Oxford Mail
Subscribe

Archive

Filters

Or search by keyword

10th February 2016    12th February 2016

  • Stroke club at pub gets seal of approval from town mayor

    A PUB-BASED stroke club has had a visit from its town mayor as it looks to encourage more people to attend the relaxed meetings.The Didcot branch of Stroke Club UK meets in the Prince of Wales pub every two weeks. Founder Will Stammers, who had a stroke

  • Thousands saddling up for return of cycling festival

    THOUSANDS of people are expected to turn out when a cycling festival returns to Wallingford for the second year running. The debut event last year attracted TV crews from Midsomer Murders, who captured footage of elite riders and novices taking

  • Owner of salvaged narrowboat sets sights on repair

    EXCITED boat owner John Simmonds said he “cannot wait” to get back on board his salvaged £60,000 vessel. Mr Simmonds, 35, was at the Botley Road Bridge in Oxford yesterday watching the Environment Agency (EA) pump out the last of the water from

  • Profile: Phil Southall is making a fuss about his bus

    Which of us hasn’t stood in a queue in the rain at a bus stop, and thought: “Do the bosses, sitting up there in the warm and dry in Cowley, really care about us?” as the minutes tick by and no bus appears. You can bet your bottom dollar that any departure

  • City council in bid to seize back ownership of Oxford Stadium

    THREE years after Oxford Stadium was closed, the city council has come up with an ambitious plan to seize back control of the site. So far attempts to revive the site have ended in failure, with owners GRA Acquisition and parent companies seemingly

  • We can’t forget history

    Sir – Not being a native of Oxfordshire,but someone who has visited the city regularly for a number of years now for leisure, festivals and debates, I am intrigued to read the ongoing debate regarding the statue of Cecil Rhodes at Oriel College and

  • Descent into anarchy

    Sir – It is a matter of some sadness that a group of Oxford University students want to remove the statue of Cecil Rhodes from Oriel College. Leaders of this group argue that the money provided by the Rhodes Trust is somehow ‘tainted’ with blood.

  • Beekeeping beginners

    Sir – There is a free seminar for anyone who is interested in taking up beekeeping on Wednesday, February 17, at 6.30pm at the Marlborough School, in Shipton Road, Woodstock. This is an opportunity to talk to local beekeepers, ask questions and

  • Cycle considerately

    Sir – I refer to Mr/Ms S Kay’s letter (January 14) and would like to put forward a few other comments on this matter. First, regarding pollution etc I feel it is a little unfair to lump all the current respiratory ills and obesity on the motorist

  • Shift to electric cars will improve the city’s health

    Sir – It is thrilling to hear that Oxford will lead the world with its green electric car charging technology (Report, January 21). Pollution from our road vehicles results in about 29,000 excess deaths a year. We now have over 11 million diesel

  • Use soil from flood channel to build tram line embankment

    Sir, I recently visited a consultation exhibition on the Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme fronted by the Environmental Agency. The estimated cost £120 million. To me, a non-specialist, the scheme’s major element appeared to be the digging of a channel

  • Metric nonsense

    Sir – On the front page, to my horror and puzzlement, I read “Under the so-called ‘Carfax guideline’, buildings within 1.2km of 23m high Carfax Tower are prevented from exceeding 18.2m in height” (Report, January 21). Well, pardon me but is Oxford

  • Stop theatre snacking

    Sir – I refer to the recent article about food consumption etiquette in the theatre (Gray Matter, January 28). I completely agree with the author that food consumption in theatre during performances should be prohibited. The only way to do it is

  • Woodfuel worries

    Sir – Your feature on wood-burning schemes (Report, January 28) risks misleading well-intentioned people into investment in habitat-burning. Woodfuel is far from the sustainable, benign resource some imagine. If such things concern you, remember

  • Little new

    Sir – Further to Mr Shellard’s letter (Vandalise fabric of city, January 28), there is really little that is new under the spotlight which regularly shines on Oxford University: “I talked of the recent expulsion of six students from the University

  • Clean environment

    Sir – I am delighted to see that Tesco and Sainsbury’s in the Cowley Road have responded to my letter in The Oxford Times (January 14) and have ‘cleaned up their act’ in terms of litter and detritus around their premises. They have taken ownership

