Gretel visits Oxford: a mooch about a beautiful city.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:39

Hello, hello. It's Sunday evening. I'm in Oxford and the bells are ringing. There's even songs starting in all the various college chapels all over all over the city. And Christchurch that I'm the even song that I'm going to there, it's an actual cathedral rather than just a chapel. And I understand it's built on the land, it's built on the spot where St Frideswide Church was, which is where apparently Danish settlers hid during the massacre of St. Bryce's Day. And I'm just walking past a taxi that's making a little noise. And I've been taking some pictures, the sun shining, as so often is the case when we have a dull, gloomy day where it's windy and cold and nasty, and one gives up on the day, but actually come out at half five, six in the evening, and for whatever reason the sun comes out, and it's a perfect time for photographs. It's my favourite time because the angles are lovely, the the tone is warm, and it's just before the part of the evening where I start to get what I call the glooms, and my mother used to call the glooms, and I think it reflects the daily equivalent, the sort of uh microcosm within one's daily life of what happens in life, which is you get to the the sunset of your years before the end. Just as we have the same version in a year, don't we? Which is the autumn and winter is is the part before the end, and every day we have that too, in the sunset of the day. And it's so easy at that point to to feel melancholy, and uh it's the time of day that it's good to get out if if you can, I think, or if I can, and get some fresh air and see see some of the world before before hunkering down. I've not even had time to go to the place I'm staying tonight. I just found a place to park. I thought I'd jump out, take photographs, and then uh enjoy even song. Now I'm not allowed to record anything within the cathedral without permission. No photographs, no videos, no anything at all. Which in some ways is quite good because it means I can just close my eyes and enjoy the the hour in complete quietness, with a quietness of my own self, obviously, to this and and to enjoy the music and the the intoning around me. So I'm looking forward to that. And as I stand, I'm leaning against a wall. I've just walked past Merton College and taken lots of photographs. I'm leaning against a wall, and the sun's shining directly on my face, and I'm shutting my eyes, and I feel the warmth of my the sun on my face, and it feels lovely to be here, but it's it's bittersweet because uh last time I was here on my own and uh doing the sort of thing I'm doing now is when I was with my sister, and I would have been young um a selfish 17-year-old, uh looking out for um uh fun and boys and and all of that, and uh it was lovely to spend time with my sister who she was discovering uh Christianity at that time, and she had a lovely selection of friends, a really gorgeous friend called Catherine, who's a Christian, and in fact is now a vicar, and they've remained friends uh all their lives. And what else to say? She she met here at Oxford, the man who was to become her husband and the father of her two children, and Oxford has lots of memories too. I started an archaeology course here, but uh didn't complete it because I then became pregnant and found the long journeys to and fro were making me sleepy, and because I was pregnant I didn't want to take any risks, so gave that up but enjoyed it and and met some interesting people. I've also come here with my husband, but he's he's a Cambridge man, he's lived locally around Cambridge when he was young, and he's known people who have gone to Cambridge, including his own son, my stepson, and his my stepson's wife. So they they went to Cambridge and met in Cambridge. So when it comes to the boat race, I've always supported Oxford because of my sister and my husband supported Cambridge, but I think because of the fallout with my sister and also because of my stepson, I think now I'm swapping allegiances at the grand old age of 54. I think I'll support Cambridge from now on. I think Cambridge has also retained much more of its beauty because although I'm in a really beautiful part of Oxford, so much of it has become run down. Whereas Cambridge smaller and with less there are two geese flying past actually, as I'm talking. It has less areas within its uh city centre that that feel uh impoverished, so but I'm in a part of Oxford here where the architecture is mind-blowingly beautiful. I've been wanting to take photographs of almost everything, and and then I have to stop myself and remind myself that I probably won't look that much at the photos, and it's better just to look and touch and enjoy, enjoy the moment. I've just been taking photos of the bear pub, which I went into quite a few times with my sister and with all the various chaps and girls that we were, she was friends with at the time. And I've just I was listening on the way up to Oxford all about Sewood, who his grandfather was meant to have been a bear, and his the his impact and the impact of the Danes up and down the country, and the fact that Oxford's uh Christchurch was meant to have been, the cathedral was meant to have been built on the um spot where Vikings were killed. It just makes me wonder about the origins of the Bear Park as a name and whether there's any connection with Bjorn. And it's unlikely, of course, but I just wondered, and I might just look into its origins to see to see what people say. Chips Tanner in his diaries refers a couple of times to his return to Oxford, walking the streets, and even I think when he returned, only about I don't know, seven, eight years afterwards, he talked about how melancholy he felt walking around the streets, remembering his happy times there. It really is such a thing, isn't it? That returning to a place of your youth and how it makes you feel. It's it can really knife you inside. I'm now by Blue Boar Street, and that's another one of the classic university haunts with a bear pub halfway down, and it's got a lovely street sign with white lettering, it's a black background, so we're gonna take a photo of that. And now opposite, I'd have forgotten about this pub. The opposite the entrance to Christchurch College is Old Tom pub. That's the one actually that um my sister is paid to me more than the bell.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

