IMAGINE a festival which is fun, safe, friendly, lively and where the action goes on all night. Imagine an event where some of the best bands on the planet line up to play – because they want to. Imagine not being ripped off for tickets
IN the 1940s a country vicar hit upon a bizarre idea. A railway enthusiast, he wrote a series of books about the adventures of an engine shed full of steam locomotives. But these weren’t just any trains – they each had names and, surreally,
Oxford City triple jumper Nathan Douglas has vowed to put sensibility over stupidity as he battles to be fit for the World Championships in Berlin. For the past two years Douglas has been in a constant fight with his body, rupturing a hamstring in 2007
Oxford City’s Hannah England is focusing on the positives, despite missing the World Championships in Berlin. England missed out on selection for the 1500m Great Britain squad, but remains hopeful that her time will come. England said: “I am predictably
Second place proved good enough for Oxford City’s Steve Male as he clinched the 2009 Mota-vation Road Race series at Chipping Norton. Male had to give best to returning 2003 champion Mathew Ashton, who cruised to an easy victory, but Male’s second place
OXFORD Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust has been reported to the Government after it was accused of failing to come up with a financial plan to break even. The trust got into debt in 2005-6 and 2006-7 and ran up a £26m deficit. A report by district auditor
Wantage residents and community groups are being urged to revive the town’s carnival after more than 20 years ago. Town councillors would like to see the once-popular event brought back, saying it brings the community together and also attracts people
A COMMUNITY is divided over plans to install lighting in a park. Oxfordshire County Council wants to install the lights in Croft Road Recreation Ground as part of a £180,000 scheme to improve the cycle path running through the park. The lights were
BRIDE-TO-BE Kim Smith got into a car after a row with her partner and drove to a police station – only to be arrested for drink-driving. Mum-of-two Smith, 25, of Stonesfield, near Witney, had an argument following a meal at an Oxford restaurant on August
An Oxfordshire teacher today became the first person to travel from Land’s End to John O’Groats on a flying bike. John Carver, 37, who works and lives at Cothill School, near Abingdon, completed the 800-mile journey up the length of Britain in just
A TODDLER has died in hospital 10 days after being found lying in a pond at his grandparents home in Wales. Nineteen-month-old Daniel Peralta, of Ashdale Avenue, Witney, died on Monday afternoon at the specialist child care unit at Alder Hey Children
NINE children will soon be able to see their very own gargoyles on one of Oxford’s most famous buildings. They were the winners of a competition to design a gargoyle worthy of a place on the Bodleian Library to look down on the city for centuries to
Angry residents marched through Kennington with banners protesting plans to build new homes in the village. Dozens of people armed with banners and placards marched to a meeting at Kennington Village Centre on Tuesday, where plans for 13 homes on land
SECURITY cameras could be installed on Oxford's Blackbird Leys estate by November. Campaigners have been asking for the cameras, which can film though all 360 degrees at shops in Blackbird Leys Road and in Dunnock Way, Greater Leys. The south east area
Staff at Cherwell District Council were rewarded with a picnic area costing thousands of pounds and an extra day off after the council got an excellence award. But months later each employee received a letter asking them to take voluntary redundancy,
OXFORDSHIRE farmers have backed calls for a “radical rethink” of the way the country produces and consumes food to guarantee the nation’s food supply but say the Government must do more to help them. Environment Secretary Hilary Benn issued the warnings
Around £10,000 of damage was caused to an Oxford school after a section of its ceiling collapsed following a raid by lead thieves. Thames Valley Police are appealing for witnesses after lead flashing was stolen from the roof of Windale Primary School
Sandy Bolton’s superb summer reached a new high point when he won the BB&O Amateur Championship at Burnham Beeches. The 17-year-old, from Abingdon, shot three 69s and a 68 to land the title by two strokes from defending champion Ashley Walton (Frilford
Oxfordshire players put in a strong showing in the Midlands South Girls Championships at Studley Wood. Frilford Heath’s Flora McPhail and Cara Gainer, plus Studley’s Sophie Stone of Studley Wood won the county prize for Oxon, while Burford’s Abi Laker
A toddler has died more than a week after he was found lying in a pond in Wales, police said today. Nineteen-month-old Daniel Peralta, of Ashdale Avenue, Witney, died at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool on Monday. He was discovered
David Summers successfully defended his Burford Club Championship after shooting a two-round total of 146. Dave Sykes aced Chipping Norton’s third hole en route to winning their Edward Douglas Stableford competition with a nett 61. CLUB RESULTS FRILFORD
