Oxford summary

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Oxford, ancient Oxonia, City and administrative district (pop., 2001: 134,248), county seat of Oxfordshire, England. Situated on the River Thames, the town is best known for the University of Oxford. First occupied in Saxon times as a fording point, it became a burg, built to defend the northern frontier of Wessex from Danish attack; it was first mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of ad 912. Little remains of the town’s Norman period of occupation. Oxford is generally known as the “City of Spires” because of its skyline of Gothic towers and steeples. Most of these 15th–17th-century buildings belong to the university. The city was the Royalist headquarters in the English Civil Wars. Its modern economy is varied and includes, in addition to educational services, printing and publishing industries and automobile manufacturing.

University of Oxford Summary

University of Oxford, English autonomous institution of higher learning at Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, one of the world’s great universities. It lies along the upper course of the River Thames (called by Oxonians the Isis), 50 miles (80 km) north-northwest of London. Sketchy evidence indicates

River Thames Summary

River Thames, chief river of southern England. Rising in the Cotswold Hills, its basin covers an area of approximately 5,500 square miles (14,250 square km). The traditional source at Thames Head, which is dry for much of the year, is marked by a stone in a field 356 feet (108.5 metres) above sea

Oxfordshire Summary

Oxfordshire, administrative and historic county of south-central England. It is bounded to the north by Warwickshire and Northamptonshire, to the west by Gloucestershire, to the south by Berkshire, and to the east by Buckinghamshire. Wiltshire lies to the southwest of the administrative county,

England Summary

England, predominant constituent unit of the United Kingdom, occupying more than half of the island of Great Britain. Outside the British Isles, England is often erroneously considered synonymous with the island of Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales) and even with the entire United