The City of Oxford and District Tramway Company and its successor the City of Oxford Electric Traction Company operated a horse-drawn passenger tramway service in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

between 1881 and 1914. The tramway was unusual for having a

track gauge In rail transport, track gauge (in American English, alternatively track gage) is the distance between the two rails of a railway track. All vehicles on a rail network must have wheelsets that are compatible with the track gauge. Since many d ...

of only .

Network and fleet

The City of Oxford and District Tramway Company was incorporated under the Oxford Tramways Order (1879) in accordance with the

Tramways Act 1870 The Tramways Act 1870 (33 & 34 Vict c 78) was an important step in the development of urban transport in United Kingdom. Street tramways had originated in the United States, and were introduced to UK by George Francis Train in the 1860s, the f ...

. Its initial capital was £42,000 raised by an issue of £10 shares. The first route linked

Oxford railway station Oxford railway station is a mainline railway station, one of two serving the city of Oxford, England. It is about west of the city centre, north-west of Frideswide Square and the eastern end of Botley Road. It is on the line for trains between ...

and

Oxford Rewley Road railway station Oxford Rewley Road railway station was a railway station serving the city of Oxford, England, located immediately to the north of what is now Frideswide Square on the site of the Saïd Business School, to the west of Rewley Road. It was the t ...

with

Cowley Road __NOTOC__ Cowley Road is an arterial road in the city of Oxford, England, running southeast from near the city centre at The Plain near Magdalen Bridge, through the inner city area of East Oxford, and to the industrial suburb of Cowley. The ...

via Queen Street, Carfax and

High Street High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...

. Its eastern terminus was at the junction with Magdalen Road. Major General

Charles Scrope Hutchinson Major-General Charles Scrope Hutchinson (8 August 1826 – 29 February 1912) was Chief Inspecting Officer for Railways from 1892 to 1895. Family Hutchinson was born in Hythe, Kent, son of Scrope Hutchinson, M.D. He was educated at University C ...

from the

Board of Trade The Board of Trade is a British government body concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for International Trade. Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of ...

inspected it on 28 November 1881. It opened to the public on 1 December 1881. On 28 January 1882 a second route was opened from Carfax to Rackham Lane via

Cornmarket Street Cornmarket Street (colloquially referred to as Cornmarket or historically The Corn) is a major shopping street and pedestrian precinct in Oxford, England that runs north to south between Magdalen Street and Carfax Tower. To the east is the Gold ...

Magdalen Street Magdalen Street is a short shopping street in central Oxford, England, just north of the original north gate in the city walls. Traditionally, the name of the street is pronounced and not as the name of the Magdalen College, which is always ...

, St Giles Street and

Banbury Road Banbury Road is a major arterial road in Oxford, England, running from St Giles' Street, Oxford, St Giles' at the south end, north towards Banbury through the leafy suburb of North Oxford and Summertown, Oxford, Summertown, with its local shoppi ...

. On 15 July 1884 a third route was opened to Kingston Road via

Beaumont Street Beaumont Street is a street in the centre of Oxford, England. The street was laid out from 1828 to 1837 with elegant terraced houses in the Regency style. Before that, it was the location of Beaumont Palace, now noted by a plaque near the ju ...

and Walton Street. On 15 March 1887 a route was opened from Carfax to Lake Street,

New Hinksey New Hinksey is a suburb in the south of the city of Oxford. Geography The suburb is west of the Abingdon Road ( A4144). To the north is Grandpont and to the east, over Donnington Bridge, which crosses the River Thames, is Cowley. To the west i ...

via

St Aldate's St Aldate's () is a street in central Oxford, England, named after Saint Aldate, but formerly known as Fish Street. The street runs south from the generally acknowledged centre of Oxford at Carfax. The Town Hall, which includes the Museum o ...

and

Abingdon Road Abingdon Road is the main arterial road to the south of the city of Oxford, England. The road passes through the suburbs of Grandpont and New Hinksey. It is named after the town of Abingdon to the south. History Part of the road was known as ...

. On 5 November 1898 the

route was extended to Summertown, terminating at the junction with

South Parade South Parade is a shopping street in Summertown, north Oxford, England. It runs between Woodstock Road to the west and Banbury Road to the east, where there are also shops stretching south from South Parade. This area of the Banbury Road and ...

. By 1895 the company had a fleet of 16 single-deck trams. By 1910 its fleet was 19 double-deck trams and it had 150 horses. Its depot and stables were off Leopold Street at . Most of the network was

single track Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

with

passing loop A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...

s. The network had no fixed

tram stop A tram stop, tram station, streetcar stop, or light rail station is a place designated for a tram, streetcar, or light rail vehicle to stop so passengers can board or alight it. Generally, tram stops share most characteristics of bus stops, bu ...

s: drivers and conductors were ordered to look out for likely passengers. Trams were timetabled to run every 15 to 30 minutes. In its latter years the network carried some three million passengers a year, mostly for one

penny A penny is a coin ( pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is t ...

fares. The network had a speed limit of . The branch to Kingston Road had tight curves at the road junctions at either end of Beaumont Street. Here there was occasionally a

derailment In rail transport, a derailment occurs when a rail vehicle such as a train comes off its rails. Although many derailments are minor, all result in temporary disruption of the proper operation of the railway system and they are a potentially ...