Um old Tom, and that refells to I think it might be the name of the bell in some people um with incomes challenge and of course the cross, the quadrangle within commess challenge colours and this called Tom Cod.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

So I've made the maybe slightly sad decision not to go in to eat the song this evening because I was talking to the lovely porter, and he says that if I come back in the morning and come into the cathedral, I can take photos there. And given the light, I would rather make the most of the light and take photographs around Oxford and check into my little place that I'm staying. I'm actually staying in one of the one of the hall accommodations, and I think I'll do that so I can make the best use of my time. So that's a shame, but you have to somehow sometimes make these decisions on the hoof. Also, I'm just looking forward to some reading time because at home I'm always doing chores, so what I'm thinking of doing is tucking into bed by eight o'clock and getting maybe two and a half hours reading time, which would be amazing. And of course, reading perhaps one more episode of Villette to keep up the momentum. What do you think of the stuff going on in the Barchester Towers? I think it's great. I think it's sad at the moment, but obviously they're building in that little bit of jeopardy and wanting us to hate Mr. Slope and love Mr. Hardy in order that we can enjoy whatever ending is coming our way. And obviously, the bishop himself is just he just comes across as a little bit of a simpleton um and innocent perhaps. So that's all lovely. Well, I'm now walking up some old gate street through Oxford and the sun can't get to where I am, so I'm now going to have a bit of an explore and I'll catch up with you later this evening. So, how nice is it when you are looking for a perfect coffee shop and you find one? I'm in a Greek coffee shop, and you have to pluck this if you're ever in Oxford. It's a lovely friendly style, beautiful homemade case, and it's in a really really old cafe with lovely windows that hang out with the square panes, and it's really gorgeous and um the perfect spot for sun shining in. I'm sitting by the window, very pleased. Hello, um, it's I'm near Gloucester Green at Oxford, and there's a sign I just wanted to read it, it's quite poignant to the memory of Private Biggs and Private Piggin, executed like their leveller coffee's at Belford by forces loyal to Cromwell. They were shot near this place for their part in the second mutiny of the Oxford Garrison on the 18th of September 1649. I think I might have discovered the loveliest pub in the world. It's called the Lamb and Flag, and it's down a little passage called, guess what, the Lamb and Flag Passage. It's the cutest little all it needs is sawdust on the floor, and it just could feel like something from the 1300s old fireplace, but very simple, not lots of sort of oldy worldy decoration, just simple and yeah, gorgeous. I'm gonna remember all these things for when I can come back with husband and maybe son and daughter, shade in the nicer sides of Oxford because we we when we came, it was a bit disappointing. We didn't really know what we were looking for and we didn't have time to explore. And I've just arrived at my accommodation. I'm staying somewhere called Rhodes House. I'm surprised they're still able to keep the name. And it's it's very cheap and cheerful. It's I think it's university accommodation of some sort, anyway. And I've got the cutest little room. It's wallpapered with pale green and white wallpaper, very old-fashioned. And I've got what looks like a large single bed or a very small double bed, the sort of double bed that you don't mind going into when you're first marriage. But later on in your marriage, you probably would find it much too small. I've got a cute little window, and as I go to the window, there's a little kettle and coffee machine, and I've got views over lots of lovely buildings. I don't know what they are, and also it looks like there's a tiny well, there would have been access to a tiny terrace. They're not gonna let me do get out there now, but gosh, that would have been amazing if I could, because it's um I'm just seeing that'd be amazing. No, I I'd have to climb out of the window. But yeah, lots of lovely views over treetops and the sky, because it's such late days at the moment, long days. The sky's still pale blue, even though at twenty past eight the sun would have set. So I'm now going to hunker down, a bloot, get into my pajamas, and then have a cup of tea in bed. Read, read for a few hours. And if I can, I might record one episode, a villette, for you and publish that. We'll probably get a lot of episodes at the moment because there's so much going on. Right, that's it for now. Good morning. It's 10 35, and I'm sitting having a coffee outside the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, just on the outskirts. And it's a lovely looking museum, sort of modern gothic. I mean, not my cup of tea, but it looks smart and well maintained. Really nice. Uh staff offered me coffee in one of those little vans outside, decorated vans outside. And did you hear that? This is why I've started recording Swifts up in the eaves of this building, really enjoying themselves. And I've been learning more about Swifts. I thought I might do a whole episode one day on Swifts. To do more things like whole episodes on something that I think uh you you might like, and also it helps listeners avoid episodes that they're not interested in, because I am aware I and I I cover so much that do you do you sometimes think, oh no, she's reading Trollope and I hate it, or oh no, she's wittering on in her garden and I hate it, or oh no, another Anglo-Saxon poem. So or or do you just welcome it all as it flies in all directions and just accept me for the ridiculous uh middle-aged woman that I am? I hope there's a bit of the latter, but I don't want to rely on it. So I've just stopped swifting as soon as I've uh started recording the course. I'm going to take you into the museum, and my trick, especially as I've got older, is to go into a gallery or museum, focus on just one particular part, uh uh normally quite a small section, so I can look in detail rather than try and do the whole thing. I'm not sure it's the best way because obviously then you can