Oxford and Port Meadow

In case you are interested... "Oriel College was established in 1326 by King Edward II, the oldest college in Oxford to be founded by a monarch. Oriel numbers Sir Walter Raleigh and Cecil Rhodes amongst its illustrious alumni."

Google Earth view of Oriel College. 

Rhodes Building is the copper roof at top. 

The copper roof below is the senior library.

To the left is the "island block" which also

contains buildings belonging to the college.

One cannot condense three full years into a few paragraphs of blog so you will have to be content with some random memories.  My first-year room in college you know was in the corner of the Rhodes Building.  In a similar way to CU at school, in my second year I got landed with the title "college representative" for OICCU.  A by-product was getting the special CU room between 1st and 2nd quads - a large living room with separate (tiny) bedroom. Here I hosted many a CU supper: one purchased vast numbers of loaves of bread, margarine, cheese, sliced cooked meat and jam.  Come the appointed hour hoards of would-be-Christians would descend upon this spread leaving me (and my scout) to clear up the greasy and crumby mess.

Because of its location, my room also became for one week the props room for the annual college play. That year it was Alice, and one of the props was a real pig's head (for the Duchess). At the start of the week it was not nice. As the week progressed it became increasingly horrid.

In my 3rd year I was obliged to find accommodation outside the college. The Cave taught architecture in the polytechnic and, being a widower and I suppose lonely, opened his house to students from the poly. He even built an extension to provide extra rooms. Somehow it had become a tradition for a couple of rooms to be made available to Orielenses and, knowing the guy who was there the year before, I was recommended along with a fellow Physicist. In my usual way I chose the smaller of the rooms which I loved. This, by the way, was the time and place that I often ate bread and onion, as you will know if you talk to my children!  The thing was, one had to pay the college for half the price of all meals whether you took them or not, and they were subsidised - so if you opted out to save money you had to get a meal for less than, I think, 20p.

208 Banbury Road

This picture, courtesy of StreetView, is the best I can muster for this infamous residence. The room cost £3 per week which, even in those days, was ridiculously cheap. This included optional breakfast with the Cave. He made his own bread which was sumptuous when toasted. For a supplement of just 30p you could join the Sunday lunch extravaganza. This would be a multi-course gourmet meal starting with nibbles and sherry (a dry amontillado), a starter, main course (with wine), desert (often with a desert wine) or cheese board, finished off with coffee and liqueurs. One was, of course, expected to help with the cooking, serving and dishes, and one was expected to be sociable. You had to be prepared to invest a good 3 hours of your life. Optionally (and for no extra expense) you could stay for afternoon tea which could be almost as extravagant (like strawberries and cream, served on the lawn) and would add at least another 3 hours to your budget.

Here it was I experienced pigeon pie. You remember four and twenty blackbirds? Unfortunately, said Cave, Sainsburys did not have pigeons complete with the claws so he was unable to stick the claws through the crust as tradition demanded. But he did cook it complete with the inners which made for interesting gymnastics on one's plate. But this was not one of his better meals. Cave it was who taught me how to make pastry. And how never to keep cheese in the fridge: you try telling that to the women here!

In those days I still had the bicycle my parents had bought me at age 13. The bicycle was and probably still is by far the best mode of transport in Oxford. Besides getting me to college every day it (and I) also frequented such places as Port Meadow and Shotover Hill.

 John Baptist Malchair - View of Oxford from Shotover Hill

A more recent picture borrowed from Flickr

In my first year a ride to Shotover hill was an often subsitute for church on Sunday morning. I tried most of the available flavours and found them sadly lacking. In comparison sitting here and enjoying the view I found most edifying. Eventually I discovered the college chapel and, high-church though it was and thus unlikely for someone brought up as an evangelical brethren, it and its chaplain seemed to answer my spiritual needs.

Showing (besides some other places) Port Meadow, 

Cave's as yellow square with blue outline, 

and Oriel College highlighted in green

Recent views of Port Meadow (not my own)

Port Meadow was close by Cave's residence, so was a frequent haunt of mine in my 3rd year. It is a large area of common land which, apparently, has never been ploughed and, in short, a wonderful place to roam. Incidentally it was here that I discovered Granny Smith apples for the first time. Just as running (in bare feet!) is now, Port Meadow was a safety valve, it was a place where I could get away from my studies and from other people.