Police are appealing for witnesses after some lead flashing was stolen from a school in Blackbird Leys. At about 3pm on Monday, police received a report that a section of the ceiling at Windale Primary School had collapsed. It soon became apparent
Fourteen drivers were stopped for motoring offences in a vehicle check near Standlake. Thames Valley Police Road Safety Officers, working in conjunction with Oxfordshire County Council Trading Standards, carried out the check at Newbridge on the A415
AEA Technology 28.25 BMW 2709 Electrocomponents 158.45 Nationwide Accident Repair 101 Oxford Biomedica 11 Oxford Catalysts 51 Oxford Instruments 169.75 Reed Elsevier 440.45 RM 166.5 RPS Group 193.35 Courtesy of Redmayne Bentley, Abingdon
A DIABETIC woman who has endured a string of health problems fears she could be left permanently disabled after falling into a pothole outside her Witney house. Debi Wiffen spent a total of three months in hospital and needed five operations after she
Book lovers are planning to descend on Blenheim Palace in Woodstock and other venues nearby for the town’s fifth literary festival. Organisers are running the event over five days, from September 16 to 20. And for the second year running
WALLINGFORD School could be expanded and a new primary school built in the town to cope with an influx of new pupils. About 250 extra primary school children would need places if South Oxfordshire District Council’s proposals for 850 new homes in the
Alex Hales admits to be tingling with excitement after taking over from Milton Harris at the historic Trafford Bridge Stables at Edgcote, near Banbury. The 35-year-old, who has spent the last two years at Preston Capes, near Daventry, has signed a five-year
Shiplake's relegation from Division 1 was confirmed with a 5-1 defeat at Headington on a night when torrential rain washed out all but three of the 13 fixtures in the Oxford & District League, sponsored by Yarnton Nurseries. Headington’s 71-49 victory
Banbury Borough’s Keith Holloway, Gary Lucas, Richard Redford and Alan Prew were blown away 26-7 by Bath’s Andy Taylor, Richard Doughty, Kevin Rowdon and Craig Doughty in the men’s National Fours Championship first round at Worthing. Kidlington’s Keith
Faringdon-based jump jockey Marcus Foley’s hopes of a fairy-tale ending to his career were dashed when his final mount, Terramarique, was pulled up at Newton Abbot on Tuesday. The 27-year-old, who hails from Lew, near Witney, is retiring to set up a
Oxford City & County’s Katherine Hawes had a tremendous run in the women’s National Singles Championship at Royal Leamington Spa before bowing out in the semi-finals. Hawes chalked up four resounding victories to reach the last four where she faced Jayne
I enjoyed A. A. Gill’s Sunday Times article on Morris dancing this week, which was written in his usual entertaining and erudite fashion. As I spotted it in the magazine, however, I felt pretty certain that I would not get far into it without finding
Over the past couple of months, I have read three fine books about three of my favourite novelists, all of them women, as it happens. Those in search of holiday reading would, I think, derive great enjoyment from the new biographies of Muriel Spark
The high profile enjoyed by the Kingham Plough – where Emily Watkins, a one-time Fat Duck colleague of Heston Blumenthal’s, tickles the tastebuds of discerning customers – has tended to overshadow the achievements of the other pub in a village
This is one of the many cake recipes that the cooks in Aston Pottery have adapted and made their own. You will notice that this cake calls for the carrots to be pulsed in a food processor and not grated, as this gives the cake a moister texture. Whilst
The first notes that resonated through Christ Church Cathedral on Saturday were the tinny sounds of a mobile phone. But after this intrusive reminder of the 21st century we were swept back 200 years for the start of a musical journey that commemorated
The Oxford-based Idle Motion physical theatre group performed at the Edinburgh Fringe last year – and this bright and thoughtful company is aiming to make it two successes in a row with an intriguing work based on the life and work of the Argentinean
‘Everyone thinks it’s Scotland. But it’s not,” says Marion Hill of Fisherman’s Cove, one of her four prints on show at Oxford’s Cherwell Boathouse where the Oxford Printmakers are staging their second exhibition this summer. Nine members showed
For some considerable time I have been using classic white tableware to heighten the appearance of the dishes I cook and photograph. Now I am being seduced by spots – large green and purple spots set against a white background – but not because I contemplate
A spaceship full of ray gun-wielding extra-terrestrials, intent on invading Earth, meets resistance in a most unexpected form in John Schultz’s out-of-this-world family comedy Aliens in the Attic. The film is a special effects-laden adventure that
Two talented Oxford artists have joined forces to stage an exhibition of their work at the Said Gallery. Oxford in Transition combines work by David Parrott and Nicola Jenkin, who call on an assortment of paint mediums to show us Oxford in a fascinating
