Grandpont | |
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Location within Oxfordshire | |
OS grid reference | SP510053 |
Civil parish |
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District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | Oxford |
Postcode district | OX1 |
Dialling code | 01865 |
Police | Thames Valley |
Fire | Oxfordshire |
Ambulance | South Central |
UK Parliament | |
Website | Oxford City Council |
Grandpont is a mainly residential area in south Oxford, England. It is west of Abingdon Road, and consists mainly of narrow streets that run at right angles to the main road, with terraced late-Victorian and Edwardian houses.
It also contains the Grandpont Nature Park—a riverside park managed by Oxford City Council (grid reference SP510054 ). The park covers 7.4 acres (3 ha) and was created in 1985 on the site of a gas works that was demolished in 1960. The former railway bridge, used to carry coal from the main railway line across the River Thames to the older gas works in St Ebbes on the north bank, still stands, and is in use as a footbridge. A later bridge, Grandpont Bridge, provides a more direct pedestrian and cycle route across the river to St Ebbes.
The name of the area derives from the Grandpont, a medieval stone causeway now known to survive within the core of the modern Abingdon Road for a distance of at least 700 metres south of the city centre. [1] The causeway may have been first built in the Anglo-Saxon era, and rebuilt in the late 11th century [2] by the first Norman lord of Oxford, Robert D'Oyly I, crossing the low-lying ground south of the City, still very liable to winter flooding from the nearby River Thames.
In 1279 there were 62 houses in Grandpont. The suburb grew slowly in the following centuries, and extensive development did not take place until the 19th century. In 1844 the Great Western Railway opened Oxford's first railway station in what is now Western Road, and that stimulated development. [3] One of the houses built there is Grandpont House named after the neighbourhood. [4] Built for Sir William Elias Taunton, the Town Clerk of the city of Oxford, in 1785, his family controlled the house until Brasenose College acquired the house in 1847. [4] Brasenose maintained the house until 1959 when it was purchased by the Netherhall Educational Association. [4]
Until 1889 Grandpont was in Berkshire, although it was a tithing of the parish of St Aldate's, Oxford. The area was added to the municipal borough of Oxford and to Oxfordshire in 1889. [5] The Church of England parish church of Saint Matthew, Grandpont was built in 1890, [6] presumably as a chapel of ease. The church was consecrated by Bishop William Stubbs on Thursday October 29, 1891. [7] It became a parish separate from St Aldate's in 1913. [3]
Eynsham is a village and civil parish in the West Oxfordshire district, in Oxfordshire, England, about 5 miles (8 km) north-west of Oxford and east of Witney. The 2011 Census recorded a parish population of 4,648. It was estimated at 5,087 in 2020.
Combe is a village and civil parish about 5 miles (8 km) northeast of Witney in Oxfordshire. It is bounded to the south and southwest by the River Evenlode, to the northwest partly by the course of the Akeman Street Roman road and partly by a road parallel with it, and to the east by the boundary of Blenheim Great Park. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 768.
Wolvercote is a village that is part of the City of Oxford, England. It is about 3 miles (5 km) northwest of the city centre, on the northern edge of Wolvercote Common, which is itself north of Port Meadow and adjoins the River Thames.
Bladon is a village and civil parish on the River Glyme about 6+1⁄2 miles (10.5 km) northwest of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England. It is where Sir Winston Churchill is buried. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 898.
New Marston is a suburb about 1.25 miles (2 km) northeast of the centre of Oxford, England.
Folly Bridge is a stone bridge over the River Thames carrying the Abingdon Road south from the centre of Oxford, England. It was erected in 1825–27, to designs of a little-known architect, Ebenezer Perry, who practised in London.
Osney or Osney Island is a riverside community in the west of the city of Oxford, England. In modern times the name is applied to a community also known as Osney Town astride Botley Road, just west of the city's main railway station, on an island surrounded by the River Thames, Osney Ditch and another backwater connecting the Thames to Osney Ditch.
St Aldate's is a street in central Oxford, England, named after Saint Aldate, but formerly known as Fish Street.
Goring Heath is a hamlet and civil parish in the Chiltern Hills in South Oxfordshire. The civil parish includes the villages of Whitchurch Hill and Crays Pond and some small hamlets. Goring Heath is centred 3 miles (4.8 km) southeast of Goring-on-Thames and about 4 miles (6.4 km) northwest of Reading, Berkshire. In 1724 Henry Alnutt, a lawyer of the Middle Temple in London, established a set of almshouses at Goring Heath. They form three sides of a courtyard, flanking a chapel of the same date. In the 1880s a school was built beside the almshouses in what was intended to be the same architectural style. A post office was added in 1900.
New Hinksey is a suburb in the south of the city of Oxford.
Hinksey Stream is a branch of the River Thames to the west of the city of Oxford, England. It starts as Seacourt Stream, which leaves the Thames at a bifurcation north of the village of Wytham, and rejoins the river south of the city near Kennington.
Abingdon Road is the main arterial road to the south of the city of Oxford, England. The road passes through the suburbs of Grandpont and New Hinksey. It is named after the town of Abingdon to the south.
Yarnton is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire about 1 mile (1.6 km) southwest of Kidlington and 4 miles (6 km) northwest of Oxford. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 2,545.
Water Eaton is a hamlet in the civil parish of Gosford and Water Eaton, in the Cherwell district, in the county of Oxfordshire, England. It is between Oxford and Kidlington.
St Ebbes is a district of central Oxford, England, southwest of Carfax. St Ebbes Street runs south from the western end of Queen Street.
Cassington is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire about 5 miles (8 km) northwest of Oxford. The village lies on gravel strata about 1⁄2 mile (800 m) from the confluence of the River Evenlode with the River Thames. The parish includes the hamlet of Worton northeast of the village and the site of the former hamlet of Somerford to the south. Somerford seems to have been abandoned early in the 14th century. Cassington is formed of two parts, "upper" and "lower", each with its own village green. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 750.
Shipton-on-Cherwell is a village in the civil parish of Shipton-on-Cherwell and Thrupp, in the Cherwell district, in the county of Oxfordshire, England. It is on the River Cherwell about 2 miles (3 km) north of Kidlington in Oxfordshire, England.
Wilcote is a hamlet in the civil parish of North Leigh, in the West Oxfordshire district, in Oxfordshire, England, about 3+1⁄2 miles (5.6 km) north of Witney.
New Road is a street in west central Oxford, England. It links Park End Street and Worcester Street to the west with Queen Street and Castle Street to the east. To the south is Oxford Castle and the former Oxford Prison, now a Malmaison hotel. To the north is Nuffield College, a graduate college of Oxford University. At the eastern end on the south side is New County Hall, the headquarters of Oxfordshire County Council.
Thomas Lawrence Dale, FRIBA, FSA was an English architect. Until the First World War he concentrated on designing houses for private clients. From the 1930s Dale was the Oxford Diocesan Surveyor and was most noted for designing, restoring, and furnishing Church of England parish churches.