New Road is a street in west central

Oxford 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 ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It links

Park End Street Park End Street is a street in central Oxford, England, to the west of the centre of the city, close to the Oxford railway station, railway station at its western end. Location To the east, New Road, Oxford, New Road links Park End Street to ...

and Worcester Street to the west with Queen Street and Castle Street to the east. To the south is

Oxford Castle Oxford Castle is a large, partly ruined medieval castle on the western side of central Oxford in Oxfordshire, England. Most of the original moated, wooden motte and bailey castle was replaced in stone in the late 12th or early 13th century and ...

and the former Oxford Prison, now a Malmaison hotel. To the north is

Nuffield College Nuffield College () is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is a graduate college specialising in the social sciences, particularly economics, politics and sociology. N ...

, a graduate college of

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

. At the eastern end on the south side is New County Hall, the headquarters of

Oxfordshire County Council Oxfordshire County Council is the county council (upper-tier local authority) for the non-metropolitan county of Oxfordshire in the South East of England. Established in 1889, it is an elected body responsible for most strategic local government ...

.Oxfordshire County Council
/ref>

History

New Road was built in 1769-70 as a new turnpike road between central Oxford and the west.Rhodes & Munby, 2008, page 10 It bypassed the earlier and narrower Hythe Bridge Street to the north and St. Thomas's High Street (now St Thomas' Street) to the south. It was built through what remained of the northern outer ramparts and ditch of Oxford Castle, but

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church (, the temple or house, ''wikt:aedes, ædes'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by Henry V ...

preserved the 11th-century castle mount ''"as a venerable monument of antiquity"''. From 1790 there was a coal wharf at the end of the

Oxford Canal The Oxford Canal is a narrowboat canal in southern central England linking the City of Oxford with the Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury (just north of Coventry and south of Bedworth) via Banbury and Rugby. Completed in 1790, it connects to th ...

on the north side of New Road.Rhodes & Munby, 2008, page 11 Nuffield College was built on the site of the wharf between 1951 and 1960.Rhodes & Munby, 2008, page 16 The canal is now truncated on the north side of Hythe Bridge Street. County Hall was built just east of Oxford Castle in 1840-41.Rhodes & Munby, 2008, page 13Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 301 The architect John Plowman designed it in a

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...

Revival style with crenellations to complement the castle. St. Peter-le-Bailey Parish School was built in 1849 on the corner of New Road and Tidmarsh Lane.Crossley & Elrington, 1979, pages 442-462 Increasing traffic on New Road made this an unsatisfactory site for a school so in 1898 an appeal was launched for funds to move to new premises. This enabled the school to relocate to a site in

New Inn Hall Street New Inn Hall Street is a street in central Oxford, England, and is one of Oxford's oldest streets. It is a shopping street running north–south parallel and to the west of Cornmarket Street, with George Street to the north and Bonn Square at ...

. In 1911-12Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 301 new offices for the County Council's Education Department were built on the former school site. The architect W.A. Daft designed the building, which is of yellow brick with yellow

Bath Stone Bath Stone is an oolitic limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate originally obtained from the Middle Jurassic aged Great Oolite Group of the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England. Its h ...

quoins Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th-century encyclopedia, ...

and other details and topped by a

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...

. It is now the Oxfordshire County

Register Office A register office, commonly referred to unofficially as a registry office or registrar's office is an office in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and some Commonwealth countries responsible for the civil registration of births, deaths, marri ...

. The Oxfordshire Militia Armoury and Drill Hall was built just west of the castle in 1854. It too was designed with crenellations to complement the castle, in this case by J.C. Buckler. After 1857 the building was transferred to the newly founded

Oxfordshire County Constabulary Oxfordshire Constabulary was the Home Office police force for the county of Oxfordshire, England, excluding the city of Oxford itself, from 1857 until 1968. History Oxfordshire Constabulary was established in 1857. It absorbed Chipping Norton Bor ...

as its headquarters. In 1969 it was demolished and replaced by Macclesfield House, a building of

precast concrete Precast concrete is a construction product produced by casting concrete in a reusable molding (process), mold or "form" which is then cured in a controlled environment, transported to the construction site and maneuvered into place; examples i ...

which until the 2000s was one of the offices of Oxfordshire County Council. On the north side of New Road is a small

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

building designed by

Charles Buckeridge Charles Buckeridge (''circa'' 1832–1873) was a British Gothic Revival architect who trained as a pupil of Sir George Gilbert Scott. He practised in Oxford 1856–1868 and in London from 1869. He was made an Associate of the Royal Institute ...

and built in 1863.Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 303 It was first a court house, then the

Probate In common law jurisdictions, probate is the judicial process whereby a will is "proved" in a court of law and accepted as a valid public document that is the true last testament of the deceased; or whereby, in the absence of a legal will, the e ...

Registry, and is now private offices. Early in the 1970s, Castle Street was realigned and New County Hall was built on the corner of Castle Street and New Road. New County Hall, like Macclesfield House, was designed by the Oxfordshire County Architect.Rhodes & Munby, 2008, page 17

Gallery

File:Nuffield College, Oxford.jpg, View of

on New Road. File:Nuffield College corner.jpg, Nuffield College at the corner of New Road and Worcester Street. File:Oxford Malmaison Hotel.jpg, Malmaison Hotel on New Road, formerly Oxford Prison. File:Oxford NewRoad FormerProbateOffice.JPG, Former court house and probate office opposite New County Hall, designed by

in 1863. File:Oxfordshire County Hall 20041024.jpg, New County Hall at the eastern end of New Road. File:Mound by the road - geograph.org.uk - 1391420.jpg, View of the

mound from New Road.

References

Sources

* * * {{Coord, 51.752256, -1.262147, format=dms, display=title Streets in Oxford Former toll roads in the United Kingdom Nuffield College, Oxford

History

Gallery

See also

References

Sources