you can miss wonderful things, but I quite like it. I it's quite adventurous, it's right, okay, go in. What am I gonna focus on? And I'm really looking forward to interviewing to meeting tonight the author of one of my favourite books of all time, and I uh I hope that it's not too much of a bother for her after a full day's of day of lecturing to chat to a podcaster. But let's see. I've I've read three of her books and I'm not sure whether she's written any more. I'm going to do a little bit of research today, make sure that I've got it all covered, and as usual, I'm starting to feel a little bit nervous, which is silly, I know, but um I uh I don't know. Nerves are just part of life, aren't they? Oh, so we have to come on the video stuff. You hear that? Such a beautiful sound. I started to text a message to my sister-in-law, my my sister's wife today to ask if she's okay and to pass on my love to my sister because I'm in obviously thinking of her. But uh I decided against because uh uh they don't reply, and then I I spend days feeling so upset and melancholy. So I think the best thing is not to send messages. But are any of you in the same situation that you've had some kind of falling out with someone dear to you? And if so, please get in touch because I think from speaking to people like David Willam, the author of Caspert's Corpse, all those months ago, it is quite a common thing, especially among siblings. And I wonder if we hold these sadnesses close to our heart because we feel maybe ashamed or baffled, bewildered, and we we move on with our lives, not worrying about it too much, but it sits there lurking like um Grendel's like Grendel in Beowulf. Anyway, if if it's familiar to you and you want to share your situation with me, do get in touch because I would love to share it with other listeners. Right, so I'm inside a museum, and this is very exciting because the first thing I've seen is a live screen. Oh my goodness, of the Swift Nest. And I've just asked the lady about it. The Swifts are sitting on two eggs at the moment. You can't really see much, but it's lovely, and I'm just going to read any information about it. Right, what have we got? Swifts, eggs, and chicks have evolved a remarkably successful way of coping with cold and food shortages. When eggs are left unattended, their development slows down until the parent return to the net returns to the nest. The cold, instead of killing the embryo, like in other species, just causes an extension of the incubation period. So that allows obviously the swifts to stay out flying as as they do most of the time. Swift chicks are adapted to long intervals between feeding. They reduce their metabolic rate and through a semi-torpid state can survive for several days without any food at all. They utilize their fat reserves and can lose up to half their body weight. The shortage of food can extend the development of chicks and thus can delay fledging for as long as two weeks. Swifts pair for life, and the male and female meet every year at the nest site. I wonder if they sort of catch up. Where have you been? What have you been up to? They build their nests together from any airborne material they can gather. All the material is brewed together by the bird's saliva, and the same nest is repaired and reused year after year. Traditionally, they use sea cliffs or crags or holes and trees, but nowadays they mostly use man-made buildings such as this museum tower. A typical egg clutch consists of two to three white eggs, normally laid two days apart. Both parents incubate the eggs together and later they feed the chicks together. After about 20 days, the first chick hatches, and it's followed by the others a few days later. After two to three weeks, the chicks start to move in the nest, and then they move near to the entrance hole in preparation for their first flight. Swifts spend nearly all their lives flying. They're among the fastest of flying birds, superbly adapted for speed with minimal effort, catching all their food and even collecting their nesting material on the wing. When they're young fledge, they may well spend the next three years without ever touching land. That's just bizarre, isn't it? So three years without touching land. I mean, how can that be? It's too that's too much, it feels, doesn't it? Swifts fly continuously except when at their breeding site. Some of the only birds known to spend the night on the ring. They do this by flying high in the evening and turning into any ring and flopping slowly all night. I suppose if we think of the airs like perhaps the water in the Dead Sea, the way you just bobble on. During their lives, um, probably 20 years or so, they can fly well over a million miles. They even copulate on the wing. They actually usually stun within the nest. How they um blight that they copulate within their nest. Um let's just do some groundbreaking research. Mysterious arriving only. That's lovely, there's a little family. No, no, no. Excited family. The mysterious, they arrive only for a breeding period in Europe and Asia, and then they depart for Africa in August. Swift was an enigma holding the fascination of humans for a long time. They were among our least known British birds until a revolutionary study by David Larke in 1948. It was started here. David and Elizabeth Lapp were able to observe the Swifts nesting high up in the tower, and thanks to this study, we know a lot more about them. This is one of the longest studied Swift colonies in the world. Ah, that's wonderful. I'm glad I came in. I'm in the Museum of Natural History, actually, not the Pitt Rivers Museum. I've just bought a card. I'm going to send a card. I know this sounds a bit um optimistic, but I'm going to send a card to Kenneth Branagh at the theatre that I'm going to on Thursday to see if there's any chance at all of an interview. I know it's extremely unlikely considering how famous, busy, and all that he is, but I'm going to give it a go. I'm now going to the cafe to write the card and to have a pot of tea. Hello, I've just sat down by a very beautiful woman who's sitting by the Saxon Tower in Oxford and she's sadly got a sign saying, I'm hungry. Please help me, God bless you. What's your name, my love? Maria. Maria. That's beautiful. And where do you come from? From Bulgaria. Bulgaria. Do you mind me asking why you're sitting here?

