PROFILE: Oxford and Abingdon

Oxford and Abingdon are both on the River Thames and the river is an intrinsic part of the town and village life today, and over the centuries. The river dissects the county in a meandering course, whilst the London to Bristol railway cuts through the county in a straighter line.

Oxford is renowned for its university which was founded in the 11th century. The "dreaming spires" description comes from a poem by Matthew Arnold written when he was living in the area.

Both Oxford and Abingdon have been home to two of the world’s best loved automotive companies – MG in Abingdon and Morris and then Mini in Oxford. The county’s motor heritage continues today with almost all of the Formula One teams being based in the county.

Oxford University was founded in the 11th century and many of the world’ great leaders, intellectuals, inventors and creative minds lived in the City while studying or teaching here. Today, the City is home to many great writers – Lewis Carroll and Colin Dexter among them and the tradition continues with a vibrant literary and artistic community.

The countryside around Oxford is dominated by the River Thames and the canals. To the west and north of the county many of the market towns were important wool towns in the 18th and 19th centuries and the wealth that this brought to the area is to be seen in the grand houses and magnificent manor houses. Blenheim Palace, just six miles from Oxford, was built for the Duke of Marlborough and was the birthplace of Winston Churchill and the neighbouring hamlet of Bladon is his final resting place.

Abingdon is just south and was probably the birthplace of Christianity in England as it was here in 675AD that a monastery was built that influenced the lives of people across the south of England. The ruins of this heyday are to be seen in the Abbey Gardens and along the River.

To the South and West of Abingdon, The Vale of the White Horse is peppered with little villages that are thriving communities with lively clubs, primary schools and on summer’s evenings village cricket is still played on the greens, whilst village football leagues also thrive in the winter months. The Vale is bounded by the Downs that are still covered by ancient woodlands. The racing gallops and stables at Lambourn lie at the western fringes and the Downs are cut through by the M40 at the eastern border of the county.

Didcot to the south of Oxfordshire was at the heart of Brunel’s powerhouse as he built the Great Western Railway and he lived in Oxfordshire for a number of years while the railway was being built. The part played by the town in the Industrial Revolution was significant as much of the hard graft for building the country’s great feats of engineering were prepared here in this town’s railway sidings.

Oxfordshire has some of the best schools in the world and offers business the chance to hire some of the finest skills and minds in the world for it is here that the Diamond project at Harwell has been installed to research nuclear fusion and just a few miles away the JET project has been a major contributor to rocket science in Europe and beyond.

Oxford and the county have dynamic communities and this area is forecast to be among the fastest growing economic zones of the EU on the next ten years and this is largely because it has grown out of a centuries old tradition for excellent education and being ahead of the rest of the world in research, knowledge and thought.