1. Oxfordshire is often abbreviated Oxon (from Oxonium, the Latin name for Oxford).
2. Oxfordshire is North West of London.
3. Reading, in Berkshire, is at the South East corner of Oxfordshire.
4. The University of Oxford has evidence of teaching as far back as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English speaking world.
5. Twenty Seven British Prime Ministers have attended Oxford, including Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and David Cameron. Thatcher was unusual in being the first Prime Minister with a scientific background, having studied Chemistry at Somerville College, at the time a women's only college. Mary Somerville, from whom the college is named, wrote about the deadlock in British mathematical sciences in her time. She was a close friend of Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron and Lady Wentworth.
6. Merton College claims to be the oldest Oxford College founded in the thirteenth Century (1264) by Walter de Merton, Lord Chancellor and Bishop of Rochester (Rochester, Canterbury). His name is believed to come from Merton, Surrey, where is believed to have been born.
7. Merton College has a lecture theatre named after T.S. Eliot, a former member of the college.
8. The National Trust has many sites in Oxfordshire
9. Conurbations include Banbury, a historic market town, famed for the Banbury Cake (spiced raisin cake), similar to the Eccles cake, but oval in shape
10. Bicester, a market town in northeastern Oxfordshire, in the Cherwell district, is one of the fastest growing towns in Oxforshire (Cherwell is the northernmost tributary of the Thames). Proximity to junction 9 of the M40 linking Bicester to London (Uxbridge) and Birmingham is part of the reason for its growth.
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