The Parks
Introduction
A Brief History
The University Parks in Oxford, consist of about 70 acres (30 hectares) of parkland on the West bank of the River Cherwell, together with a 4 acre (1.5 hectare) spur of land running towards the South. The Parks include sports areas and a large collection of plants and trees in landscaped surroundings.
The land which now constitutes the University Parks was described in the Domesday Book as being 'thirty acres of meadow near the wall, and a mill'. The mill in question was Holywell Mill.
In 1266 Henry III gave Holywell Manor to Merton College and in 1773 Sir John Peshall, wrote, 'before I take my leave of this manor, I should speak of a neat Terras Walk made round part of a large field, called the Park, adjoining to the north-east end of the city, extending about a mile which serves for a pleasant and wholesome walk.'
During the Civil War, The Parks became an exercise ground for Royalist troops. and in 1685, King Charles II walked his dogs here when staying in the city.
Mrs Gamlen, writing of the Parks in her memoirs in 1860 wrote, 'Of course we went for walks. Sometimes in the Parks, then a grass field with a cart track across it from East to West, approached from St. Giles by a footpath between hedges, where Keble Road now is.'
Prehistory
The Thames valley gravels were a major area of settlement in prehistoric times, and near Oxford the floodplain was then much drier, allowing settlement, for example, on Port Meadow. Early stone tools have been found at St Ebbe's and Wolvercote, and there are signs of a neolithic settlement near Christ Church. Bronze Age barrows have been identified on Port Meadow, a linear barrow cemetery in the University Parks, and a double-ditched barrow in the nearby Science Area. A settlement of the Beaker period has been found in St Thomas Street. In the Iron Age, heavy occupation of Port Meadow is suggested by ring ditches and enclosures, and undated sites of similar character are visible from the air in the University Parks1.
Personal Context
For me, the Parks have always been a place where the passage of time is clearly delineated, not so much in the shifting colours of leaves, or the appearance of signets on the river (and their subsequent maturing into swans) but rather, in the hours at which the gates close; the times of which are shown on the signs at each of the Parks' entrances.
In December the gates close at 4.00pm and in June/July at 9.30pm with various stages in between (for the full list of closing times click here). Obviously I don't need to be told the gates close at 4.00pm to know that it gets dark early, or that as the gates close at 9.30pm it must be summer. But there is something about those changeable numbers on the signs which delineate the year so perfectly.
But there is something else within the Parks which illustrate Time's passing, not on a scale counted in hours, but one counted in lives.
One day I noticed the plaque on one of the benches. I forget (since I've noted them all down) which one it was, but an example would be that found on a bench on the north side of the park near to Parks Road.
'In memory of Pat in the Park she loved.'
Reading this plaque, I became aware of my own mortality. Combined with the clock-like trees and all of nature's other timepieces (the signets becoming swans, the flowers and the flies) these simple words became a potent reminder that we ourselves are clocks; ticking for a short while, winding down with every beat of our hearts. I was walking where Pat once walked, looking at things which she would have seen. But now she was gone. And all that now remains are a few words telling us she once existed in this place.
Further Information
For more extensive information on the area, please visit the Parks website.
Bibliography:
C. Hibbert ed. 'Encyclopaedia of Oxford' London: Macmillan, 1988
The University Parks website
1Dr EJ Bowen and the Ashmolean Museum