  • Cancer patients face cut

    Sir – Macmillan Cancer Support is urging all MPs in Oxfordshire to uphold the Lords’ amendments to the Welfare Reform and Work Bill, as this will ensure that people with cancer and other long-term illnesses, who are too ill to work but capable of work

  • Obituary: Newsagent George Bates spent several years as PoW

    A RESPECTED and popular owner of a newsagents and tobacconists in Botley Road has died age 98.George Bates ran Newsagent for more than 20 years, becoming a familiar and much-loved face in the Botley neighbourhood.Mr Bates was also in the Royal Artillery

  • No ordinary box

    Sir – It would help to make Oxford a world-class city if the missing door on the telephone box at Carfax were replaced. This is no ordinary red telephone box. It is Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s original 1924 design, the only example of this in Oxford

  • Cultural imbecility

    Sir – The move by Ofsted’s Sir Michael Wilshaw and Prime Minister David Cameron to support schools who ban the wearing of the full face veil (niqab) by Muslim women, shows a cultural illiteracy and imbecility which has become standard these days, and

  • Roadworks farce

    Sir – The farce that is presented as ongoing and interminable roadworks have no sense of urgency whatsoever. It appears as if the contractors are doing the bare minimum possible to be seen to do ‘some’ work. The Oxfordshire County Council planning

  • Nice little earner

    Sir – Did any of your other readers hear the item on BBC Radio Four’s Today programme recently about the Government’s plans to charge local authorities £5,000 per day when roadworks are left unattended with nothing being done? For once I find myself

  • Waste of time

    Sir – I attach a photo of a bit of road that was patched barely four weeks ago. Might the council consider repairing fewer holes but making sure they are done properly. This work was simply a waste of time and money. Philip Cresswell

  • Move growth north

    Sir – It is perfectly possible to make many valid points and yet still arrive at the wrong conclusion. In the letter Coalition for progress (January 28) I fear this is what has happened. It is obviously true that a country needs to pay its way

  • Rail line has been turned from lane to motorway

    Sir – Benedict le Vay (Letters, January 28) is way off the mark in accusing the “nimbys” of North Oxford of delaying the completion of the new Marylebone line. He seems unaware that the Government has upgraded the original Marylebone line to form a

  • Review: The Duchess of Rio Tinto by Martin Murphy

    Martin Murphy is a distin-guished historian, for many years a research associate of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (though no one could wear great learning more lightly). More to the point, he is a passionate lover of all things Spanish –

  • Review: Banana Tree, George Street, Oxford

    Katherine MacAlister can’t stay away from the new Banana Tree restaurant for a taste of South East Asia Getting teenagers out of bed requires more zeal than Donald Trump at a hair clinic, the coaching skills of Roy Hodgson and the patience of Mother

  • New bookshop Bard is selling like hot cakes

    Katherine MacAlister meets the Creation cast putting on King Lear When Creation bosses sat down to discuss their 20th anniversary, which happily coincides with Shakespeare’s 400th anniversary, they decided to hit Oxford with the nation’s top three

  • Review: Land of Our Fathers @ The North Wall

    Miners trapped for a week underground would, sure as hell, not show the humour, the sparring rivalry, the sheer energy of the seemingly doomed sextet presented by Chris Urch in his overrated 2013 play Land of Our Fathers. Reduced to drinking their

  • Review: Hetty Feather @ Oxford Playhouse

    Katherine MacAlister falls in love with enchanting family show Hetty Feather, here in Oxford via the West End If only all children’s theatre could be as magical as Hetty Feather, currently playing at the Playhouse. Honest, brave, adventurous, emotional

  • Review: Reeves & Mortimer @ New Theatre, Oxford

    We are watching Novelty Island – a talent contest on high-strength LSD – where a man called Graham Lister, with a voice like a tax inspector, is squeezing lard through the eyes and nostrils of a mask of the actor Benedict Cumberbatch. Watching

  • Championing the early music scene at Keble College festival

    Nicola Lisle looks forward to early music concerts at Keble College The Keble College Early Music Festival is back for a third year – and it’s the biggest and most impressive yet. “We’ve got more events this year and a much wider range of events

