ALFRED the Great can rest easy it seems. Wantage leaders yesterday said they were unlikely to start a battle for the King’s bones if they are found by a new archaeological project in Winchester. Archaeologists at the University of Winchester
AN ACCIDENT involving three cars and a bicycle has closed the High Street in Clifton Hampden. The oad is closed in both directions near the junction of the A415 Abingdon Road. The crash took place at around 6pm and recovery work is taking place
VISITORS looking up at Oxford’s dreaming spires will soon see people lowering themselves down a historic landmark. For the first time, fundraisers will abseil down a historic city centre church tower – St Mary Magdalen Church in Magdalen Street
AN UNDERAGE girl was sent to London to have sex with strangers, the Old Bailey has heard. Known as Girl 3 as she cannot be named, the witness said she was told she had "a job to do" and told to meet men at Paddington railway station. She was
GLIDING enthusiasts have won a £50,000 grant for new equipment on the back of last year’s Olympic Games. Windrushers Gliding Club, based at the airfield at the former RAF Bicester, off Skimmingdish Lane, made a successful bid for the cash from
* Coco Royal on Park End Street has officially closed its doors. The Coco brand will continue to do business in Cowley Road at their original location, Café Coco, but the Frideswide Square-facing site is currently being transformed into a Korean restaurant
A trek through the snow was well worth the effort for KATHERINE MACALISTER as she unearths a treasure house of fabulous food Like explorers from Scott’s ill-fated expedition we literally blew into The Killingworth Castle in a flurry of snow. But
* COUNTRY bumpkins and sharp-suited city slickers unite on Saturday for the band and beverage-related event of the year. After seven years of delighting audiences with their irresistible modern take on 1920s jump blues, swing and jive, Oxford’s
* BAFTA-winning funny man Harry Hill performs his latest show, Sausage Time, at Oxford’s New Theatre tomorrow and Saturday. The raucous comedian promises to bring a giant frankfurter and his own show band (‘The Harrys’), along with his usual brand
LIZ NICHOLLS is delighted to discover Oxford’s impressive Ashmolean Museum has a wealth of activities on offer for both young and old IT’S about to get messy. The Ashmolean – that most impressive of museums housing some of the world’s most jawdropping
HITCHCOCK (12A) Drama/Romance. Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Scarlett Johansson, Danny Huston, Toni Collette, Jessica Biel, James D'Arcy, Ralph Macchio, Michael Stuhlbarg, Michael Wincott, Kurtwood Smith. Director: Sacha Gervasi. In a career
WRECK-IT RALPH (PG) Animation/Family/Comedy/Action. Featuring the voices of John C Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jane Lynch, Alan Tudyk, Jack McBrayer, Ed O'Neill, Edie McClurg, Dennis Haysbert, Joe Lo Truglio. Director: Rich Moore. Video games
WARM BODIES (12A) Comedy/Horror/Romance/ Action. Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, Analeigh Tipton, Rob Corddry, John Malkovich, Dave Franco. Director: Jonathan Levine. Love is blind. In Jonathan Levine’s post-apocalyptic romantic comedy based
There’s plenty to keep youngsters happy in Oxford this February, from spellbinding plays to uproarious theatre workshops and whole days devoted to fun. MATT AYRES finds out more Have a peek at these half term events aimed at kids and ask yours
Ahead of her imminent arrival in Oxford, Pam Ann alter ego Caroline Reid talks to KATHERINE MACALISTER about the famous trolley dolly Pam Ann fans will have already booked their tickets to see the air hostess queen when she jets into the New Theatre
GETTING through to the finals of Britain’s Got Talent was more than just a lucky break for Dean Kelly – he insists it has kept him out of jail. Growing up on a tough council estate in Stockport, he admits to having had scrapes with the law – while
AS birthdays go, it is hardly a big one. Though, in this case, it is not just impressive – it is miraculous. This Sunday Oxford’s only independent record shop celebrates its second anniversary. When it opened, many thought Truck Store, in Cowley
A LONG-standing Bicester firm has been told it can extend its site. EP Barrus, whose products include garden machinery and marine engines, can build two industrial storage units, alter its service yard and create a new access off Launton Road,
GROWTH in online business has led to the opening of a new courier distribution centre in Milton Park. DHL Express has invested £1.5m in the new 35,144 sq ft site, which has seen 54 staff transfer from DHL depots across the country. Chief executive
A SPECIALIST boat building firm is offering youngsters the chance to boost their career prospects by running special workshops at its factory. Williams Performance Tenders wants to offer training in key aspects of the marine industry to six teenagers
AN APPEAL has been lodged after Cherwell District Council refused permission for offices and homes in Enslow. Minns Estates applied to demolish the B-Line Business Centre in Station Road for a 170sq m office building and houses. The council
