Archive

  • Will you take a ride on 100ft octopus at St Giles Fair?

    ABOUT 100,000 people are expected to attend Oxford’s annual two-day St Giles fair on Monday. This year’s fair falls before many schools have reopened and as a result organisers expect huge numbers of visitors. The September celebration has

  • Stadium housing plan 'makes lot of sense'

    HOUSING plans for Oxford’s stadium are likely to get approval, according to city council leader Bob Price. Galliard Homes and stadium owner the Greyhound Racing Association want to raze the attraction to the ground and build hundreds of homes on

  • Theatre company is struggling to weather the storm

    IT HAS always prided itself on its innovative outdoor settings. But in a year which has seen torrential rain, gale-force winds and even a tornado in Oxfordshire, Creation Theatre is finding it hard to weather the storm. Bookings are down so

  • GOLF: Results August 3

    SHAW GIBBS OXFORDSHIRE FOURSOMES LEAGUE Section 1 Drayton Park 2½ (3½pts), Ellesborough ½ (½) (Drayton Park first): A Elmey & A Griffiths halved with J Allison & C Pearce; N Elmey & H Wilkinson bt L Richardson & P Cuthbert 1 hole

  • Housing plans for former car body shop

    AN APPLICATION has been submitted to convert a former car body shop in Witney into three houses and eight apartments. Kernahan’s of Witney closed its body shop in Newland last July – along with the company’s High Street showroom – after more than

  • Good attitude wins scaffolder college prize

    AN ABINGDON scaffolder is on his way to the top after winning a college prize. Apprentice Shaw Miller, 29, was crowned winner of the scaffolding year 1 category at the National Construction College awards. The Appleford Drive resident works

  • A tale of two cities

    THESE days, there is a good chance that the word ‘Budapest’ will actually trigger memories in most Brits. If nothing else, they’ll at least know of it, writes Anna Matei. Of course, to most it’ll still be the land of palinka, paprika and goulash

  • Beth Porter is ‘available’ for dream-folk

    BETH Porter’s dreamy folk has not so much set the art world alight but tickled its belly and got it to roll over – tongue out and all. This Bath artist and her every evolving band of Availables (so called, ahem, because they are so busy and can rarely

  • Local share prices (PM)

    AEA Technology 0.03 BMW 4651 Electrocomponents 216.8 Nationwide Accident Repair 61 Oxford Biomedica 2.2 Oxford Catalysts 70.5 Oxford Instruments 1253 Reed Elsevier 550.5 RM 77.75 RPS Group 236.1 Courtesy of Redmayne Bentley, Abingdon

  • It's plain sailing for brave Maisie

    A TEENAGE girl recovering from cancer treatment has enjoyed a four-day sailing challenge round the Isle of Wight. Maisie Norton, 14, from Wantage, navigated the Solent with 31 other young people between the ages of eight and 17, all in recovery

  • Disabled drivers attack street parking ban

    DISABLED people have hit out at council chiefs over new restrictions in Witney that stop them parking within reach of shops. The new rules ban all cars from loading or unloading in High Street between Welch Way and Corn Street and stop blue badge

  • Exhibiting all creatures great and small

    VISITORS to the Jam Factory in Oxford will encounter all creatures great and small thanks to a new exhibition. Iffley artist Phillip Jones is exhibiting Creatures, a collection of drawings based on natural history, alongside London-based designer

  • Teen fashion show for charity

    TEENAGERS proudly modelled the charity shop clothes they transformed to raise more cash for the needy. Youngsters from the Witney youth centre hub in Witan Way showed off the clothes on the catwalk in Carterton Community Centre, Trefoil Way, on

  • Sweetening the hunt for the perfect new job

    JOB seekers lapped up the advice, and free ice creams, when the National Careers Service set up a roadshow in Oxford. Careers advisers were in Bonn Square on Thursday as part of a tour of 20 towns and cities around the UK. Road show manager Shona

  • Bob's choral work should fix the early clappers at the Proms

    The music stops; the crowd applauds. And why not? Because the work hasn’t finished. Tut-tuts no doubt greeted the clappers on Monday night midway through the BBC Philharmonic’s superb Proms performance of Mahler’s Symphony No 7, under conductor Gianandrea

