South Park is a park on Headington Hill in east Oxford, England. [1] It is the largest park within Oxford city limits. A good view of the city centre with its historic spires and towers of Oxford University can be obtained at the park's highest point, a favourite location for photographers.
The park is located alongside Headington Road. St Clement's links the park with central Oxford. A 19th-century bridge links the park with Headington Hill Park. [2] On the southern boundary is the gently curving Morrell Avenue, named after a local brewery family. At the top end of the park is the Oxford Artisan Distillery, established in 2017 within the former Cheney Farm buildings.
The land was privately owned by the Morrell family of Headington Hill Hall until bought by the Oxford Preservation Trust in 1932 to preserve it as open space. In 1951 the Trust gave the land to the city of Oxford. A carved stone by the sculptor Eric Gill is located at the foot of the Park and records the Trust's gift thus: [3]
This park was acquired by the Oxford Preservation Trust through the liberality of the Pilgrim Trust and David and Joanna Randall-MacIver 1932
Many events are held in the park including the annual parade of the Lord Mayor and the annual fund-raising fireworks display of the Oxford branch of Round Table.
On 7 July 2001, the rock band Radiohead performed a concert to more 40,000 people, with supporting performances by Beck, Humphrey Lyttelton, Sigur Rós, Rock of Travolta and Hestor Thrale. [4] According to journalist Alex Ross, the show may have been the largest public gathering in Oxford history. [5]
Foodies Festivals organizes events at South Park, [6] including master classes from chefs such as Levi Roots and Ed Baines.[ citation needed ]
Just outside South Park is the Oxford Spanish Civil War memorial which is dedicated to local residents who travelled to Spain to join the International Brigades to fight against fascist forces backed by Hitler and Mussolini during the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939. The memorial is located where Headington Road meets Morrell Avenue.
During the Spanish Civil War, 29 British people with connections to Oxfordshire joined the International Brigades, with a further 2 who joined POUM. [7] Most of the volunteers were communist activists, and many had links to Britain's Jewish communities. Oxford was a hub for anti-fascist activism, homes within the county housed hundreds of Basque refugee children and various physical fights between anti-fascist activists and the Oxford University Fascist Association. [8]
The memorial was the focus of minor controversy when all plans to have an anti-fascist memorial in the city centre were rejected by Oxford City Council, until the current site was agreed upon. [9]
St Clement's is a district in Oxford, England, on the east bank of the River Cherwell. "St Clement's" is usually taken to describe a small triangular area from The Plain bounded by the Cherwell in the West, Cowley Road in the East. to the foot of Headington Hill in the South. It also refers to the ecclesiastical parish of St Clement's which includes some neighbouring areas and is used in the names of local City and County electoral districts.
Headington Hill Hall stands on Headington Hill in the east of Oxford, England. It was built in 1824 for the Morrell family, who remained in residence for 114 years. It became the home to Pergamon Press and to media tycoon Robert Maxwell. It currently houses Oxford Brookes School of Law.
Headington Hill is a hill in the east of Oxford, England, in the suburb of Headington. The Headington Road goes up the hill leading out of the city. There are good views of the spires of Oxford from the hill, especially from the top of South Park.
Headington Road is an arterial road in the east of Oxford, England. The road connects the junction of St Clements and Marston Road with the suburb of Headington, up Headington Hill. When it reaches the Headley Way junction, it becomes London Road, as the Boundary Brook runs under the road at this point.
The Radcliffe Infirmary was a hospital in central north Oxford, England, located at the southern end of Woodstock Road on the western side, backing onto Walton Street.
Ralph Winston Fox was a British revolutionary, journalist, novelist, and historian, best remembered as a biographer of Lenin and Genghis Khan. Fox was one of the best-known members of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) to be killed in Spain fighting against the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War.
Lewis Clive was a British rower who won a gold medal in the 1932 Summer Olympics. He volunteered to fight for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War and was killed in action.
