Oxford and Cotswold Tours

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The central university building is the Sheldonian which faces the Divinity School and the Old Bodliean Library. Beyond this is the wonderful space called Radcliffe Square with its central circular building - the Radcliffe Camera. Tours usually include a visit to these central buildings and the neighbouring Clarendon Building, ancient home to the Oxford University Press, and the Indian Institute. Tours can also extend to the science area of the university, its museums and parks. Along the way we can include locations used in the many films made in Oxford (including Harry Potter, Brideshead Revisited, The Madness of King George, Shadowlands, the Inspector Morse series, etc). Interesting themed tours based on famous authors such as C S Lewis, J R R Tolkien (Inklings), Graham Greene, Lewis Caroll, William Shakespeare, Iris Murdock, Max Beerbohm and Colin Dexter, can also be arranged

There are 38 colleges attached to Oxford University. Our tours cover all of the most famous and can take in some of the less well known. Obviously we include the older colleges such Balliol, Merton and University and the grander ones such as Christchurch with its Alice in Wonderland associations, Magdalen and Keble. But we do not neglect the central colleges such as Hertford, Wadham, Jesus, Exeter, Lincoln, Queens, Brasenose, New and Trinity. Trips to view the chapels and grounds of these colleges, and many of the others can be made by arrangement. Tours cover the history of the institutions, the interesting and amusing stories that surround them and their architecture - including the work of geniuses such as Christopher Wren, Nicholas Hawksmore, T G Jackson and George Gilbert Scott.

Hertford

The city's history dates back to the 8th century, well before the arrival of the university. Combined tours provide the history and development of both "town and gown" and the battles that the two have fought. City tours concentrate on the older Anglo-Saxon streets, the Castle and Prison so recently opened to the public, the outstanding churches and the various public buildings of note. They cover the Anglo-Saxon origins, the coming of the Normans, the Civil War during which Oxford was the capital of England, Victorian Oxford and the coming of the motor car through the efforts of William Morris.

Punting on Thames

Oxford is laced by waterways. River walks include the Thames and Cherwell, the canal and some of the important streams that thread their way through the byways of this fascinating city. Boat tours and punting expeditions can be arranged.

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Oxford and Cotswold Tours