Archive

  • Crash causes M40 delays

    An overturned vehicle this evening caused delays for drivers in north Oxfordshire. Queueing traffic built up on the northbound carriageway between junction 10 at Ardley and junction 11 at Banbury. Two lanes were blocked for about an hour while emergency

  • NHS nurse and pharmacist given MBE medals

    HAVING spent his working life seeing first-hand the devastating impact of mental health problems, NHS worker Colin Godfrey felt he had to act. What the mental health nurse knew invigorated people and boosted their sense of self-esteem was physical

  • Revellers urinate and have sex outside sheltered flats

    ELDERLY and disabled Witney residents are fighting to stop drunken revellers urinating and having sex outside their homes. The Queen Emma’s Dyke residents had complained the disorder was getting worse, with one having described it as like “living in

  • Underwater kingdom inspires young artists

    CHILDREN have been getting creative at a series of art classes at Radford Farm near Enstone. A dozen youngsters have been learning about pond life and art at the Lisa Jayne Art Studio every week after school. Organiser Lisa Jayne Bloomer said: “They

  • Dad wins disabled daughter care battle

    AN OXFORD dad has won his battle against Oxfordshire County council’s planned funding cuts for his severely disabled daughter. Jacques Lauruol, from Rose Hill, has reversed a proposed 50 per cent cut in the care budget for Marie, 29, who has

  • ROCKS OFF: That festival feeling

    WELL that’s it… there’s no going back now. We may only be half-way through June but I’m already starting to get that weather-beaten, wild-eyed look of the festival veteran. And things are only going to get worse. It started, promisingly enough

  • Budget boost will fight bed-blocking

    A FURTHER £1.5m is to be ploughed into tackling Oxfordshire’s chronic bed-blocking problem after an unexpected cash handout from the Government. Oxfordshire County Council has been given a further £3.7m and will use £1.5m to ensure services

  • An alternative to the 'big boys'

    A financial adviser has turned from being a bean counter to a bean grinder after starting a new business venture. Gareth Bertram has opened Hackett’s coffee shop in Summertown after deciding he wanted a new challenge. So he got together with David Hackett

  • Multi-million pound conference centre to be closed

    A MULTI-MILLION-pound conference centre in Oxford is to be shut and the site redeveloped after owners declared it a “white elephant.” The Oxford Conference Centre in Park End Street, which cost more than £4m to develop just two years ago, will close

  • New twist on bumpy road

    It is 99 years since William Morris bought the old military college in Cowley and started making cars there, but in the roller-coaster ride from then to the high-tech, robot-driven factory which is today producing the runaway success story that is the

  • Horrid Henry becomes a movie star

    Grubby, cheeky and usually up to no good, Horrid Henry is the stuff of most teachers’ nightmares but for one Oxford-based business, he is proving to be a dream. Independent production company Novel Entertainment, based in Mill Street, is the

  • Paul's five-star career

    What was your first job and what did your responsibilities include? I was a kitchen porter at the Bear Hotel in Woodstock. In the 1970s, when I was 13, I used to come to Hope House to visit my grandparents with my family. My grandfather, John Marston

  • Fighting through the pain barrier

    Ever since former parachute jumping instructor Victor Last left RAF Brize Norton — and that was way back in 1987 — he has been nurturing a business idea which he says could help people in pain and at the same time save money: to offer military-style rehabilitation

  • Master of spin

    he non-stick saucepan is the most famous spin-off from space science, but the brains behind the European Space Agency’s Business Incubation Centre at Harwell are hoping for many more. The centre’s first tenant, aptly named The Electrospinning Company

  • Spinning a miller's tale

    Although they are far from their ancestral lands — the dry, windy plateaus of the Andes — alpacas seem content with life in the rolling hills of the Cotswolds, as they chew the cud and watch the world go by. Gentle creatures, they comfort each other

  • Local share prices (PM)

    AEA Technology 3.75 BMW 5498 Electrocomponents 287.3 Nationwide Accident Repair 94 Oxford Biomedica 5.6 Oxford Catalysts 85.75 Oxford Instruments 821.5 Reed Elsevier 538.75 RM 154.25 RPS Group 244.9 Courtesy of Redmayne Bentley, Abingdon

  • Q Gardens

    Currently available for PYO: STRAWBERRIES PYO cherries are NOT yet available - however, ready-picked cherries are available in the shop. Milton Hill, Steventon, Abingdon OX13 6AB Tel: 01235 820988 Email: info@qgardensfarmshop.co.uk Website:

