Oxford Times

The law of averages

Sometimes it seems as if we are a nation obsessed with house prices. Barely a day goes by without there being an item in the newspapers about house prices – are they going up or down? Is the market too volatile, or perhaps too stagnant? What is happening to interest rates?

But we are in danger of knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing. There is a bigger picture to be considered; the sustainability of house price growth, of course, but also the dangers inherent in a constantly rising market.

Mill wheel keeps on turning

Old Father Thames has spawned more novels and poems than brown trout; more tributes than tributaries. But it is still easy to forget what an influence this river has had on our culture until you come to research a certain stretch of it.

Mapledurham Mill is near Mapledurham House (see our Heritage section on pages 20-23 of this issue). It is part of the Mapledurham Estate, which is mentioned in the Domesday Book. The mill was built in 1423, but the present Mapledurham House was not created until 1588.

The Railway Children at Oxford Playhouse

E Nesbit's The Railway Children is one of the most enduring pieces of children's literature. This tale of three uprooted children joins Gulliver’s Travels and The Tale of Peter Rabbit on the shelf of children’s classics., and has been in print for nearly a hundred years.

Ringing the changes

Rings have been part of the wedding ceremony for thousands of years, and no other piece of jewellery is so steeped in tradition and folklore, writes Kate Griffin

It is widely believed that the circular shape of the ring represents eternity and the hope that the marriage will last for ever. For this reason, some people will only buy a ring that has been cast rather than wrought, so that there has never been any break in it.

A Noel Coward moment

Oxford drama has been having something of a Noel Coward moment. It began with the MyPetDragon production of Still Life at the Burton Taylor, which ended a five-day run on Saturday November 13.  Still Life is better known in its film incarnation as Brief Encounter, and retreading the material after such a classic adaptation is never easy, but this production made excellent work of it.

Easy summer living

The national news is full of stories about the current shortage of housing, and the problem in Oxfordshire would seem to be worse than in other places.

The way that demand exceeds supply here can be taken as a compliment in many ways – the county is clearly a place where many people are very keen to live and settle down. They may be drawn by Oxford’s reputation as a centre for international learning, or by the vibrancy of surrounding towns. Or they may seek peace, quiet and a chocolate-box cottage in one of the many villages dotted all over the county.

So much more than just a kitchen

Today's kitchen is the nerve centre of family life; the hub where the whole family tends to congregate. This needs to be reflected in its design, and how that design is carried through. The craftsmen at Marylands Joinery understand this in the wide variety of kitchens they make and install, from galley-style for flats or cottages to large kitchen-breakfast rooms in country houses.

Mother Nature fights back

The visible plundering of the earth for gravel can make some feel uneasy, writes Kate Griffin, but when pits are regenerated as lakes their beauty can be staggering

Gravel pits occupy an uneasy place in the mind of the community. Like mines, they are scars on the body of the earth, evidence of the way we plunder nature for our own gains.

But, unlike mines, these scars are on blatant display. We use machines to extract the plunder from
these massive gouges in the ground, instead of sending men to chip away underground, out of sight and out of mind.

Water world

Flooding is as much a part of Oxford life as the dreaming spires, although the torrent of tourists who cram the town centre during the summer would have little idea of this ancient Oxford tradition.

Opinion is divided as to what has caused this longstanding pattern of winter flooding. Certainly, part of the problem is that we have built homes on what was always the floodplain of the Thames and Cherwell.

Council tax discount to be slashed

Owners of second homes could be hit in the wallet by a recent decision to slash the usual discount on council tax.

Until recently, second home owners in Oxfordshire enjoyed a discount of 50 per cent on council tax, but the decision by Oxford City Council and West Oxfordshire District Council has reduced that discount to just 10 per cent.

The decision was made early this month and will take effect from April 1 this year.