A HISTORIAN has called for Oxford’s first martyr to be honoured with a memorial at the redeveloped railway station.

Designs for the building’s revamp are in development after a masterplan was revealed last August.

But Pam Manix, an expert on Oxford’s Jewish quarter, said it presented an opportunity to mark an event that occurred in Oxford in 1222, but was hardly known.

Three centuries before the famous Oxford Martyrs were tried for heresy and burned at the stake for being Protestants, she said the first burning-at-the-stake as punishment for heresy in the country had also taken place in the city.

The victim was an unnamed Oxford University student, who had converted from Christianity to Judaism and married a Jew.

He was tried for renouncing his religion by a church court at Osney Abbey, but before he was transferred to Oxford Castle for a civil trial, the sheriff of the time, Falkes de Breauté, decided to burn him at the stake.

Ms Manix, from Woodstock, claimed that although his name had been lost in history, his death – which took place next to where the station is now – set a legal precedent for burnings, taken up again during Tudor times.

“Because of what he did, his name was obliterated from records so we don’t even know ithis name,” Ms Manix said.

“His death was significant to the medieval Jewish community and set legal precedence in English law across all religious lines – that is something which has remained completely unacknowledged.” According to Ms Manix, the student sought extra tuition on his Biblical Hebrew from a local Oxford Jew.

While attending the Jew’s house, he met and fell in love with the man’s daughter, converted to Judaism and married her.

He was then tried by the church court and it was then that he was illegally burned without civil trial.

Ms Manix added: “Such was the uneasiness about that at the time that the form of punishment wasn’t used again in this country for several hundred years.

“We should have some kind of marker at the spot where he died and perhaps something in the lobby of the new station itself – he is Oxford’s Missing Martyr.

“It could be worked into architects’ designs and then everyone arriving at the station could see it.”

Designs for the £75m overhaul of Oxford Station are expected to be put forward to Oxford City Council in July.

The local authority is holding a competition for architects to submit their designs.

City council leader Bob Price said Ms Manix’s proposal, which she said has been backed by Oxford University and Oxford Preservation Trust, could be worked into station designs.

He added: “A memorial to this early martyr will be a fascinating feature in the new rail station complex and add even more historic interest for our many visitors as well as Oxford residents. Pam Manix’s proposal is great, and I hope the architects for the station think so too.”