Info:       

The Original London Walks
PO Box 1708
London, England, NW6 4LW

Web:
www.walks.com

Phone:
+44 (020) 7624 3978

Email:
london@walks.com

Daily Recorded Phone Info:
+44 (020) 7624 9255

Reasons to Join a Walking Tour - Or Not

Walking Oxford, England & The Cotswolds                         

by Mitch Kaplan
photos by Mitch Kaplan

Where was the guy in the red hat? We'd never get to The Original London Walks'  Oxford walking tour unless we found a guy named Richard, in Paddington Station, at 9:30, who was supposed to be wearing a red hat.

We wandered, sneaking peaks at everyone. It was almost like spy stuff.

Aha! There he was. A fit-looking, youngish middled-aged gent surrounded by two dozen folks. And, yes, he wore a bright red, Tiger Woods TW logo hat.

How could we have missed him?

I'm generally not one to join group tours or trips, but sometimes it's logical explore under knowledgeable guidance. And, sometimes guided walks enrich your experience by imparting quality information that would be otherwise hard to get.

So it was that we joined two dozen walkers to tour Oxford and The Cotswolds. After Richard explained the tour, answered questions and collected money, shouting over loudspeakers blasting train announcements, we hopped a train for the hour-long ride to Oxford.

History, Stories, Facts & More                              

We arrived at Oxford and were immediately herded onto a bus.

"How did Oxford get its name?" Richard posited as we passed through town. He paused, then followed with a tale of the town's beginnings as a place where the river could be forded in long-ago days by the cargo-carrying ox-carts.

Ox. Ford.

Out of town now, the narrative carried on to Cotswolds history. Sheep farming and hand wool manufacture prospered until they were lost to the northern districts during the Industrial Revolution. The spur train lines were decommissioned after World War II, isolating the region. Later, the isolation attracted Londoners looking for weekend escapes from the big city bustle.

Which is pretty much what the region is now—a spot for short getaways.

We learned, for example,

• how this idyllic town, Minster Lovell, got its name (a church is a "minster;" the Lovell family were the landlords here
• how thatched roofs are made (straw is least preferable, followed by combed wheat and reed), wrapped in chicken wire to "keep the critters out"
• why four-poster beds were invented (because people put blankets over top of their beds for protection against falling thatch and the rodents who lived in the thatch)
• how the farming system worked
• how much a cute, modernized, thatch-roofed cottage costs today (up to 1.7 million pounds)
• the history of the local manor house, including a bride who suffocated by hiding in a lead-lines traveling trunk while playing hide-and-seek during the wedding reception)
• and how, today, folks and their dogs may walk the fields at will even though the land is privately owned.

More regional tales were imparted as we entered Burford, a touristy village and our lunching destination.

On to Oxford                           

Once the oxen were accommodated and the town began to develop, Richard related, some important firsts occurred:

• the country's first official university was formed
• the world's first museum
• the university's science labs were the country's first
• Christopher Wren did his first architectural design here, despite having no training in the discipline.

The walk through town involved chasing from one historical building to the next, and from one "college" to the next.

The university is comprised, we were told, of 38 colleges. A lengthy explanation of how the colleges work—you apply to, are accepted at and join one of the colleges, do some of your study there and some under the university's auspices, but the university grants the degree—was accompanied by a description of how the English education system works. I'm glad I had an American college education. American college entrance and acceptance, for all its trials, seems much less anxiety-ridden than England's.

We paused at Rhodes College to see where Bill Clinton didn't inhale. We walked, for much of the time, atop the library's underground book stacks, which stretch for 120 miles and hold more than a million books.

We admired the library's main entrance, the Tower of Orders, upon which King James sits holding two books. The king, it seems, was invited to the library's inaugural in hopes he'd donate some of his royal library to the operation. He did: two books, to be exact; both written by him.

We finished at Jesus College, where we were permitted entry to the grounds, an impressive but small quadrangle surrounded by regal looking buildings. Most doors lead to stairs, off of which are the students' rooms. Also here are a chapel and a dining hall.

Students, Richard explained, come and go, eating here when they will, or in town; attending chapel if they want, or not; and going to their one-on-one classes, a.k.a., tutorials. For lectures and lab classes, they disappear into the university's buildings, which are spread about.

We visited the dining hall for a primer on student dining. Many portraits lined on the walls—including Queen Elizabeth I and Lawrence of Arabia—denoting those who contributed money to sustain this particular college.

Quick Stop Shopping                         

Having graduated from the Oxford U tour, we were let loose upon the streets to shop or to further explore. Sad to say, we were allotted just 40 minutes for this activity.

But, we did have time to explore the town's covered market, where we found a moderately interesting array of stalls selling meats, fish, knick-knacks and clothes, plus spots for coffee or tea. An entirely pleasant place.

A good guide is essential in making a walking tour worthwhile. And Richard was good. He incorporated just the right mix of anecdote, statistics, history and humor, and created a fine, entertaining and useful way to spend a day.