  • New magazine to mark college's 50th anniversary

    Mark Damazer (above), the former controller of BBC Radio 4 and now Master of St Peter’s College, Oxford, threw open his home on Monday night for an enjoyable party to mark the publication of a literary magazine called Ex-Pat. Most attractively

  • Tom's dream debut with theatre's top stars

    Strolling through the buzz of London’s theatreland on Tuesday evening I paused to consider how this must all seem to the young actor I was going to watch a little later, giving what seems sure to be a career-making performance. He is 22-

  • Elizabeth David's summer pudding (serves 4)

    Although nearly everybody knows of this wonderful pudding, Elizabeth David believed that authentic recipes for it are rare. This is the summer pudding recipe she includes in Summer Cooking (Grub Street, London, £12.99) For four people, stew 1lb

  • The Beaver and Bad Teacher

    The trials of Mel Gibson, whose rants to an ex-girlfriend were caught on tape last year, seem like a curious case of life imitating art in The Beaver, a blackly humorous tale of a middle aged man’s emotional breakdown. Hopefully, any lingering controversy

  • The Feathers, Woodstock, and its Gin Experience

    I like gin and, of course, I like food. As a matter of fact I enjoy the two together. This enthusiasm began on some long-ago summer Saturday when the pre-lunch Beefeater and tonic segued into the smoked trout and marinated anchovies — with

  • Taste of summer and a perfect pick-me-up

    If my Burmese cat was not the same colour as a wooden staircase at midnight, perhaps I wouldn’t have fallen from top to bottom of the stairs in the middle of the night, finding myself surrounded by broken pictures and covered with blood — but he

  • A college set up for the working man

    The building that is now Ruskin College’s Headington headquarters was for many years the home of the left-wing educationalist and reformer Sir Michael Ernest Sadler (1861-1943), the one-time master of University College, Oxford, who was himself a lifelong

  • Preview of Jubilate! at Copa Upstairs, Oxford

    It’s great to see that Ros Adler’s hilarious black comedy Jubilate! is returning to play at Oxfringe. Last year this one-woman show had audiences both laughing out loud and dabbing away at sad tears as her characters took us through their interwoven

  • Natural Worlds: HEMINGWAY Art, Cassington

    Karen Purple and Fiona Hepburn use their art to explore the natural world, in very different and successfully complementary ways. Purple deconstructs the landscape to create abstract pieces that celebrate and explore the effect nature has on her and

  • Vincent River: Burton Taylor Studio

    A rather dour entry in the Oxfringe lineup, Vincent River is a one-act, one hour (or so), play about love and grief. Philip Ridley’s piece focuses on Anita (Rafaella Marcus) whose teenage son, Vincent River, has recently been murdered in a public toilet

  • Much Ado About Nothing: Wyndham's Theatre, London

    David Tennant and Catherine Tate revive the winning partnership that so delighted fans of Dr Who in a scintillating production of Much Ado About Nothing at London’s Wyndham’s Theatre. The duo are again time-travelling — to Gibraltar of the 1980s — and

  • Blood Runs Thicker Than Water and Small Space - Oxfringe

    It’s Oxfringe time again. A small crowd of us met outside the Oxford Playhouse and were shepherded to a nearby house and installed in a very nice kitchen. Small Space is aptly named because this bijou site-specific show only has places for an audience

  • First Love: Oxford Playhouse

    We never learn the man’s name. But there he is, standing on the stage before us, buttoned up in a tight- fitting suit. His hands fidget, and he seems ill at ease in the presence of other people. He’s been to see his father’s grave. “I lunched lightly

  • National Dance Company Wales: Wycombe Swan

    Diversions Dance Company were a much-respected ensemble for two decades. Two years ago they became National Dance Company Wales, based in Cardiff. On their second visit to our area they showed again what a talented group of dancers they are. But how much

  • Preview of a concert by the Oxford Sixth

    The name is appopriate: set up in 2008, the Oxford Sixth choir brings together sixth formers from across the city. “When I arrived here, I realised there were lots of boys- or girls-only choirs,” Oxford Sixth founder and director Jon Cullen told me.

  • Tristan und Isolde: Grange Park Opera

    Tristan und Isolde became Tristan und Isolden (if that’s the correct plural!) at Grange Park on Saturday, there being two singers playing the heroine of Wagner’s great opera. Alwyn Mellor, who had earned enthusiastic reviews for her performance

  • Rigoletto: Grange park Opera

    Los Angeles police chief “The Duke” (maybe his mom worshipped John Wayne) seems to have little to do as he sits behind a very clear desk. “One must be free to love,” he sings. Plenty of gun-toting underlings are in attendance to ensure that the Duke (

  • Il Turco in Italia: Garsington Opera at Wormsley

    Warm sunlight flooded across a Neapolitan square. It was the real thing too: on the second night of Garsington Opera’s Il Turco in Italia, their new Wormsley auditorium’s transparent side walls let in natural light and warmth. By the same token, however

  • Jobless figure falls again

    The number of people in Oxfordshire out of work and claiming benefit fell for the third month in succession during May to 7,619, down from 7,686 the month before — which means that the proportion of the workforce on the dole remains at 1.8 per cent.