‘Ladies and gentlemen,” begins smooth Georges as he announces the evening’s entertainment at his Cage aux Folles nightclub in St Tropez. He proceeds to detail the attractions of his line-up of sequined, ostrich-feathered, all-singing, all-dancing
then make your way to Art Jericho, in King Street, where nine artists have responded to owner Patricia Baker-Cassidy’s challenge to observe Oxford. She explained: “All the pictures in this exhibition have a specific location indicated by a postcode,
he recently established Persian Shop, at 18 New Street, Chipping Norton, is now acting as a venue for art exhibitions in its upper rooms. The shop is at the entrance to the town’s main car park. It’s hard to miss because a beautiful selection of Persian
They are called Bonecruncher, Childchewer, Gizzardgulper and Bloodbottler. And the giants of Roald Dahl’s The BFG certainly live up to these names. In one startlingly graphic scene in David Wood’s stage version of the tale they are seen pulling doll ‘
This was the sort of evening Oxford’s outdoor Shakespeare producers dream of – fine and warm. So Creation Theatre Company’s Twelfth Night was played under a clear blue sky in the Saïd’s rooftop amphitheatre, with no need to dive into the alternative
The family of a grandmother found dead in fields near Gawcott, today released a tribute to her. Sally Hingston, 67, also known as Sybil Louise Hingston, was found dead last week. The family said: "Sally has been tragically taken away
RENOWNED Oxford philosopher Gerald Cohen has died, aged 68, after a stroke. Prof Cohen was perhaps best known as a leading contributor to the analytical Marxist movement of the 1980s. In 1978, he published his most influential book, Karl Marx’s Theory
AEA Technology 28.5 BMW 2701 Electrocomponents 158.65 Nationwide Accident Repair 99.5 Oxford Biomedica 11 Oxford Catalysts 52 Oxford Instruments 170 Reed Elsevier 440.5 RM 166.5 RPS Group 193.15 Courtesy of Redmayne Bentley, Abingdon
Police are appealing for witnesses to a collision in Didcot in which a 74-year-old man was seriously injured. At about 10.10pm yesterday, a black Saab collided with the pedestrian in Lydalls Road. The man was taken to the John Radcliffe
PUBLISHER Oxford University Press has transferred a record £100m to Oxford University after announcing strong sales growth. The company, which employs 1,400 people in Walton Street, saw a 4.8 per cent rise in sales of its books and journals, despite
EIGHT jobs have gone at academic publisher Taylor & Francis, based at Milton Park, near Abingdon, after the work was outsourced to India. The redundancies affected 11 assistant editor posts at imprint Europa Publications, with the function now offshored
A pensioner was in a serious condition in hospital this morning following a smash in Didcot. At around 10.10pm a black Saab collided with a 74-year-old man, who was walking along Lydals Road. He was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital with serious
The recession has claimed another 220,000 jobs in the three months to June to take the total number of unemployed to 2.43 million, official figures have revealed. Unemployment in the UK is now at its highest level since the summer of 1995.
A DRIVER has been found guilty of careless driving following a crash which left a BMW worker dead. Martin Baber, 51, had denied killing BMW worker Norman Clayson by driving dangerously and on the second day of a trial at Oxford Crown Court, Judge
Chris Wilder praised his players' determination, but could not hide his frustration at their lack of discipline in the final 20 minutes of last night's Blue Square Premier game at Kettering. The Oxford United boss saw his side come back from 1-0 down
MORE than 1,500 people have told education bosses they do not want a ‘super academy’ mixing primary and secondary schoolchildren in Oxford. People in Cowley and East Oxford have rallied behind the failing St Christopher’s Primary School in Temple Road
CORPORAL Sean Carrington gave a fascinating little insight into the end of his service in Iraq. The sound of the undercarriage ‘locking up’ for take off beneath his Merlin helicopter, confirmed he and his colleagues were going home to the joyous
WE’VE said it before and we’ll keep on saying it. Rose Hill needs a better deal. No matter what the claims are about the politics behind this latest story, the black and white facts do not look good. Out of £6.7m of regeneration funding the city council
FORMER Oxford United star Joey Beauchamp has been charged with drink driving after being arrested by police on Monday night. The 38-year-old, above, who notched up more than 400 appearances for the Yellows, was arrested at 11.20pm on Monday
ROSE Hill is becoming the forgotten part of Oxford where residents are treated as “political pawns” as funding goes elsewhere, a community leader warned last night. Peter Wilkinson, the chairman of the estate’s tenants and residents’ association
DETECTIVES last night refused to comment on how an Abingdon wo-man came to be at the home of her allegedly abusive former fiancé. Julie Sudlow, of Berry Croft, was discovered stabbed to death in the Hampshire home of murder suspect Stewart