SPEAKER_00 23:58

Because I don't have vegetable. You don't have a home.

SPEAKER_02 24:05

Do you have friends? I have just one. One girlfriend. Yeah, and you don't I don't mean like a female friend, yeah. But you don't have a home. So where do you sleep, my love? Someone's just bought some bought her some chicken. And uh you sleep here, do you?

SPEAKER_03 24:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:32

I'll try and get you a little bit more. I'll go and get uh where's the nearest cash point? I can see network. I'll go and get you a little bit more. But are you happy? Do you mind not happy, but do you mind just saying why you're here, like wherever you come, like I know Bulgaria, but were you hoping to find a house?

SPEAKER_00 24:57

Yes, to get a bit of working for work and to get the accommodation here.

SPEAKER_02 25:02

So are you gonna go to the council? Yeah. Yeah, what have they said?

SPEAKER_00 25:07

They apply for me for some documents. I needed, and I just waited in for the answer.

SPEAKER_02 25:13

Yeah, but in the meantime, you're just doing this to be are people generous to you, sweetness. Yes, I suppose. I mean, you have a beautiful face and really lovely eyes, and uh thank you so much for talking to me, and I hope it's not too weird. It's just that I in my podcast I like just to talk to real people, you know, about their life and struggles. Okay, I'll go and get you a little bit more, and thank you so much for talking to me to take some pictures. You know, but this is a Saxon Tower. Yes, it's a lovely place to sit, isn't it? Mother M, thank you for talking to me, and I've just pressed up for me to do that or loving this. I think it's patronising. It's difficult, isn't it, not to be patronizing if I'm old and stop and talk to people who I'm in trouble. I am gonna go inside the church. So the church is by the sex and tower and I've been reading up. I think it's gonna be absolutely wonderful. It's got a tower, it's got a blind door, a ghost door, an intersection street. Well, the opposite is St. Michael's Street, and the church is St. Michael's. It's a tiny little church by the tower, and um I'm very clear at this moment, it's sort of entrance ticket or anything. And then opposite St Michael's Street, I'm looking at a very old looking house. I mean, really, it's like Tudor extraordinary earlier than Tudor, it's beans bottom and door, and the death stage is the house just. Um it's now hatters called um Ladies or something. Um, and it's on Ship Street, and I'll go and take pictures of that next. Really gorgeous. Oh lovely. I think you'll love it. Did you tell me what this building was before?

