IN YOUR article (December 5), there is the often repeated statement that Port Meadow was given to the Freemen of Oxford by King Alfred.
I think this view has to be treated as legend because I can find no evidence that this was the case.
In times past most rivers were very wide but, today, what we think of as rivers are actually navigation channels cut deep into the river-bed – something that is true of the Thames through Port Meadow.
At the time of Alfred, north of the Thames, or in Oxford’s case east, was Anglian Mercia and south of the Thames, Saxon Wessex, with the division between the two being what is now the Seacourt Stream.
Because the river through Port Meadow was so wide and slow, sediment that washed off farms upstream would settle out at this point and be formed into shallow islands.
In these early times not all land was claimed by someone and if you could make use of marginal land you were at liberty to do so.
Archaeological evidence suggests that people living locally used these islands to graze their cattle and it is my belief that this is the start of this site being made common.
As for King Alfred’s involvement, Alfred died in 899 and the founding of Oxford is usually given as 900.
In truth, the date of the start of the building of Oxford is not known but, since it was one of the new defended Burhs that Alfred brought into being, it’s likely that he, or his son Edward, were responsible for its origins.
DERRICK HOLT
Fortnam Close
Headington
Oxford
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