History of Oxford
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
Oxford was first occupied in Saxon times, when it was known as "Oxanforda." Oxford's history began with the foundations of St Frideswide's nunnery in the 8th century, and was first mentioned in written records in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 912. In the 10th century Oxford became an important military frontier town between the kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex and was on several occasions raided by Danes.
The University of Oxford is first mentioned in 12th century records. Oxford's earliest colleges were University College (1249), Balliol (1263) and Merton (1264).
During the English Civil War, Oxford housed the court of Charles I in 1642, after the king was expelled from London, although there was strong support in the town for the Parliamentarian cause. The town yielded to Parliamentarian forces under General Fairfax in 1646.
In 1790 the Oxford Canal connected the city with Coventry, linking with the River Thames, and in the 1840s the Great Western Railway and London and North Western Railway linked Oxford with London.
In the 19th century the controversy surrounding the Oxford Movement in the Anglican Church drew attention to the city as a focus of theological thought.
Oxford's Town Hall was built during the reign of Queen Victoria. Though Oxford has city status and is a Lord Mayoralty, the seat of the city council is still called by its traditional name of "Town Hall."
By the early 20th century, Oxford was experiencing rapid industrial and population growth, with the printing and publishing industries becoming well established by the 1920s. Also during that decade the economy and society of Oxford underwent a huge transformation as William Morris established the Morris Motor Company to mass produce cars in Cowley, on the south-eastern edge of the city. By the early 1970s over 20,000 people worked in Cowley at the huge Morris Motors and Pressed Steel Fisher plants. This shift in the culture of Oxford from an academic to an industrial city led to the witticism that "Oxford is the left bank of Cowley."
The influx of migrant labor to the car plants, recent immigration from southeast Asia, and a large student population, have given Oxford a notable cosmopolitan character, especially in the Headington and Cowley Road areas with their many bars, cafes, restaurants, clubs, ethnic shops and fast food outlets.
On 6 May 1954 Roger Bannister ran the first authenticated sub-four minute mile at the Iffley Road track in Oxford.
Oxford's "other" university, Oxford Brookes University, formerly Oxford Polytechnic, based at Headington, was given its charter in 1991.
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