The Historic Towns Trust was established in 1965 as part of the International Commission for European Towns to publish analytical maps of our historic urban centres. The early publications in the 1960s-1970s were multi-town volumes covering the likes of Banbury, Bristol, Salisbury, and Coventry. In recent years, the Trust has turned to single-town (or -city) studies of York, Winchester, and now Oxford. It is no surprise that the editor and other co-authors of this remarkable undertaking are experts in the geology, archaeology, buildings, and history of Oxford (city and county). They follow in substantial footsteps, building on past scholarship such as H E Salter’s 1934 map of medieval Oxford – in effect a gazetteer of the medieval city based on extensive analysis of its original documentation. The current study is a magisterial survey and analysis of archaeological evidence from past observations and more modern excavations (Oxford was at the forefront of the Rescue movement), and historical sources including maps and illustrations.
The results are presented in a large-format book and a sequence of maps that are of generous proportion. Dealing with the latter first, the maps occupy 22 of the 27 detached A3 sheets, which all fold out to A2 format. The first six sheets (Map 1) reproduce the already-published Historical Map of Oxford (2021) – having this in a more-manageable format is helpful. The next nine sheets present the development of the city from its later Saxon beginnings through to c.1800 (Maps 2-10). The broad, schematic nature of the initial maps is perhaps inevitable given the relative wealth of the high medieval and later source material, and it is here that the graphical presentation of the city’s rich history really comes into its own. A comparison of the maps for 1279, c.1400, c.1500, and c.1578, for example, illustrates the growing influence of the University, while also demonstrating that the city’s abbeys and friaries were still a very strong presence. Their effective disappearance from the post-Dissolution map is genuinely dramatic.
The next map (11), a helpful illustration of Oxford’s medieval and later 19th-century parishes, is the last single-sided one. The following six sheets are double-sided, but such is the quality of the paper and printing that there is virtually no ‘bleed-through’. These sheets start with several thematic maps, which are followed by Salter’s ‘gazetteer’ and fine reproductions of Oxford’s well-known old maps from Agas (1578) and Hollar (1643) through to 20th-century OS editions. Many of these are available online now, but having good-sized print versions in one place is a real boon for researchers. The final five sheets present an excellent visual compendium of Oxford’s history and buildings, using archival images alongside a few modern photographs.