  • Oxford in Bloom stalwart urges gardeners to give it a go

    FOR almost a decade, keen gardener Janet Lever has been picking up prizes in the annual Oxford In Bloom contest. Now the 77-year-old is urging others to put their horticultural skills to the test and compete in the celebration of Oxford’s best gardens

  • Secret of a long life is a mystery to Oxford centenarian

    THE WIDOW of a university lecturer celebrated her 100th birthday with family, friends, and a pub lunch. Former teacher Mary Loukes marked the milestone at the Plough Inn, in Wolvercote, yesterday. She is pictured with her sons Christopher

  • £3.5m bid to build third county crematorium

    A THIRD crematorium could be built in Oxfordshire. The £3.5m project is being proposed for Garford, west of Abingdon. The county’s existing crematoria are in Oxford and Banbury. The complex, off the A338 Wantage Road, would also have a garden of remembrance

  • CRICKET: Rump's bubbling with enthusiasm

    Ashley Rump believes his enthusiasm for the game will hold him in good stead in his new role as the Oxfordshire Cricket Board’s cricket development officer. Just a few days after starting the job last week, the 26-year-old, who lives in Oxford

  • CRICKET: Horspath crash out in cup mission

    Tiddington ran out shock six-run winners at home to Horspath in the Bernard Tollett Oxfordshire Cup first round. The MP Sports Cherwell League Division 2 side racked up 150-8 , with Matthew Johnston (35no) and Nick Pykett (30) leading the way. Horspath

  • Local share prices (AM)

    AEA Technology 3.75 BMW 5575 Electrocomponents 286.6 Nationwide Accident Repair 94 Oxford Biomedica 5.65 Oxford Catalysts 85.75 Oxford Instruments 800.25 Reed Elsevier 541.75 RM 155 RPS Group 246.1 Courtesy of Redmayne

  • COMMENT: Provide the best

    THE state of housing on offer to service personnel a few years ago around RAF Brize Norton was an absolute disgrace. And so, with the Armed Forces Covenant now a reality, it is good to see about 1,000 homes making their way through the planning

  • D–Day looms for RAF homes plan for Carterton

    HUNDREDS of RAF personnel and their families will find out next week if they will get new homes. West Oxfordshire District Council will decide on Monday whether more than 500 homes can be built in Carterton, close to RAF Brize Norton.

  • What's in store for Wallingford shop?

    ONE of Oxfordshire’s last remaining department stores is planning a reorganisation which could see sales areas turned int flats. Pettits in Wallingford, which has been in the town for 155 years, wants to create 12 flats on its upper floors

  • Teachers' strike forecast to hit every county school

    EVERY school in Oxfordshire will be affected when up to 4,000 teachers walk out in two weeks’ time, according to union officials. Those behind the strike say most of the county’s 269 state primary and secondary schools would close – as well

  • AUNT SALLY: Latest results, sixers & blobbers

    Greene King Oxford & District League Premier/Section 1: White Hart A 2, Rowing Machine 1; Three Pigeons 2, Garsington Sports A 1; Six Bells C Kidlington 3, Headington British Legion 0; Black Swan 2, The George 1. Section 2: Woodman Inn 1, Punch Bowl

  • AUNT SALLY: Maunder misses out on maximum

    KEN Maunder became the latest player to just miss out on a magical maximum, writes ANDY BEAL. The Garsington Sports man clanged off the doll with his first 15 sticks in the match against The Three Pigeons. But he then missed the next two, before being

  • Bill U-turn ‘won’t hit NHS timetables’

    THE doctor leading the shake up of the NHS in Oxfordshire last night welcomed major concessions on proposed reforms by the Government. Wholesale changes to the Government’s controversial NHS reform bill were unveiled yesterday by Prime Minister

  • CRICKET: Oxfordshire draw opening match against Wilts

    Oxfordshire's opening Western Division match of the new campaign fizzled out into a predictable draw against Wiltshire at Challow & Childrey. Sunday’s wash-out and the loss of Monday morning’s session due to a damp ground meant there was likely

  • New Leys pool will be left high and dry

    I AM not surprised that the newly created planning review committee reaffirmed the planning consent granted in April by Oxford City Council for the proposed Blackbird Leys swimming complex to replace Temple Cowley Pools (Oxford Mail, June 3).