SPEAKER_04 27:16

Oh uh I don't know. What I know is just six hundred years, this building there.

SPEAKER_02 27:23

What I know is there's a door over there, and I'm wondering if I might be able to buy it. Do you know the one that's just not doing anything behind the over there?

SPEAKER_04 27:33

Where?

SPEAKER_02 27:34

Yeah, round the corner and around the very old door.

SPEAKER_04 27:40

Maybe you know it's more than a bottom, sorry. So I don't have uh rent the building. The door is probably the owned by the owner of the building itself. Right. So that might be a little bit more.

SPEAKER_01 27:50

Which is which is Jesus College.

SPEAKER_02 27:52

Ah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 27:52

Sorry, it belongs to Jesus College. Have a lovely day.

SPEAKER_02 27:58

Thank you. Bye. Okay, so I'm gonna get in touch with Jesus College because there's a 600-year-old door just lying against the wall, not doing anything. Wouldn't it be amazing to have that in my house, especially if it's not being used for anything? And I'm now going to go into the city church of Oxford, St. Michael at the North Gate, and this is the one that's attached to the Saxon Tower, and the Saxon Tower's got long and short work on it, which is great to see. I should be preparing for my interview, but I've got three hours, so I think it's fine. There's a uh plaque just on the end, just before you go into the church. Here lieth the body of the wife of I think it says well, I can't say the first name, then the second name is Hall, and it's faded away. I'm going inside what looks like um I don't think an original arch, I think it's been repaired. Pointed arch, but it if it were original, it would be maybe 15th century. Maybe it's original. I mean who knows. People have chalked on the outside. 2018 C plus M plus B. I wonder what that is. It's the City Church of Oxford. We are open. Enter, rest, pray. I wonder if they've done that because of there's a film and book, isn't that? Uh what is it? Eat, love, pray, enter, rest, pray. I think I'd end rather enter, rest, pray than eat, love, pray. And I always look around at the stonework to see if there's any borrowed Roman or anything, and indeed I can see what looks like a Roman tyre and maybe a burnt red brick. So in I go, and I'm now in the porch of the church. I look up and I see lovely stone groins with a Tudor stone rose in the middle. Maybe it's not Tudor. I think it is though, and then there's a single uh sancfroil window. You can tell I'm new to these terms, but a single light. So but at the top, five of the little arches, and I understand that if it's five, it's fifteenth century, four cataproil, it's fourteenth century, three, thirteenth century, but can it be so simple? Who knows? And now this does look like an original pointed arch doorway, stone. I love just plain stone, and a wooden plank door. It doesn't look as old as perhaps it is, it's iron banded, but maybe it's not, maybe it it's a Victorian replica. I don't know, but I'll take pictures of it. And glass doors with uh Tudor rows on the doors, lots of people bustling about with tables inside. Oh, it's lovely. Oh, it's so nice. It's got a really clean feel. It doesn't quite have the musty smell that we know and love. It's huge, it's it's like a square church. It's the transepts are so big, they're almost it's almost as a large square church. And as I turn right into the aisle, there's a stained glass window with St. Michael looking valiant in his coat suit of armour and his golden shield with a sun on it. The sun in glory was uh Edward IV's, of course. But I'm not sure I say of course. I mean I only learnt that recently. It's got Hesekiah, King of I can't read it. And then it's got uh King of Salem or Salem. Lots of plaques. Let's read a couple. Near this place of rest the remains of Christopher Yeats, Esquire, Alderman, and twice mayor of the city. He died tenth day of April 1810, 69 years. Do another one in memory of all ranks of the 252 City of Oxford, Battery, who served with distinction on the south coast of England in North Africa, Italy, and elsewhere. 1939 to 1945, Fortis Est Veritas. What is that? Strength and truth, is that right? The the ceiling is grey painted groins. There are stone arches that looks like local Oxford stone. So grey but with a slight warm hue, a warm enough hue to give it just that touch of beauty, which I well I think so. And now I'm walking to the candles. I think I've given that girl all my coins, but I wouldn't mind lighting a candle, so it says out of order, please place the donations in the box attached. Someone's just popped them here on the side. I hope no one's gonna take them. Right, I'm gonna stop and see if I can find a few coins to pop in. And I can't find that box, so I'm just gonna pop my coin here. And let's get a candle. And I'm gonna light this for my mother, for my husband, for my two children, for my dependent creatures, and dear listener, the and now I'm