Wander Oxford Walking Tours

Find the Morse Pubs on a free walking tour of Oxford Book Now www.wanderoxford.co.uk #oxford #daysout #inspectormorse #kevinwhately (at Oxford, Oxfordshire)

Learn how Oxford Students get trashed. The tradition started in the 1990s and sees friends of students taking their finals wait outside the back of the Examination Schools in Oxford city centre.As their chums emerge, they blast them with silly string and shaving foam before plying each other with alcohol - usually Champagne. Learn more about Oxford student jinks, traditions and anecdotal tales on a Wander Oxford Walking Tour Book Now ➡️ http://ow.ly/PZXp30cu6Gv #Oxford #trashing #oxforduniversity #walkingtour #daysout (at Wander Oxford - Free Walking Tours)

Endeavour new series being filmed inside the Bodleian and Broad Street (outside the Clarendon Building) today. The legend of Colin Dexter and Inspector Morse lives strong. #inspectormorse #Endeavour #shaunevans #rogerallam #Oxford #colindexter (at Wander Oxford - Free Walking Tours)

The mallard relates to Oxford’s most mysterious college ‘All Souls’, which is closed to undergraduates and reserved exclusively for the crème de la crème of the Oxford University community (its members are all Fellows). Quite at odds with its revered image and the presence of so many members of the academic elite is a tradition known as the Mallard Song, a peculiar little ditty that’s only sung once a century, accompanying an even stranger ceremony held in the college. The Fellows – all leading academics – are said to process around All Souls’ College carrying flaming torches. At the front of this odd procession is someone dressed as the “Lord Mallard”, carried in a chair, and it’s led by someone carrying a wooden duck tied to a pole (they used to use a dead duck). What is all this weirdness in aid of, one might well ask. Apparently, it dates to the building of the college, in 1437, when a giant mallard is said to have flown away from the college’s foundations. It’s going to be a while before the next such ceremony, though; the last one was held in 2001, so the next one won’t be until 2101. Discover more about Oxford on our free walking tours http://ow.ly/BmBQ30cfs70 #oxford #oxforduniversity #allsouls #oxfordwalkingtour #daysout (at Wander Oxford - Free Walking Tours)

Matriculation is a ceremony where students formally join Oxford University. All students are required to do this when they are admitted to the University, unless they are Visiting or Exchange Students. The main matriculation ceremony takes place at the Sheldonian Theatre on the Saturday of First Week of Michaelmas Term and instructions are sent to newcomers before they come to University, and again before the ceremony itself. Full academic dress “Sub Fusc” is required at the ceremony. There are small matriculation ceremonies at the end of each term to matriculate students who are admitted after the start of Michaelmas Term, or who may have been given special permission to matriculate later. Learn about matriculation, see the Sheldonian Theatre and much more on a free walking tour of Oxford with Wander Oxford Walking Tours http://ow.ly/y0NH30ceqR2 #oxford #oxforduniversity #sheldonian #matriculation #walkingtour (at Wander Oxford - Free Walking Tours)

Looking for something to do this Bank Holiday Monday? Why not join us on a free walking tour of Oxford? Join us and see the beautiful historic sites of Oxford, see filming locations, learn the history and much more. A great way to get out, get some exercise and enjoy all Oxford has to offer. We will also leave you with plenty of ideas of what to do after the tour. Book on our website today. Spaces are limited. www.wanderoxford.co.uk #maybankholiday #Oxford #oxfordwalkingtour #daysout #familydayout #freewalkingtour (at Wander Oxford - Free Walking Tours)

We met the lovely and inspiring Rosie Swale Pope on one of our tours last week. What an inspiration she is www.rosieswalepope.co.uk

It's a lovely morning for the town and gown 10 K run in aid of muscular dystrophy

The word “snob” actually originated at Oxford. It started off as an abbreviated form of the Latin phrase “sine nobilitate”, which means “without nobility”. #snob #Oxford #didyouknow #funfact (at Oxford, Oxfordshire)

"Manners Makyth Man". William of Wycombe's enlightened motto. (at New College, Oxford)

Pelican Sundial in Corpus Christi College. #oxford #walkingtour #corpuschristi (at Corpus Christi College, Oxford)

Corpus Christi Chapel (at Corpus Christi College, Oxford)

Until the early 18th century the printing presses of the Oxford University Press (OUP) were in the basement of the Sheldonian Theatre. This meant that the compositors could not work when the Theatre was in use for ceremonies. The University therefore commissioned a new building to house the OUP. Nicholas Hawksmoor produced a neoclassical design, construction started in 1711 and it was completed in 1715. The building was funded largely from the proceeds of the commercially successful History of the Great Rebellion by the 1st Earl of Clarendon, whose legacy later paid for the building of the Clarendon Laboratory in Oxford as well. In the 1820s the OUP moved to new premises in Walton Street, after which the University used the Clarendon Building for administrative purposes. In 1975 the building was transferred to the Bodleian Library, for which it now provides office and meeting space for senior members of staff. #Clarendon #Oxford #Tour #History #OUP #Hawksmoor #sheldonian (at Clarendon Building)

A wander through Brasenose college with today's tour. #brasenosecollege #walkingtour (at Brasenose College)

Of course, the total is bolstered by all the scholars beavering busily behind the college walls on their monographs on Shakespeare or Proust, but the City is positively bursting with sites of real literary interest. A stroll down St Giles will take you past the place where JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis met as part of the Inklings (obviously, a pub - academics love pubs) – and if you carry on far enough you’ll eventually get to Christ Church, where Lewis Carroll was inspired to write his Alice books (though you’d be forgiven for being distracted by the dining hall, the famous site of filming for the Harry Potter films). Afterwards you could wander over to the Botanic Gardens, to see the bench that forms the setting for the end of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy – honouring its literary history, the university have carved Lyra & Will into the back of the bench. And that’s just for starters: the university has historic and current links to many of our best-loved authors. Martin Amis was a student at Exeter College, Nigella Lawson went to Lady Margaret Hall; Phillip Larkin, W.H. Auden, T.S. Elliot, Seamus Heaney, John Le Carre, Amitav Ghosh and Iris Murdoch were all at Oxford at some time or another – and we could go on and on.

The University of Oxford Botanic Garden is the oldest botanic garden in Great Britain and one of the oldest scientific gardens in the world. The garden was founded in 1621 as a physic garden growing plants for medicinal research. Today it contains over 8,000 different plant species on 1.8 hectares (4½ acres). It is one of the most diverse yet compact collections of plants in the world and includes representatives from over 90% of the higher plant families.