  • School memories

    A Cheney School photograph printed in the Oxford Mail recently, made me smile. I was there from 1954-57. One year, the photograph was taken and a boy on the extreme left saw the camera was scanning left to right, so ran behind the group and appeared

  • County leader's arrogance is breathtaking

    HOW dare Keith Mitchell make the comments suggesting that those of us who voted to keep a library service do not care about the elderly or about vulnerable children (Oxford Mail, May 28). Presumably, this is the way his own mind works. If he knows

  • Sassy & Single: Pick up the phone this Father's Day

    I saw an advert for Father’s Day the other day. It featured the world’s most beautiful man, with his stunning wife, and two children who could have been genetically bred to resemble a real life Ken and Barbie. The dad was unwrapping some kind of power

  • COMMENT: Better not to rush ahead with reform

    DR STEPHEN Richards, the man voted in to oversee the NHS reforms in Oxfordshire, remains a positive voice among the doom and gloom surrounding health service restructuring. The Government has been forced into an embarrassing U-turn over the

  • CARNIV-ALE? LET’S ALL DRINK TO THAT

    A TOAST to Cowley Carnival will be made with the event’s very own beer. Witney’s Wychwood Brewery has concocted CarnivAle in celebration of the long-running party, which will this year be held in South Park on July 3. The 3.4-per-cent

  • Perhaps we should trust councillor's judgement

    A MUCH larger and more expensive Olympic-size swimming pool is to be built in Blackbird Leys to replace the smaller, yet well used, one at Temple Cowley. A lot of very interesting and imaginative reasons have been given by Oxford City Council

  • Calling time on pubs

    IN response to recent dissertations in the Oxford Mail highlighting the closure of public houses in the region, the United Kingdom Independence Party has already kickstarted another resurgent phase in its campaign to ‘Save Our Pubs’. Marston

  • Past offers lessons on planning

    As more and more ill-conceived and badly-designed buildings threaten the landscape of Oxford, I look back with nostalgia to the work of Ebenezer Howard, who believed a close bond with nature was essential to human well-being. He invited Raymond Unwin

  • Unwise at any time

    REFERRING to a suspected serial sex attacker, you quote Det Sgt Steve Ratfield as saying: “Young women walking around late at night drunk is not a good idea until we catch this person.” It’s not exactly recommended at the best of times, is it? DAVID

  • Poignant message about knife crime

    I WAS interested to see the pieces in the Oxford Mail (May 7 and June 6) on the campaign to tackle knife crime by Thames Valley Police, and the good idea of holding a knife awareness week. But the photograph of the young boy who lost his dad to knife

  • ‘Oxford sham marriage arranger had fake name’

    A MAN accused of arranging sham marriages used the name of an international footballer at an Oxfordshire register office, jurors heard. A registrar at Oxford Register Office said Abiola Abdulkareem had called himself Jubril Cissé, which Judge Patrick

  • Oxford United chief excited by USA trip

    Oxford United chairman Kelvin Thomas says the pre-season tour to America is a landmark occasion for the club. The U’s travel to the United States in just under four weeks time to play three matches as part of their pre-season preparations. And Thomas

  • ‘The future looks rosier for Oxford estate’

    THINGS are looking brighter for what has been described as Oxford’s “forgotten estate” after a second cash windfall to improve life for residents. Rose Hill has been handed £361,714 by the Big Lottery Fund to fund a series of projects over the next five

  • Faithful unite for march through Oxford

    HUNDREDS of people of all religions and none gathered last night to walk through Oxford with the message of peace. The Oxford Interfaith Friendship Walk was set up in the wake of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and has seen hundreds of people

  • Rack, Ruin and Murder by Ann Granger

    Rack, Ruin and Murder by Ann Granger When old Monty Bickerstaffe staggers home on his wonky legs after an alcoholic visit to the local Cotswold market town, he opens the door to his dilapidated farmhouse to find a body of a well dressed

  • Memorial walk for Paul Cullen

    A MEMORIAL walk is being held in memory of Paul Cullen, above, the former chairman of Oxford Pedestrians’ Association. The walk along the city’s waterways is on Tuesday, June 28, starting at Folly Bridge at 6.30pm. For more details, call 01865 779663

  • Oxford traffic jams among Europe's worse

    OXFORD is the 13th most congested city in Europe, according to a new survey. The city is one of 16 in the UK that made the top 50 in the table compiled by satnav company TomTom. According to its data, cars in Oxford were snarled up 29