I WAS stunned to read that the only through route from Rose Hill to the railway station is being axed in two weeks’ time without warning (Oxford Mail, 25 April 2011). Neither the Oxford Bus Company nor the Oxford Bus Users’ Forum has consulted me, but
AS frontline healthcare workers living in Oxford, we welcome the Royal College of Nursing’s strong statement of opposition to Andrew Lansley’s NHS reforms, and call on Nicola Blackwood, MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, to explain her support for
IN THE run-up to Valentine’s Day, every card shop in Oxford had huge displays of cards for loved ones. The same applied to cards for Mother’s Day, St Patrick’s Day, and then – nothing. Poor old St George! England’s patron saint was once again
If the new voting system gets pushed through in the referendum on May 5 will we be any better off? If, for instance, one candidate only receives 49 per cent of the vote, then second and third choices would decide the result and maybe the candidate who
YOU have to laugh at this lot in government; you would cry otherwise. We had a big scandal in the papers saying our lads in Afghanistan were getting killed because some of them didn’t have body armour. So it is odd that David Cameron can now send 1,000
I WRITE in response to the stories Big Plans for Tavern (Oxford Mail, April 14) and It’s your fault pub is becoming flats (April 22). I would be slightly more inclined to worry about my future if I was a Punch Taverns tenant in Oxford as they seem to
Do you know what one of the best things about getting older is? It’s being able to do what you want, when you want, and not needing to give a damn what anyone else thinks. They say human beings are at their most creative at two points in their lives
A police speeding operation found most motorists in Oxford staying within 20mph speed limits. Police said a team of officers from the Jericho/West Oxford neighbourhood team monitored speeds in Mill Street, Ferry Hinksey Road and Richmond Road
The man behind sorting out our hospital’s bedblocking crisis says a reshuffle of services will be key. In Oxfordshire hundreds of patients ready to move on from hospital are being left stranded in wards because of backlogs among agencies responsible
OXFORD: Harry Potter actress Emma Watson has confirmed she will be transferring to another university in the autumn. However, the former Headington School pupil denied she was bullied during her time at Brown University, an Ivy League school
OXFORD: The case of a man accused of beheading a restaurant manager has been adjourned. Christopher Varian, 32, died at The Oxfordshire Golf Club in Milton Common last August. Jonathan Limani, 34, who lived and worked at the club, was
ONE of the country’s top law firms has threatened Oxfordshire County Council with legal action over cuts to the youth service. Personal injury lawyers Leigh Day and Co has written to County Hall saying its consultation process over changes to the children
CHILDREN have been getting closer to nature as part of a project aimed at fostering a lifelong love of wildlife. Pupils at Fritwell Primary School, near Bicester, planted new flowers, installed bird boxes and dug a wetland garden yesterday. Nine-year-old
MONEY will not help to ease Oxfordshire’s bed blocking problem, according to a new county chief brought in as a troubleshooter. John Dixon, who has joined Oxfordshire County Council as interim deputy director for adult social care, said instead
James Constable has become Oxford United’s highest goalscorer in a Football League season for a decade. And the U’s skipper says he isn’t finished yet! He is targeting, in the short term, getting as close as possible to the 20-goal mark this season,
CITY authorities hope free water will help dampen drunken antics on May Morning. Five hundred bottles of water will be handed out to people in a bid to slow down their alcohol consumption. The water, donated by Sainsbury’s, will be distributed
Six top tourist attractions, selected by Visit Oxfordshire’s Jo Butler: The Ashmolean Museum, The Harry Potter destinations, including the Bodleian Library and Christ Church, The official blue badge walking tour around Oxford, Blenheim Palace,
A ROYAL tourist boom could give Oxford a multi-million pound boost this year. That is the conclusion of Tourism bosses at Visit Oxfordshire, who believe people could be drawn to the county in record numbers by its historical links and rural
LITTLE Ruby Frizzell was just four days old when she went to her first May Morning in Oxford. Now aged five, she spent yesterday helping her mum, community artist Groovy Su, paint a huge sun to be worn by a member of Sol Samba band to lead people up
AN OXFORD paramedic has warned people of the dangers of jumping from Magdalen Bridge. Maria Langler, operations manager at South Central Ambulance Service NHS Trust and based in Oxford, said the 25ft plunge was fraught with danger, from fractured
DRUNKEN May Day revellers have been warned they take their life in their hands if they jump from Magdalen Bridge this weekend. The River Cherwell is at its lowest level in years due to below average rainfall in March and April. And it has left the water
Jumping from Magdalen Bridge on May Morning is not a good idea. Well, hold the front page, we hear your cry. But the same is said every year and it still happens. Perhaps today’s images of how shallow the water really is will have an impact. Perhaps
A RACE against time to repair a cracked lock gate and a major new university scheme have been honoured in an engineering awards scheme. Work to improve Sandford Lock and Sandford Access Bridge on the River Thames and a £29.5m project at Oxford University
THE streets of Witney were filled by the rhythms of jazz, soul, folk and punk over the Easter weekend as the town’s music festival kicked off. Some 150 artists will play at 40 events during the eight-day event, which runs until Monday. Acts performed
CAMPAIGNERS are facing a race against time to find a new home for Wallingford’s youth centre. Last week, Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet backed cuts to youth service funding across the county to save £4m a year. Out of 26 youth
TRIBUTES have been paid in Didcot to Captain Lisa Head, the first female bomb disposal expert to die in Afghanistan. Capt Head, of 11 EOD Regiment, Royal Logistic Corps, based at Vauxhall Barracks, Didcot, was critically injured by an improvised
Rail passengers on the Cotswold Line in west Oxfordshire will enjoy the route’s best-ever service from September, once track redoubling work is complete. A near-hourly weekday off-peak service will run between Oxford, Hanborough, Charlbury,