gonna shut my eyes and turn this off while I just pray for a minute. I've visited and taken pictures of the lovely simple stone font with little uh figures all the way around, and I've now come to the pulpit, the wooden wooden pulpit, and it says John Wesley preached on the 29th of September 1726 in this 15th century pulpit, the Michaelmas Day sermon, which Lincoln College was accustomed to attend in the state. This was his first duty on his appointment as a fellow. I wonder if there's a copy of the sermon anywhere. I was delighted to see that Eleanor Parker, who I'm chatting to later, sent a post out on Twitter about uh it being rogation week. And I've just taken a photograph of beating the bounds here, and it says St. Michael's at the Northgate, beating of the bounds uh Thursday, the 14th of May, beginning at 9am for the service and the beating of the bounds at 10am. And this is something embarrassingly, I've really only learned about in the last six months, mainly from Eleanor Parker. So I look forward to talking to her about that tonight. I think it's fascinating, it's a fascinating link from the past, probably you know, pre-Anglo-Saxon past, because it's you know, societies, no matter how small or large, would need to pass on, especially obviously there's no writing to the next generation where the boundaries are, in order to stop, uh first of all, stop incursions from neighbours, but also to stop uh incursions into neighbours' property, in other words, to uh retain peace. And you could see how something as practical as that could be given a spiritual element by going round with the cross and stopping for prayers at a particular point. So a lovely example of something that had a practical application but was also given a sacred element, and it still continues to this day. And now there's a lovely notice on the wall with a map of the church I'm in, and it says St. Michael at the North Gate. The tower of this church is the oldest building in the city. The priests of St. Michael's are mentioned in the Domesday Book made for William the Conqueror in 1086. There are many signs of Saxon work in the tower, and it is believed to date from before 1050. The church tower also probably served for the defence of the north gate of the city, which spanned what is now Corn Market at this point. The chancel was built in about 1205. The windows are examples of the early Lancet style. We've already seen a single light window, but it had the five trefoil thing at the gosh. Come on, Greta, bull on your stuff. In the east window of the chancel, there is the oldest stained glass in Oxford, about 1290. Okay, I need to look at that. And then the south or west aisle was formed by two chantry chapels. That's where the modern font is now and was built in 1260. Wonderful. And its early English windows are characteristic of this period. I'm now going upstairs into the tower, and it's lovely. I always love to see people praying. There's a builder in a yellow builder's jacket, and then there's a woman maybe ten years older than me. And as I go up, there's a uh stained glass window with military signs. One says Burma Star Association. When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow, we gave our today. That's funny, I've been told that there are wild women up here ringing the bells. I love it when you bump into people on visits like this, and people say funny things. Oxford Preservation Trust Award 1987. So as I go up the wooden steps in the tower, I'm surrounded by the Saxon rubble walls. I'm touching them. You've got to touch the walls, haven't you? And these are not designed to be seen, they're just lovely higgledy-piggledy all sticking out. And oh, there's another door just lying here not doing anything. A sing large single light window. And the mechanics of what's that? The clock mechanism. I'm not particularly interested in things like that. I think some people are, lots of people are actually. I'm now higher. Oh gosh, as I look out, I'm now above all the rooftops. And I can see the inside of the long and short work of the corner of the, one of the corners of the tower. And there's a door saying this door was at the entrance of a cell in the old city. Goat Bacardo. What's the goat bacardo? Oh my goodness. Called the bishop's room, wherein the bishops Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer were confined. And from whence they were taken to suffer martyrdom in the tomb ditch behind the houses opposite opposite Bale College in the reign of Queen Mary. So this door they would have this is the door that gosh that stopped them from walking out to see the sunlight and the feel free again. Etched into the iron here I can see across. I'm touching it. Can you hear me touching it? It's old blank wood, but really, really thick. And as I look at the side of it, you can see it's three the three widths of three, so do you see what I mean? That the planks have been put along to make what the door, and then it's as