Heh. I’d never heard of it before last week, and it’s just five days since I walked up to it from Keswick. Nice stroll it was, too. Smaller stones than Avebury or Stonehenge, but quite a number of them, and an excellent backdrop what with Skiddaw and the rest.
Duxford Air Museum is well worth a visit - lots of WW2 exhibits, and you might be able to combine it with an air show. We had a squadron of Mustangs and Hurricanes buzzing our garden two weekends ago, wonderful stuff.
You can combine it with a trip to Cambridge which in parts rivals Oxford for the quality of the colleges (a punt trip down The Backs in spring is wonderful.
If you like WW2 history you can also visit the American Military Cemetary at Madingley.
All within an hour of London with loads of coaches / trains that will take you there direct.
Sorry, forgot to say that there is a specific section at Duxford devoted to the Battle of Britain and the air defense of England. Examples of bunkers/shelters, anti-aircraft guns, ARP wardens, searchlights etc.
I also plan to go through the Shepperton area (the setting of J.G. Ballard’s novel Crash) and visit the Slough Trading Estate (the setting of The Office) just for the hell of it. I assume there are trains or buses that will take me there from Oxford.
*Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!
It isn’t fit for humans now,
There isn’t grass to graze a cow.
Swarm over, Death!
Come, bombs and blow to smithereens
Those air -conditioned, bright canteens,
Tinned fruit, tinned meat, tinned milk, tinned beans,
Tinned minds, tinned breath. *
(John Betjeman)
You might also want to visit the city of Bath. We went to London last year and signed up for an all day bus tour that stoped off at Bath, Windsor Castle and Stonehenge. They have other tours as well.
You can ride in the Eye (the big ferris wheel)
Watch the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace and The Horse Guards Parade.
Take a tour of Westminster Abbey
Eat at a “gastropub”
Check out the Tate Modern museum
Boat tour down the Thames
I want to visit the tomb of Robert Dudley in Warwick at the Collegiate Church of St Mary. How far is Warwick from Oxford?
According to my route-planner it’s 46 miles.
Make sure you climb St Mary’s tower if you go - some excellent views over Warwick.
Kenilworth Castle is also nearby (~5 miles from Warwick by bus) and is worth a visit. Warwick Castle is more of a “family day out” with ice-creams, actors and multimedia displays (worth a visit though and is a much better preserved castle), while Kenilworth is a quiet ruin heavy with history which needs a bit more imagination when you visit (I live just down the road from Kenilworth Castle and work about 10 mins from St Mary’s in Warwick).
If you like that era of history and you’re feeling adventurous try to track down the monument to Piers Gaveston between Warwick and Kenilworth, on the spot where he was beheaded.
Warwick Castle is owned by the same company that owns Madam Tussuad’s. So more of a Disney experience than English Heritage.
It’s still pretty cool though - we went last September using free tickets, mid-week so it was v. quiet. Really nice - hardly any people, and the interiors of the castle are realy well preserved. There were a few “disney” elements and in mid-summer it would be hell on earth, but I was pleasantly suprised at how chilled it was.
I enjoyed Bath and Avebury. Stone Henge is OK, but you can’t really get up amongst the stones. In Avebury you can. London has many sights to see, but others can do a better job than I directing you.
If you’re coming up to the east of Scotland, there are interesting military museums in Edinburgh Castle, which itself is pretty good.
There’s a Museum of Flight a few miles east at East Fortune with a Concorde and a various other historic planes. It used to be an airship base, so there’s also some neat airship exhibits… including an unexploded Zeppelin bomb which failed to explode when it was dropped!
For WW1 emplacements, you can take a trip out to one of the islands in the Firth of Forth and see the remnants of the gun emplacements for protecting shipping and the Navy base at Rosyth a few miles upstream.
If you’re here in mid-March, it’ll get dark by 19.00 (give or take), although most tourist stuff will have closed by 17.00 anyway! After that, you’ll just have to go drinking… 