McDONALDS is hoping to open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The fast food restaurant in Colwell Drive has been permanently open since March last year with the exception of six hours between midnight on Sunday and 6am on Monday. Now it has
BUDDING bakers are being urged to rise to the challenge of The Great Apprentice Bake-off. The competition, which is only open to people currently serving apprenticeships, will test their culinary skills. Cake experts will judge the efforts
A 14-YEAR-OLD girl feared she would die as she was "brutally" raped by a man high on cocaine, the Old Bailey has heard. The 20-year-old cried as she gave evidence this morning at the trial of nine men accused of raping and prostituting girls in
IT wasn’t the most glamorous school trip, but pupils in Didcot didn’t turn their noses up at a visit to a sewage treatment works. Eleven children from Willowcroft Community School, in Mereland Road, were invited to the plant in Basil Hill Road
CITY dwellers shouldn’t live further than 300 metres from an open space, according to campaigners pushing for more green areas. The Campaign to Protect Rural England Oxford branch has called on the city council to adopt the minimum requirements
SHOPPERS in Oxford’s Cornmarket Street were invited to take time out from the stores to discuss the meaning of death. Students from Oxford University and Oxford Brookes University staffed the stall in Cornmarket Street on Saturday. They were
IT HAS been chugging along for a quarter of a century and now a mini-railway in one of Oxford’s parks could be set to expand. Since 1988 Cutteslowe Park has been home to the attraction, which during the spring and summer months delights youngsters
John Atyeo and Sarah Cox made what look decisive moves at the top of the veterans standings with one race to go. Oxford City’s Atyeo finished 15th at Lawns Park in a time of 33.01 to open up a ten-point lead in the men’s vet 40 rankings. Alchester
BURFORD'S head greenkeeper, Barry Holt, has retired after more than 30 years of service to the club. He joined in 1981 and became head greenkeeper in 1989. Holt, a single-figure player who represented the club in the Oxfordshire Foursomes League
GAY rights campaigners last night accused Tory MP Nicola Blackwood of weakness after she failed to vote on gay marriages. Ms Blackwood, a Conservative, abstained from going through the lobbies in Tuesday’s key vote on the same sex couples marriage
Will Crisp was crowned under 13 boys’ champion after collecting his fourth straight victory at the Oxford Mail Cross Country League. The Swindon Harrier added the Oxford Mail title to the Oxfordshire championship he won at Horspath last month.
Melissa Hawtin underlined her strong form by finishing ninth in the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Cross Country Championships at Bodington Playing Fields, Leeds. Competing for Birmingham University, the Oxford City athlete completed
Oxford City missed the chance to move up the Blue Square North table after they were held to a goalless draw by lowly Histon at Marsh Lane last night. Clear-cut chances were at a premium and the closest City came to a goal was a second-half header
SKIPPER Sam Egerton led from the front with a try in Oxford University’s 24-13 victory over the Army at Aldershot last night. After withstanding early pressure, the Dark Blues went ahead from a rolling maul, finished off by flanker Gus Jones and
IT’S neck and neck at the top of Section 1 of the Johnsons Buildbase Oxford League with Masons A and West Oxford Democrats Clubs fighting it out, writes PETE EWINS. Democrats won 4-1 at home to Headington Conservative Club. Eddie Tebby (5,260
A man accused of stealing £85,000 from former Bicester soldier Alex Stringer, who lost three limbs in an explosion in Afghanistan, has been bailed again. Conor Aldous, 21, of Grays, Essex, was arrested last September on suspicion of theft. He has
A teenage girl hanged herself in her bedroom, an inquest heard. Artemis Nikolakis-Mouchas, 17, was discovered by her father, Christos, a software engineer. Paramedics rushed to the family home in Prince Grove, Abingdon, and took the girl to
RUBY Tuckley may have helped break a world record yesterday by teaching her whole school to sign. Ruby, 10, pictured, taught 325 people at St John’s Primary School in Wallingford the sign language lyrics to a song to break the world record for
PLANS for a circular glass building in Walton Street have been submitted to Oxford City Council. The proposed Blavatnik School of Government, to be built opposite Oxford University Press in Walton Street, has been made possible by a £75m endowment
Oxford City’s David Bruce cruised to the men’s title with a race to spare after a dominant display in round four of the Oxford Mail Cross Country League at Lawns Park, Swindon. Bruce collected his third victory from four races, which alongside
A MAN who admitted holding up a post office at knifepoint will be sentenced later this month. Daniel Tuckey, 33, threatened a 70-year-old female member of staff at Littlemore Post Office on June 26 last year before making off empty-handed.