  • Barry causes a flutter at the show

    Barry the pet cockerel narrowly avoided sending a glass of red wine flying in his peck around the picnickers, missus in tow, during the interval in Sweeney Todd at Longborough on Sunday afternoon. “Nearly coq au vin,” joked my neighbour. Feathered

  • OLYMPICS: First medal for Oxfordshire athletes

    THERE was a first medal for Oxfordshire athletes at London 2012 today with the rowing men's eight winning bronze. The crew including Oxford University 's Stan Louloudis plus former Oxford Brookes man and current Leander Club member Alex Partridge

  • Girls' jobs going to the boys

    My belief that The Merchant of Venice is an anti-Semitic play remains unshaken by a reader’s assertion in our letters column last week that I am wrong. No one need take my word for it. Here is the opening sentence of an essay on the play by a man

  • Fuchsia Dulop's recipe for smothered rainbow chard

    The term “smothering or smothered” is the nearest Fuschia can get to the describing the cooking method known in Chinese as ‘men’. The Chinese character for men consists of the sign for fire next to the sign that means stuffy, stifling or tightly

  • Try the healthier tastes of China

    I first met Fuchsia Dunlop about eight years ago when she was promoting her Sichuan Cookery, which went on to win the Jeremy Round Award for best first book. She lives in London now, having spent her school days in North Oxford before going on

  • Ted and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days

    Since the early 20th century, the teddy bear has been a potent symbol of childhood innocence. Stuffed animals can also be incredibly valuable: bears handmade by the German firm Steiff, distinguished by a button in their ears, are highly desirable

  • When the spoilsports turned on morris dancing

    It is tempting to peer back at life in pre-industrial Oxfordshire and think of it as a sort of golden age. But take a quick look at the ways in which our forebears used to enjoy themselves on their days off and it becomes immediately apparent just

  • Away: Art Jericho

    Away brings together work by photographers Sharon Boothroyd and Tim Crooks. They both explore aspects of dislocation, vulnerability and absence. Boothroyd’s series, If you get married again will you still love me?, is based on interviews with separated

  • Womad: Malmesbury, Wilshire

    IT’S a Sunday evening, the sun is going down and inside an enormous blue marquee thousands of music-lovers are being treated to one of the most striking, stirring, and surreal spectacles of the summer. The stage is stacked with a four-storey

  • Flight and the Artistic Imagination: Compton Verney

    Compton Verney goes from strength to strength. Its visitor numbers are 70 per cent up on last year and the recently opened exhibition Flight and the Artistic Imagination is sure to be a hit with the public. It has something for everyone. The

  • Oxfordshire County Youth Orchestra: Sheldonian Theatre

    In the year of both the Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympics, it was appropriate that the OCYO’s latest concert was an all-English affair, with music by Bax, Walton and Elgar. As always with this orchestra, it wasn’t just the technical mastery

  • Oxford Philomusica: Christ Church Cathedral

    Saturday’s magnificent concert by the Oxford Philomusica, in the glorious setting of Christ Church Cathedral, marked both the end of the orchestra’s summer baroque series and the opening of its annual International Piano Festival. Most importantly

  • Alexander Kobrin: Holywell Music Room

    It’s straight down to business with Alexander Kobrin: there’s no exaggerated bowing to the audience or fiddling around with the piano stool. Moscow-born Kobrin was appearing as one of the recitalists and teachers at this year’s Oxford Philomusica

  • Corona Strings: Deddington Church

    Perverse: it’s a word you could use to describe a decision to found an orchestra that excludes wind and brass players. But there is plenty of varied repertoire for strings alone, as conductor Janet Lincé convincingly demonstrated in this concert.

  • Sweeney Todd: Longborough Festival Opera

    Stephen Sondheim succeeded Richard Wagner on Longborough’s stage last weekend. The focus was still on death and destruction, though — if that seen in Sweeney Todd was on a slightly more modest scale than Götterdämmerung’s. This was the chance for

  • Richard III: Shakespeare's Globe

    Riding high after his enormous success in London and New York as Jerusalem’s Rooster Byron, Mark Rylance returns to Shakespeare’s Globe — the London theatre he ran for ten years till 2005 — with a mesmerising portrait of the stage’s most gleefully

  • Sports clubs in fight against road plans

    SPORTS clubs are fighting plans to put a road across playing fields as part of a 2,500-home development in Grove. Persimmon Homes wants to move Denchworth Road to cut through the recreation ground by Cane Lane as part of plans for housing on Grove