, with a tram colliding with either the

Taylor Institution The Taylor Institution (commonly known as the Taylorian) is the Oxford University library dedicated to the study of the languages of Europe. Its building also includes lecture rooms used by the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, Univer ...

building or railings outside

Worcester College Worcester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms w ...

. A

horse bus A horse-bus or horse-drawn omnibus was a large, enclosed, and sprung horse-drawn vehicle used for passenger transport before the introduction of motor vehicles. It was mainly used in the late 19th century in both the United States and Europe ...

network developed to serve those parts of Oxford that lacked tramways. In the tramways' latter years, horse buses operated a route along

Iffley Road Iffley Road is a major arterial road in Oxford, England. It leads from the Plain, near Magdalen Bridge, southeast towards the village of Iffley. While it becomes Henley Avenue at Iffley Turn, and then Rose Hill, the whole stretch from the ri ...

from Iffley Turn to Broad Street and a route from

Wolvercote Wolvercote is a village that is part of the City of Oxford, England. It is about northwest of the city centre, on the northern edge of Wolvercote Common, which is itself north of Port Meadow and adjoins the River Thames. History The Domesday B ...

along Woodstock Road to Carfax. On Saturdays only there was a horse bus service from Cowley village to connect with trams at their Magdalen Road terminus. Later there was a Saturday-only horse bus service from

Headington Headington is an eastern suburb of Oxford, England. It is at the top of Headington Hill overlooking the city in the Thames valley below, and bordering Marston to the north-west, Cowley to the south, and Barton and Risinghurst to the east. Th ...

to Carfax.

Electrification proposal

The

, Section 43, provided for private companies to build and operate tramways on a 21-year concession. As the Oxford company opened its first line in 1881 this concession ended in 1902. Oxford Corporation had the option to either buy out and take over the tramway or renew the concession. A meeting in Oxford in May 1902 considered proposals for the corporation both to take over the tramways and to electrify them via a conduit in the road surface. But political consensus was not achieved, and the corporation made a new agreement that the company would extend the network and continue operation until 1907. In 1905 the Corporation changed its mind and decided both to take over the tramway and have it electrified. In September 1905 it reached agreement with the company to take over its assets and operations from 31 December 1906. On 6 December 1906 a new City of Oxford Electric Traction Company was incorporated to this end. It was a subsidiary of the National Electric Construction Company. Parliament debated the Oxford Tramways Bill 1906 and then passed the Oxford and District Tramways Act 1907 granting powers to rebuild and electrify the network, double track much of its track, extend its existing routes and build five new routes. Proponents now favoured the electrification by the ground-level

stud contact system The stud contact system is an obsolete ground-level power supply system for electric trams. Power supply studs were set in the road at intervals and connected to a buried electric cable by switches operated by magnets on the tramcars. Current was ...

instead of the conduit system. There was a strong recommendation that the rebuilding should include widening the

from 4 feet to the

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

of . Electrification was opposed by Oxford academics and others. No overhead wires were proposed, but objectors said they objected to overhead electric wires in High Street. The commercial photographer

Henry Taunt Henry William Taunt (1842–1922) was a professional photographer, author, publisher and entertainer based in Oxford, England. Birth Henry Taunt was born in Penson's Gardens in the parish of St Ebbe's, Oxford. His father Henry was a plumber an ...

opposed the bill not only because he disliked overhead wires, but also because he alleged that the Corporation had recently overspent on other large projects, and hence that buying and electrifying the tramway would burden Oxford's

ratepayers Rates are a type of property tax system in the United Kingdom, and in places with systems deriving from the British one, the proceeds of which are used to fund local government. Some other countries have taxes with a more or less comparable role ...

. The rebuilding, electrification and network expansion scheme was defeated. Proponents tried to revive it in 1909 and 1911, but without success. Statutory powers under the 1907 parliamentary act lapsed in 1912.

Closure and legacy

The company suffered a strike by its tram workers in 1913.

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...

and

Frank Gray Francis Tierney Gray (born 27 October 1954) is a Scottish Association football, football manager (association football), manager and former player. He played for Leeds United F.C., Leeds United, Nottingham Forest F.C., Nottingham Forest, Sunde ...

started a

motor bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

service in direct competition with the tram and without a licence. The tramway company responded by replacing its trams with motor buses. The last horse trams ran in 1914. In 1921 the company was renamed The City of Oxford Motor Services. No Oxford tram survives intact. Oxford Bus Museum at

Long Hanborough Long Hanborough is a village in Hanborough civil parish, about northeast of Witney in West Oxfordshire, England. The village is the major settlement in Hanborough parish. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 2,630. History An i ...

preserves parts of three of the company's double-deck trams dating from 1882, 1887 and 1898, in unrestored condition. The poet

John Betjeman Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, ...

(1906–84), who was a

Magdalen College Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the st ...

undergraduate 1925–28, refers to the tramway in his poem ''On an old-fashioned water-colour of Oxford'', published in 1959:

But we will mount the horse-tram's upper deck...
Bound for the Banbury Road in time for tea.

In 2006

Oxford Bus Company Oxford Bus Company is the trading name of The City of Oxford Motor Services Ltd. Company Number 91106 It is a bus operator serving the city and surrounding area of Oxford, England. It is a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group. History Horse trams ...

commemorated the tramways' 125th anniversary by painting one of its single-deck buses in the tram company's maroon and cream livery.

References

Sources

* * {{Historic UK Trams 4 ft gauge railways in England 1879 establishments in England History of Oxford

Transport in Oxford