HENRY Purdy will make his England Under 20 debut in tomorrow night’s Six Nations clash with Ireland in Athlone (6.35). The Leicester Tigers youngster, from Milton-under-Wychwood, starts on the left wing as one of four changes to the side that beat
THE life-saving skills of child brain surgeon Jay Jayamohan are highlighted in a new TV series filmed at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital. Camera crews from Landmark Films were given remarkable access over nine months last year to the neurosurgeons
LORD Mayor of Oxford Alan Armitage could learn his fate on Wednesday, February 27. A standards committee which will rule on whether or not Mr Armitage broke the councillors’ code of conduct has set a tentative date for the meeting. Mr Armitage
VILLAGERS who look after protected common land say it is a “great shame” that trees alongside have been felled so a railway line can be reopened. The tree clearance work along the railway line by Wolvercote Common will allow Network Rail to reinstate
ADRIAN Taylor (ViewPoints, February 4) is not correct when he says that the word pretty, to describe something not pleasing, has come into our language “since the war”. We often said things like “pretty difficult” or “pretty mean” as well as things
RYAN Newman would love to forge a professional rugby career after making his first-team debut for London Welsh. The 26-year-old, who lives in Botley, Oxford, started at openside flanker in Welsh’s LV= Cup defeat to Newport Gwent Dragons at the
ITV, BBC1, 3, 4, Freeview and plenty of other channels. Every day, repeat and repeat. You watch a programme, enjoy it, two hours later you can watch it again on another channel and watch it again and again the same night and the rest of the week
ONCE again I agree with David Cameron MP. If couples make a life-long commitment they should be entitled to a civil marriage. That should apply whether people are heterosexual or whether they are gay. But the MP for Wantage, Ed Vaizey, is living in
NEW Oxford Rugby League recruit JJ Baird hopes to boost his international claims after signing for the club. Baird, 24, represented Ireland at student and A level before moving to Oxford from Antrim Eels. “My ambition is to play as many games
CITY parks and sports tsar Mark Lygo was on top form at a recent gathering of city council bods in Oxford. Staff and councillors piled into O’Neill’s, in George Street, to bid farewell to council internal communications officer Annette Cunningham
Champion jockey Tony McCoy rode out at Paul Webber’s Mollington stables, near Banbury, this week. The 17-times title holder called in at Cropredy Lawn on Monday to partner Cantlow, who is owned by his boss, JP McManus. The eight-year-old, winner
Black Prince were crowned Kidlington Indoor League champions following a 5-1 win over Unknowns. John Townsend led their charge to the Division 1 title with 15 dolls, including a six. King’s Arms (Moors) secured the Division 2 title with a 4
TWENTY-FIVE years ago I leaped on to your TV screens with a big Red Nose on my face and asked you to part with your hard-earned cash to help some people in Africa you’d never met. Much to my amazement and delight, you did. The first ever Red
OUR young members with ME do indeed find their lives ‘on hold’, as they suffer many losses due to having the illness. (Monday’s Oxford Mail). To show the reality of living with this devastating illness we recently published a book of poems: Poetry
REGARDING Bernadette Downs’s query about giving your address on collecting prescriptions. Yes, it may seem a pain, but it is for her safety. I know several people with the same name as my late first husband. I occasionally read of another gentleman
WHAT will the city of Oxford do about icy pavements? I have been studying English in January in Oxford, which I really enjoyed but snow in Oxford isn´t anything to take it easy about. The pedestrians have a hard time. I saw two people fall on the
A 13-YEAR-OLD girl would have sex for crack cocaine while at the hands of a child exploitation gang, the Old Bailey heard yesterday. Now aged 20, the witness – known as Girl 3 as she cannot be named – told the jury she was taken across Oxford to
Oxford City Stars made it four English National League South Division 2 wins in a row after a thumping 12-0 victory at home to bottom club Lee Valley Lions. Darren Elliott’s four-timer led the way, with Josh Oliver, Warren Jones and Alan Green
Fred Beer, the only person to be Oxfordshire president on two occasions in the last 70 years, has died aged 84. Beer, of Broughton Road, Banbury, held the county presidency in 1975 and 1988. He was a former manager of Oxfordshire’s Middleton
Oxford & District’s Katherine Hawes fell at the first hurdle in the national finals of the English Indoor Bowling Association’s ladies’ champion of champions competition at Warner Lakeside, Hayling Island. Her challenge ended with a 21-8 defeat
Walking into the Big Society on Cowley Road feels more like walking into a quirky Californian watering hole. Historic wooden locker doors front the bar. Glazed tiles and funky artwork hang on the walls. A bottle cap stamp emblazoned with Big Society