  • Ales and ciders on tap at Cogges Museum festival

    COGGES Manor Farm Museum is hosting a beer and cider festival this weekend. The event will feature more than 40 locally-produced beers and ciders and will take place on Friday and Saturday. Entertainment will include music, comedy, games, a

  • Heroes need all help we can offer

    WE hope West Oxfordshire residents heed calls from Help for Heroes for more volunteers. Oxfordshire co-ordinator Dave Lewis hopes to raise more money for the forces charity by getting extra volunteers on board. The volunteers would attend events

  • Taylor Wimpey profits leap

    House builder Taylor Wimpey, which has a string of developments across the county, has reported a major boost in its fortunes. Pre-tax profits at the company which employs 107 staff across 12 Oxfordshire sites rose by more than 170 per cent to £78.2m

  • £50 rewards for using recycling properly

    OXFORD City Council will be rewarding six Barton householders with £50 in shopping vouchers if they place their blue recycling bin out each fortnight and the food caddy out each week. It is part of the Cleaner, Greener Barton campaign which aims

  • County council still wasting money on Cogges Link Road fight

    Sir – I attended the Oxfordshire County Council cabinet meeting on July 17. The implications of the Secretary of State’s decision to refuse the compulsory purchase order for land required by the Cogges Link Road scheme were considered with respect

  • Calamities for culture

    Sir – How sad to read yet again of the myopic view of West Oxfordshire district councillors taking a decision against the opportunity to turn a Witney industrial unit into a theatre for the training of Witney’s youth (Gazette, July 18), in favour

  • Country market closure puzzling

    Sir – There are many reasons why I have thoroughly enjoyed being a Witney resident for almost 30 years and I shall take this opportunity to share one of them; the weekly country market at the Masonic Hall on Church Green. Since having a regular

  • What sport suits your area

    EVENTS to help residents shape the future of leisure services in their communities will take place this month. West Oxfordshire residents will be able to try out different sports and activities and decide what would be best for their area.

  • Racer arrived at prom in style

    Sir – I enclose a picture of my daughter Carlee Shayler arriving at the Henry Box School prom last month on her motocross bike. She specifically bought her yellow dress to match her Suzuki RM125 race bike, which she races with Banbury Motocross

  • Crayfish Bob's mission to protect Thames from American invader

    ‘CRAYFISH BOB’ Ring is on a mission – to protect Oxfordshire’s ‘infested’ waterways and wildlife from an American waterborne assassin. The 57-year-old soon-to-be grandfather from Abingdon, is waging a war against the American Signal Crayfish (ASC

  • Care home given a second warning

    A BANBURY care home has been criticised by the care watchdog over how it administers and manages drugs. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has given Brooklands 2 in Old Parr Road 14 days to make changes. It is the second time the home in Old

  • United triallists have to sweat

    A decision will be made shortly on whether any of the three triallists Oxford United took on tour will be offered a contract. Youngsters Alex Evans, Ryan Tafazoli and Courtney Harris all played 90 minutes in the U’s final game in the US on Monday

  • Local share prices (AM)

    AEA Technology 0.03 BMW 4599 Electrocomponents 217 Nationwide Accident Repair 61 Oxford Biomedica 2.2 Oxford Catalysts 70.5 Oxford Instruments 1253.5 Reed Elsevier 544 RM 76.25 RPS Group 240.25 Courtesy of Redmayne Bentley, Abingdon

  • Last day to save Manet painting

    THE Ashmolean’s fundraising appeal to save a Manet portrait for the nation is due to end today. An export ban to stop Manet’s Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus leaving the country lasts only to August 7. With the Ashmolean still £400,000 short

  • Shaw recovers after capsize

    Windsurfer Bryony Shaw, who was brought up in Oxford, says she is still on course to claim back-to-back Olympic medals despite seeing the start of her campaign hampered by a dip in the sea in Tuesday’s heats. Shaw, who claimed bronze in Beijing

  • CRICKET: Vainker excited by Argentina mission

    Oxfordshire bowler Francois Vainker can’t wait to fly out to Argentina on Saturday to take up a post helping develop the game. The Oxford CC left-arm spinner, who is 24 this month, jets out from Heathrow to Buenos Aires to start a job as coach

