James Tucker in Cov

So I also wandered over to Oxford this week, and spent a day. I am vaguely familiar with the city, but did a wander around some of the more obvious places. As school is in session, most of the colleges were closed to us, but there's still enough to see. I put a special emphasis on Saxon towers (the old church tower I climbed, the remains of the castle/prison, the city walls-kinda). The city block with the bulk of Hertford College and New College is spectacular. The Turf tavern and an old B & B are nestled in tiny alleys between them, and near-invisible from the street. And then, once inside New, one gets an idea of how huge the complex is. Within the college (see picture at right) are the substantial remains of the city wall, an old church, and a wooded mound. This mound is the remains of a mass grave of plague victims, and I am told (by history students, not epidemiologists) that the Black Death may well be active within the pile still. Which makes the benches on top a nice touch, so you don't have to sit on plaguey grass. Apparently, if you stand at the bottom and clap, the mound squeaks. Interestingly, this pile would have been inside the old city walls at the time, I think, whereas I would have opted for 'outside'. Hindsight's 20/20, 600 years on. Also, like York, everyone in Oxford owns a bike, and tears around town on it. It's a nice change from the urban assault course that most of Birmingham resembles.