  • Wild West 'gal' Lissie returns to her roots

    Tim Hughes is treated to some heartfelt home truths by former Californian folk-rocker – turned independently-minded Midwestern farmer – Lissie Honest and heartfelt, Lissie is one of those songwriters whose soul is an open book. The American

  • Review: Villagers enchant with brooding intricacy

    Richard Brabin marvels at the craft of Conor O’Brien and Villagers Villagers O2 Academy Oxford February 8 2016 When writing soulful, folk inflected acoustic songs, you walk a fine line. Get it right and you can forge

  • For Art's Sake with Adam Mastroianni of the Oxford Imps

    Director Adam Mastroianni talks us through the process of improvisation as practised by the Oxford Imps since 2004 I know a magic word. Two, actually. They’re very simple words, too, some of the first ones we ever learn. The first is “yes”;

  • Team of firefighters to tackle cycle challenge for charity

    A TEAM of firefighters will cycle the length of Great Britain in a bid to raise £100,000 for charity. The pack of 16 riders and four support staff are planning to embark on the 1,006-mile journey from John O’Groats to Land’s End on May 13.

  • Pixies aiming to make career wishes come true for mums

    PIXIES may be the stuff of fairytales but they’re making career wishes come true for a group of Oxfordshire mums. The 12 women have been chosen for a six-month Tech Pixies project, targeting those who have been out of the workplace because of caring

  • Review: Culinary empire Jacobs & Field is heating up nicely

    Restaurateurs Jonny and Damian manage to bowl over Katherine MacAlister with their neighbourhood-run eatery in Headington Jacobs & Field has been so utterly transformed recently that I actually walked past before realising that it now spans

  • Asylum seeker concerns add to fears about Brexit

    REGARDING security considerations in the Brexit debate. I am writing to the Oxford Mail, as a concerned reader of your newspaper, about the upcoming Brexit debate and subsequent referendum. Many of the arguments being advanced for and against Brexit

  • EU tax credit curb sounds like an own goal for UK

    RECENTLY David Cameron has been talking of getting a good deal for the British public to remain with the EU. He spoke of curtailing work tax credits for migrants. However, because we are bound by EU law, this exact same policy would also affect

  • Article revived memories of the Cutteslowe Walls

    I HAVE just read an article from my sister on Oxford’s Cutteslowe Wall which brought back many memories of Oxford. I was born in Jericho in 1932, the same year we moved to Aldrich Road in Cuttleslowe, only a few yards from the wall. In 1938 the

  • Slow pace of work on roundabout avoidable

    I WAS amazed to see so many workers on the Wolvercote to Summertown roadworks recently. I think there must have been nine, which is almost twice as many as usual. Shame on the contractors for thinking that the bare minimum of work is acceptable

  • First Person: Fusing our sciences with the arts

    Science writer Mary Cruse says that the worlds of science and the arts do not have to be incompatible Back in 1959, the esteemed British scientist and novelist C.P. Snow sparked a controversy that would go on to span decades. The dispute was over

  • Quad Talk: Exploring the island that’s filled with culture

    "Dry with a hint of arrogance", read the restaurateur’s description of a Frascati on offer in a fine and witty Italian one street back from the shore of St Peter’s Port, Guernsey. How could we resist? Guernsey is an unapologetically odd place

  • Times Tech: Has Twitter finally reached its (word) limit?

    David McManus says the social media interface may struggle to expand Twitter. It’s a word that has become almost synonymous with the internet and yet despite the fact that there are around 6,000 tweets sent every second, so few people seem to actively

  • Bar Food: The Big Society, Cowley Road, Oxford

    THE challenge is on, the gauntlet thrown down. Among aficionados of comfort food, the search is on for Oxford’s best fried chicken. Of course the standard takeaway joints (no names, but we all know who we’re talking about here) don’t get a look

  • Ballet dancer Anna Fedosova succeeds in graceful ambitions

    Anna Fedosova gives Katherine MacAlister an insight into her life with the State Ballet of Siberia Anna Fedosova started dancing at the age of 10 when she went to ballet school. Born in Perm, the oldest Russian city in the Western Urals, she joined