  • December date set for HS2 legal challenges

    A DATE has been set for a series of legal challenges against the planned high speed rail line that would cut through Oxfordshire. Five separate legal challenges to the Government’s £33bn HS2 project will be heard in the High Court from December

  • Cropredy mourns a compere and friend

    MUSICIANS at next week’s Cropredy Convention are set to perform tributes to compere and actor Geoff Hughes. The Coronation Street and Keeping Up Appearances star compered Fairport’s Cropredy Convention over the past few years. A festival spokesman

  • Out of date views

    DERRICK Holt (July 13) has answered Alba Thorning (July 9) from his own standpoint. I will answer her from hers. In the first place, she is out of date. I understand that St Bridget and St Hilda were both bishops. In the second place, she is

  • Cars are now cleaner

    IN reference to Mr Limmer’s letter, Oxford Mail, July 30, I note he fails to respond to my claim that the Department of Transport bases vehicle excise duty on the amount of particulates, that part of the exhaust emissions that pollute the air.

  • Olympics can help us all to live in harmony

    THE Olympic Games, held this year in London, is the greatest sports event in the world, drawing athletes from the myriad nations of the world to one city. The games are an important school to educate participants and spectators in important values

  • AUNT SALLY: Champ Lyon in an early exit

    Reigning champion Neil Lyon (Three Pigeons) crashed out 2-1 to Mick Berry (Red Lion Eynsham) in the Greene King Oxford & District League singles second round, writes ANDY BEAL. The first leg was a marathon as it was tied 3-3, and then on three

  • THE DISABLED SPACE: Help us make parade a success

    Do you like parades and if so what kind of parade do you like? Over the last few years we have seen many parades of protest in the streets of Oxford. But more colourful ones have taken place – especially the ones staged on the Cowley Road.

  • FOOTBALL: Cook scores first for Oxford City

    Former Oxford United winger Jamie Cook scored one of the goals as Oxford City drew 2-2 at Maidenhead United in Tuesday night’s friendly. Alex Wall put the home side ahead, Felipe Barcelos levelling before the break. Cook’s lob made it 2-1

  • GB eight lited by gymnastics heroes

    Katie Greves says Britain’s women’s eight should be inspired by their gymnastic colleagues after reaching the Olympic final at Eton Dorney on Tuesday. Greves, from Wallingford, and her crew including five others with Oxfordshire connections, will

  • Fit-again Oxford United winger Potter is champing at the bit

    Alfie Potter is determined to contribute more goals to Oxford United this season after regaining his fitness. The winger missed the second half of last season with a broken ankle, but is now fully recovered and scored for the U’s in their final

  • Oxford United boss Wilder is a happy man

    While Oxford United ’s strikers grabbed the attention as their United States tour ended with a 4-1 win, manager Chris Wilder was arguably more pleased by his side’s work ethic. The U’s were convincing winners for the first time in pre-season, against

  • Prime Minister launches academy

    PRIME Minister David Cameron was special guest at an Oxfordshire school prom as he officially opened the school as a new academy. Mr Cameron, who is also the constituency MP for Burford School, listened to pupils perform two jazz numbers before

  • Postal fiasco

    ONCE again Royal Mail fouls things up. The whole fiasco is a third-class service, for which we pay a lot. On July 6 I posted my Medic-Alert emblem for a replacement band. After waiting several days for it to be returned I rang Medic Alert.

  • Get your facts right!

    ONCE again, Ken Roper has written to the Oxford Mail on motoring matters and once again has got his facts completely wrong. Vehicle excise duty is levied on all vehicles according to the amount of carbon dioxide they emit. This duty varies

  • A terrible loss

    I WRITE to support the concerns raised regarding the loss of the sports hall at New Marston Primary School in Oxford. I am astounded that in this important Olympic year, and with childhood obesity on the rise, such a narrow-minded option can be

  • I’ll be back to help

    THANK you very much to the person who made it possible for me, as a bladder cancer patient, to have a big nail positioned on the pavement in Barton so it badly punctured my rear tyre. I now have to save up to get a new one. But I will find

  • LIFE LESSONS: Howie Watkins, Oxford-based charity Orinoco

    WHAT I’M CALLED: Howie Watkins MY AGE IN YEARS: 43 WHAT I DO: I am best known as the resident scrapman at Orinoco – the Oxfordshire scrapstore, dedicated to banishing boredom and saving the world. We take waste materials from industry and

  • Dozens object to 75-home Bloxham development plan

    MORE than 60 people have objected to plans for 75 homes in Bloxham. They said the plan would damage the village’s character and put too much pressure on roads. Gladman Developments has applied to build the homes at land off Barford Road.

