Grandpont is a mainly residential area in south

Oxford, England Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

. It is west of Abingdon Road, and consists mainly of narrow streets that run at right angles to the main road, with terraced late- Victorian and Edwardian houses. It also contains the Grandpont Nature Park—a riverside park managed by Oxford City Council (). The park covers and was created in 1985 on the site of a gas works that was demolished in 1960. The former railway bridge, used to carry coal from the main railway line across the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...

to the older gas works in St Ebbes on the north bank, still stands, and is in use as a footbridge. A later bridge, Grandpont Bridge, provides a more direct pedestrian and cycle route across the river to St Ebbes.

History

The name of the area derives from the Grandpont, a medieval stone

causeway A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet T ...

now known to survive within the core of the modern Abingdon Road for a distance of at least 700 metres south of the city centre. The causeway may have been first built in the Anglo-Saxon era, and rebuilt in the late 11th century by the first Norman lord of Oxford, Robert D'Oyly I, crossing the low-lying ground south of the City, still very liable to winter flooding from the nearby

. In 1279 there were 62 houses in Grandpont. The suburb grew slowly in the following centuries, and extensive development did not take place until the 19th century. In 1844 the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

opened Oxford's first railway station in what is now Western Road, and that stimulated development.Hibbert, 1988, s.v. ''Grandpont'' One of the houses built there is Grandpont House named after the neighbourhood. Built for Sir William Elias Taunton, the Town Clerk of the city of Oxford, in 1785, his family controlled the house until Brasenose College acquired the house in 1847. Brasenose maintained the house until 1959 when it was purchased by the Netherhall Educational Association. Until 1889 Grandpont was in Berkshire, although it was a tithing of the parish of

St Aldate's, Oxford St Aldate's (, like "all dates") is a street in central Oxford, England, named after Saint Aldate, but formerly known as Fish Street. Museum and Church The street runs south from the generally acknowledged centre of Oxford at Carfax, Oxford ...

. The area was added to the municipal borough of Oxford and to

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

in 1889. The

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ...

of Saint Matthew, Grandpont was built in 1890,Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 335 presumably as a

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently, generally due to trav ...

. The church was consecrated by Bishop

William Stubbs William Stubbs (21 June 182522 April 1901) was an English historian and Anglican bishop. He was Regius Professor of History (Oxford), Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford between 1866 and 1884. He was Bishop of Ches ...

on Thursday October 29, 1891. It became a parish separate from St Aldate's in 1913.

References

Sources

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External links

Oxfordshire County Council. Paths for All: Grandpont Nature Park
{{Oxford Areas of Oxford Parks and open spaces in Oxford