(Alexander) Gavin Henderson, 2nd Baron Faringdon was a British Labour politician and pacifist. He is most known for his charity work, his heavy financial support of medical aid programmes, and for housing 40 child refugees fleeing Hitler-backed fascist forces during the Spanish Civil War.
Morrell's Brewing Company, also known as the Lion Brewery, was the only major brewery in Oxford, England. It operated between 1782 and 1998.
Morrell Avenue is a residential tree-lined road in Headington, east Oxford, England.
Thora Silverthorne, also known as "Red Silverthorne", was a British Communist, healthcare activist, and a nanny for Somerville Hastings, and former president of the Socialist Medical Association (SMA). She is most known for her service to the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War, and for her roles in helping to found both Britain's National Health Service (NHS), and co-founding Britain's first union for rank and file nurses.
Alexander Wheeler Wainman (1913-1989) was a British photographer, Quaker, and Slavonic Scholar at the University of British Columbia. He is most known for his work as a frontline medical volunteer for the Republican government and anti-fascist forces during the Spanish Civil War, and for the large collection of photographs he took during the war, which was published posthumously.
The Oxford Spanish Civil War memorial is a monument in Oxford dedicated to the 31 known local residents who fought in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) against Nationalist forces. Erected and unveiled in 2017, the memorial is located close to South Park, near the base of Headington Hill by the junction of Headington Road and Morrell Avenue. The memorial is dedicated to all the volunteers with links to Oxfordshire who supported the Republicans and inscribed onto the front are the names of the six volunteers in the International Brigades who were killed during the war.
John Pascal Rickman (1910–1937) was a British communist activist who was killed during the Spanish Civil War. Before the war, he dropped out from Lincoln College of the University of Oxford, and became an expert on English church architecture, took part in the Battle of Cable Street, and became involved in various religious and political organisations which aimed to better the conditions of the working class, including the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB).
Edward Cooper (1912-1937) was a British actor, communist activist, and newspaper worker, who died fighting for the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. He was also a close friend of Ralph Winston Fox, and John Cornford, and is memorialised on the Oxford Spanish Civil War memorial.
Anthony Carritt (1914-1937) was a British left-wing activist and a member of the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. He and his brother Noel Carritt were ambulance drivers at the Battle of Brunete, and the two brothers fought against Spanish fascists backed by both Hitler and Mussolini. Anthony Carritt was assumed to have been killed in an airstrike after he went missing during the Battle of Brunete and was never found despite his brother spending days searching for him.
The Battle of Carfax (1936) was a violent skirmish in the city of Oxford between the British Union of Fascists (BUF) and local anti-fascists, trade unionists, and supporters of the Labour Party and the Communist Party of Great Britain. The battle took place inside Oxford's Carfax Assembly Rooms, a once popular meeting hall owned by Oxford City Council which was used for public events and located on Cornmarket Street.
The Carritt family is an English political family based in Oxford, notable for its deep involvement in anti-fascist activism, Marxist politics, and academic achievements within Oxford University. For much of the 20th century the involvement of the family revolved around the Communist Party of Great Britain, as various members have traditionally been members of the British communist movement and have served as notable anti-fascist and anti-colonial activists, spies, philosophers, professors, politicians, newspaper editors, and revolutionaries.
Noel Carritt (1910–1992) was a British communist activist, teacher, and volunteer for the International Brigades. Noel was born into the famous Carritt family, notable for their Marxist and anti-fascist politics which heavily influenced Noel. As a young man he saved German Jewish activist Liesel Carritt from being deported to Nazi Germany by agreeing to enter into a marriage of convenience.
No Other Way: Oxfordshire and the Spanish Civil War 1936-39 is a collection of short biographies detailing the lives of people from Oxfordshire, England, who fought against fascism during the Spanish Civil War. This book was the first ever attempt by historians to identify all the known volunteers with links to Oxfordshire who fought in the war, and was created through a collaboration between local Oxford historians and the International Brigade Memorial Trust (IBMT). The title "No Other Way" is a reference to a quote by Cecil Day-Lewis.