OXFORD: A body which washed up on a Devon beach last year was yesterday confirmed as that of a missing Oxford man. Police confirmed the identity of Clifford Thorne, 67, from DNA details placed on a missing persons database. He was last seen
OXFORD’S annual celebration of jazz will not be held this year, it was announced last night. The Oxford Jazz Festival is taking a one-year break but organisers have vowed to come back next year bigger and better. Organiser Max Mason said: “
IF YOU ever worried about what happened to your car when you left it with a garage, look away now. When Ducklington resident Paul Burt dropped his Range Rover off at Hartwell Land Rover in Cumnor he had no idea it would end up hurtling along the
Crime reporter Ben Wilkinson is at the Old Bailey this morning Girl 3 made a statement to police in Feb 2010. "I wanted the truth to come out about what had happened." — @Ben_Wilkinson_ 07 February 2013 Girl 3
OXFORD: Passengers faced major delays on trains between Oxford and London yesterday. The issue was caused by a points failure on the track at Worcester Shrub Hill, reported to Network Rail in the early hours of the morning. Network Rail had fixed
FLOOD alleviation schemes in Oxfordshire are set to get a share of a £10.5m pot to be spread across Thames Valley. The Environment Agency’s Regional Flood and Coastal Committee (RFCC) has agreed a funding package for the next year. Cash for
DEANE Smalley’s penalty sent Oxford United through to the Oxfordshire Senior Cup semi-finals with a 1-0 win over against a dogged Chinnor at Thame’s ASM Stadium last night. The striker tucked home the spot-kick on 69 minutes after substitute James
FORMER Scotland and British Lions fly half Craig Chalmers is to become Chinnor RFC’s new head coach. Chalmers, who won 60 caps between 1989 and 1999, will replace Jason Bowers when he steps down at the end of the season due to work commitments.
FOR every MP the free vote on gay marriage was going to be a problem because most constituencies will have wildly-divergent views. Whichever way they voted, they risked alienating potential voters. But they nailed their colours to the mast.
A PRIMARY school in West Oxfordshire has won permission to consult on plans to open a nursery class. The move will lower the age at which Bampton Primary School, in Bowling Green Close, takes pupils from four to two-and-a-half. Oxfordshire
THE decision on whether an East Oxford social club will become a free school has been delayed. Councillors unanimously voted to defer the verdict until there was more information available on a planning application for a housing estate next to
EDUCATION bosses are trying to sack a school’s governing body after it was put in special measures. Oxfordshire County Council is in urgent talks over the future of Bicester Community College (BCC) after a damning Ofsted report. The school was
FROM the outside it appears Bicester Community College has been ripping itself apart since it fell into special measures. The blame game is in full swing and it seems that murmurings we’ve heard for more than a year may have had substance to them
The World Was All Before Them By Matthew Reynolds Philip Newell and Sue, like Milton’s Adam and Eve, are on the threshold of life as they leave their temporary Eden, a ‘warm and safe’ rented house, to venture, hand in hand, into a new and problematic
‘I love coming to the farm,” says Howard, co-farmer. “We have the freedom to do what we want to do.” Imagine spending one day a week near the beautiful woods and grasslands of Wytham, working and learning on a 1,900-acre organic farm, with free-range
Comparisons are odious. But they are also wholly unavoidable in the case of the respective portrayals of Alfred Hitchcock by Toby Jones and Anthony Hopkins in Julian Jerrold's The Girl and Sacha Gervasi's Hitchcock. Although Jones merely bears a passing
Eugene Jarecki spent three years criss-crossing the United States to research and record his documentary, The House I Live In. The result is a structurally complex and courageously contentious denunciation of the War on Drugs that successive administrations
LOVING homes are needed for two ponies. One-year-old Duke and two-year-old Jasmine were taken in by Blue Cross animal charity in Burford last year. Jasmine was found roaming and abandoned on the A40 before she was taken in by the charity in
A JUDGE has moved to protect a man from his own violent son. Adam Nash has been jailed for six months after smashing a plant pot in a rage during a row with his father Graham. But after hearing Nash had previously broken his father’s legs by
BOAT owners have dubbed him the “Abingdon River Angel” for keeping them afloat and secure in the floods. Since 2007, scaffolder Alan Joyce, 38, of Coromandel, Abingdon, has been saving canal boats from being grounded free of charge. And last
Saturday is National Libraries Day, the culmination of a week of activities. It’s no surprise to hear that local authors are showing their support at a time when branches up and down the country are closing because of council spending cuts.
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