Giant chess at Oxford Castle for Alice’s day was rained off this afternoon.

But other events across the city have gone ahead to celebrate the July 4 afternoon in 1862 that Lewis Carroll first told his timeless tale to a young Alice Liddell on the Oxford riverbank.

Alice fans, dressed as the heroine of children’s literature, had their faces painted and made balloon rabbits at Boswell’s store in Cornmarket Street and enjoyed an Alice-themed story telling session at the castle.

The event first started in 2007 and is now organised by the Story Museum in Pembroke Street.