  • Police investigate reports of sex attack in Cowley

    POLICE have sealed off Barracks Lane by Cowley Marsh Park in Oxford this morning after a woman reported she was seriously sexually assaulted. The woman called police at about 2.45am. Police spokesman Rebecca Webber said: “Officers are waiting

  • Mini sales rise

    Sales of the Cowley-built Mini rose by seven per cent in the first half of the year, figures from parent company BMW have revealed. A total of 151,875 cars were sold globally with the largest Countryman model putting in a strong performance with

  • Concerns about petrol smell after Didcot attack

    POLICE have closed off a Didcot street after a 50-year-old man was found with a serious head injury in a house that smelt of petrol. The victim is now in a critical condition at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital . Police, who have launched an

  • Council faces food fight as three bid to trade at St Giles

    THREE food traders have gone head-to-head in a battle over a top spot in the city. Oxford City Council had three applications for permission to trade in a vacant space in St Giles. Its licensing and registration sub-committee met on Monday

  • Belfast a new destination for Oxford flights

    A NEW flight to Belfast has taken off from Oxford Airport. Operated by Manx2.com, which earlier this year launched flights to the Isle of Man and Jersey, the service will operate four flights a week to the Northern Irish capital from Kidlington

  • Witness ‘did not make up gun threat’

    A WOMAN who said her ex-boyfriend threatened her with a sawn-off shotgun has denied making up the story to get him sent him to jail. James Bisson, of Sage Walk, Greater Leys, Oxford, is on trial at Oxford Crown Court accused of possessing a prohibited

  • City to honour Oxfam with Freedom award

    OVER 70 years, millions of people across the world have had cause to thank Oxfam. Now it is to be Oxford’s turn. The charity is to receive a special 70th birthday gift from its home city – the Freedom of Oxford. The honorary title has been

  • Belfast a new destination for Oxford flights

    A NEW flight to Belfast has taken off from Oxford Airport. Operated by Manx2.com, which earlier this year launched flights to the Isle of Man and Jersey, the service will operate four flights a week to the Northern Irish capital from Kidlington

  • Oxford teacher coxes women to rowing final

    Great Britain women’s eight, coxed by Oxford Academy teacher Caroline O’Connor, yesterday qualified for the final of their event in the London Olympics rowing regatta. They will race for a medal at Eton Dorney tomorrow.

  • Chambers brothers stay on course for gold medal

    Richard Chambers believes GB’s lightweight men’s four have shown their Olympic gold medal credentials. Chambers and his brother Peter, past and present Oxford Brookes University students respectively, clinched a pulsating semi-final at Eton Dorney

  • Cycle thief should feel some shame

    IT IS hardly the spirit of the Olympics is it? A teenage lad is lying in the back of an ambulance getting patched up, his bicycle lies a few yards away with a bit of blood splattered around. And what does some passing lowlife do? What, unfortunately

  • Headington house inquiry starts

    CONTROVERSIAL plans to demolish a derelict house in Old Headington will be considered by a planning inspector today. Oxford City Council refused developer Martin Young permission to knock down 29 Old High Street and replace it with five three-storey

  • Concerns raised over plans for a care home

    A PLANNING application to build a state-of-the-art care home on Cumnor Hill has been made. Rycote Developments wants to build a boomerang-shaped 72-bed residential care home and four units for staff accommodation. It has applied for outline

  • Sweet treat in store for treasure hunters

    A PLANNING application to build a state-of-the-art care home on Cumnor Hill has been made. Rycote Developments wants to build a boomerang-shaped 72-bed residential care home and four units for staff accommodation. It has applied for outline

  • ‘Allow families to use houses’

    RESIDENTS have voiced concerns about the sale of nine Victorian student houses in Oxford’s Iffley Road. Exeter College is selling the row of houses, valued at around £6.75m. Subject to planning permission, there is the potential the site could