  • X-Factor winner Sam Bailey on her new role in Chicago

    Katherine MacAlister talks to X Factor star and ex-prison officer Sam Bailey about her new role Sam Bailey is watching Jeremy Kyle when I finally catch up with her. “Just checking in with the family,” she laughs, turning off the TV. Enormously

  • The gloves are on for Town vs. Gown

    Marc West gets a ringside seat for a punchy Oxford tradition, which has some murky roots On this day in 1355, Oxford was licking its wounds following a heated skirmish on the corner of St Aldate’s. Two undergraduates Walter Spryngeheuse and

  • Starting Up: Dine in prison with the ball & chain

    IT’S my role as head chef at wine bar and bistro 1855 which led to me getting involved with Oxford Castle Unlocked’s Valentine’s lock-in event. Twelve couples (in two sittings) will get the opportunity to dine in their very own prison cell or in

  • Nathaniel Rateliff has got the Night Sweats

    With his rocky heart-baring soul, Nathaniel Rateliff has found himself one of the year’s most lauded artists. Tim Hughes finds out what makes him and his band the Night Sweats tick For a hardened, no-nonsense working musician, Nathaniel Rateliff

  • U's boss ready for end of season twists and turns

    MICHAEL Appleton has warned Oxford United fans to strap themselves in for a rollercoaster final third of the season. And the U’s head coach says the last week goes to show the twists and turns that lie ahead on the long run-in. Despite not

  • Comment: Book goes to show all donations help

    OXFAM is lucky to have eagle-eyed volunteers like Andrew Chapman, who has spotted valuable books for the charity on at least two occasions. It was fortunate he and a colleague at the shop in St Giles were big fans of the Oxford band Radiohead and

  • ROWING: Headington School land double

    HEADINGTON School started their 2016 campaign with two victories in the curtailed Junior Head Race, staged by Hampton School at Molesey, writes John Wiggins. The wind-shelter from the local landscape with the prevailing wind left the Thames relatively

  • Bulldozers begin demolition of shops at old Westgate Centre

    OXFORD is one step closer to retail heaven now developers have begun knocking down the shops part of the old Westgate Centre. The bulldozers have remained quiet since work to demolish the dilapitated multi-storey car park beside the shopping centre

  • Figures reveal more children in care do well at school

    MORE children in care in the county have achieved good reading, writing and maths results than in previous years. A report which will be examined by Oxfordshire County Council’s education scrutiny committee today showed 53 per cent of pupils who

  • United eye bolstering attacking options

    OXFORD United will look to bolster only their strikeforce during the emergency loan window – barring injuries. As of Tuesday, clubs have been able to sign players on temporary deals and have until March 24 to complete their business. United

  • Police officer accuses man of trying to run him over

    A smart car driver has denied that he drove dangerously after a police officer said he feared for his life and accused him of trying to run him over. Fares Hanif, of Gaisford Road, Oxford, told Oxford Crown Court yesterday he was not aware that

  • Author aims to educate kids on childbirth with new book

    THE idea of giving birth can be scary for adults and children alike. But one woman from Wolvercote in Oxford is hoping to single-handedly break down the anxiety for youngsters with her new book The Princess and the Poo. The author, who wishes

  • Parky at the Pictures (In Cinemas 11/2/2016)

    Divisive Italian director Luca Guadagnino has been busy since scoring an international arthouse hit with I Am Love (2009). In addition to the full-length documentaries Inconscio italiano (2011) and Bertolucci on Bertolucci (2013), he has also made

  • Parky at the Pictures (DVD 11/2/2016)

    Ever since Knud Leif Thomsen included scenes of unsimulated sexual intercourse in the 1966 Danish drama, Gift, film-makers have striven to include ever-more explicit depictions of copulation in order to titillate and shock in the name of cinematic

  • Man denies attack on woman's car was 'intimidation'

    A MAN accused of using a shovel to smash a woman’s car outside her Littlemore home in the middle of the night has gone on trial. Ellis Lawrence, of Warburg Crescent, Oxford, denies attempting to pervert the course of justice by intimidating Laura

  • Dancing on the wall at museum for shadow puppet event

    SHADOWS danced on the walls of the Pitt Rivers Museum when youngsters got to try their hand at making and animating puppets. The session was held in celebration of Chinese New Year on Monday, with children making dragon shadow puppets. Anna