Free Lyttelton's Britain by Iain Pattinson Page B

Battle of Birmingham. The Roundheads lost and so were forced to keep it.
    With the restoration of the monarchy, Oxford found favour with King Charles II, who was a frequent visitor, staying at the Old Red Lion on Merton Street where Nell Gwynn kept a room. Now Grade I listed, her bedroom has been preserved, complete with its original revolving door.
    In the early 1700s, Edmund Halley came to Oxford, where he calculated that a huge comet would appear in 1987. And, sure enough, in August that year, exactly as predicted, one opened next to B&Q.
    Another who worked in Oxford was Sir William Blackstone, the 18th Century jurist noted as the founding father of the United States legal system. To this day defendants can claim the Blackstone Defence, as employed by O. J. Simpson’s lawyers, a device which insists every man is innocent even if he is obviously guilty as hell.
    The Reverend Dr Spooner lived and lectured in Oxford. As a boating enthusiast he spent many hours renovating and maintaining local water craft. And what a reaction there was from the Women’s Institute when Dr Spooner presented his lecture ‘Care of Punts’, ably assisted by his secretary, Mary Hinge.
    William Morris, later Lord Nuffield, established car manufacture in Oxford in 1913. His first model was the famous ‘Bull-Nose’ Morris, so called because his name was ‘Morris’ and he wore a large brass ring through his nose. The Morris Organisation laid the foundations of what later became Austin-Morris, then BMC, then British Leyland, then Jaguar-Leyland, then Jaguar-Rover, then MG-Rover, and finally the Tsing How Kak Shanghai Trading Corporation (in receivership) Ltd. Sadly now gone, the company once provided steady employment for generations of Oxford signwriters.

    British Leyland unveil their new model range for 1982
    There’s always much excitement in Oxford when the university rowing crew defeat Cambridge in the annual Boat Race. In fact it’s traditional for the eight victorious oarsmen to have their hands shaken by the mayor, while the mayor’s wife bends down to kiss their little cox.
    It is a tradition of Oxford colleges that they provide public baths fed by natural cool water springs for the use of weary travellers. On a hot summer’s day there is nothing to beatpopping into the college baths, stripping off and immediately feeling a little fresher.
    Tim Henman was born nearby and as a young lad developed his tennis skills by playing alone against the side of his parents’ house. One recalls his first tournament when he got all the way through to the semi-finals, only to be beaten in straight sets by a garage door.
    Nearby is Blenheim Palace, seat of the Marlborough dynasty. The name derives from a decisive battle of 1704, when the first Duke of Marlborough won a great victory over Louis XIV, thus saving Europe from French domination. Blenheim Palace recently began generating its own electricity, from a dynamo connected to Marlborough’s tomb.

HIGH WYCOMBE

    H IGH WYCOMBE is a town boasting a rich and varied past. The very name ‘High Wycombe’ has an interesting derivation. The Saxon word ‘Wick’ meant a small village community, ‘Coomb’ was the Celtic word for a small depression or hollow, while the Middle English ‘High’ has the same meaning as today. Hence the literal translation: ‘Hello villagers who live in a hole’.
    The town’s wealth was built on the manufacture of traditional furnishings, and High Wycombe quickly became known as the ‘Furniture capital of England’. Then, with the growth in demand for chests of drawers and fancy foot-stools, it was elevated to the tall-boy and pouffe capital of Europe.
    The area first attracted pilgrims in the Dark Ages, when the sick came to take the waters at the local ‘Holy Wells’, which they believed could cure their blindness. This practice had to stop when, despite the warning signs, the deep wells became blocked by the many who had fallen down them.
    Much of the local