though three doors have been put with it. And then really thick iron binding, old stud nails, and then the keyhole. As I look round, is there a key? There isn't, but it's like there's the a bit of a key in there or something wedged in there. And now I'm touching the great hinge, and I as I look down, I'm right on the ground, just looking for any signs of graffiti or scratchings. Um gosh. Very moving. And now a sign about Civil War, Oxford. Charles I entered Oxford through the North Gate, which is where we are, after the Battle of Edge Hill in 1642. As London favoured the parliamentarians, Oxford became the royalist capital of the realm. The city was besieged three times before 1646, when the king fled the city, and the garrison surrendered to the parliamentary forces. Soldiers were housed here in St. Michael's Church for a time, and it was also used to hold parliamentary prisoners. The parishioners were forced to rebuild the city fortifications and buy back vessels taken from the church. John Wesley, the evangelical churchman and founder of Methodism, and his followers used to visit the prisoners and give sermons at the Bocado. Wesley had previously preached from the church's 15th century pulpit on St. Michael's Day, 1726. We were reading about that a minute ago. The Bocado and the North Gate were demolished in 1772 after an act of Parliament had condemned the streets in the city as being so very narrow and incommodious and so greatly obstructed by nuisances and annoyances. That's a shame. And if you remember, Samuel Peeps was a friend of John Wesley Sr. And I'm now by the huge bell. What a lovely thing. Aidan would like this, so I'm gonna take a picture just for him. And now joyfully, joyfully, I'm on the roof. I'm on the roof of the Saxon town. I'm the only one here. I could run round, I could dance round, I could jump off. Ah, I can see the whole of Oxford and I'm on my own. Oh, how lovely! How lovely! Windy, sunny, boom, and I can see everything. Really nice in the distance. I can see green hills, I can see lots of towers. I wish I knew. That's Tom. Oh, I can see Christchurch with its Tom, is it called Tom Tower? And that's the only thing really I recognise. How lovely! It's now Tuesday, and I'm sitting in the garden in Sherbourne with Puppy on my lap. I've just published the episode with Eleanor Parker, and if you've listened to that or if you do listen to it, I do apologise that I come across as a bit uh over excited and talk too much. It it's just nerves, really, and I I need to learn to talk less so that the person I'm interviewing gets the gets the most of the hearing. So yeah, I didn't really enjoy listening to that, but I obviously enjoyed listening to everything that Eleanor had to say, and I hope it's inspired you to look into the writing that she has done. And I thought I would just, I can see it's 44 minutes now, I would I would conclude this with reading to you about the Bacardo prison in Oxford, which is where Thomas Cranmer was held before he was burned at the stake, and also because I didn't know anything about it, but it is of an important part of Oxford and is very well known. So uh let me turn to the Wikipedia page and so I can read from it without any worries of copyright. The Bacardo prison in Oxford, England, existed until 1771. Its origins were medieval, and its most famous prisoners were the Protestant Oxford martyrs, Thomas Cranmer, Hugh Latimer, and Nicholas Whidley in 1555. Other prisoners included a number of Quakers like Elizabeth Fletcher, among the first preachers of the Friends to come to Oxford in 1654. It was located near the Church of St. Michael at the North Gate, which is of course where I took you yesterday. The prison consisted, in fact, of rooms in a watchtower by Oxford's North Gate, the tower being attributed by uh to Robert Doyley, a Norman of the 11th century, though also said to be originally a Saxon construction of around 1000 to 1050. And the gate itself was also called Bicardo Gate. The rooms were over the gate, and there was a box in the church for charitable contributions to the prisoners. And then there's a picture of the door, and do you remember I took you close up to the door and took some pictures of it? And it says the door from the cell of the Bacardi prison where Crane was held. It's now preserved in the Saxon Bell Tower. John Powderham, who claimed to be the real king in the reign of Edward II of England, was imprisoned here shortly before being hung, hanged. The prison was demolished in 1771 for a road construction scheme following an act of Parliament and redevelopment in Oxford under John Gwynne. The name of the Bicado. Bicardo now it just goes on to talk about the word Bicardo. It's also a mnemonic for a traditional syllogism in scholastic logic. For example, some cats have no tails, all cats are mammals, some mammals have no tails. There is folk etymology for the name because Bicardo was found to be one of the harder forms of valid syllogism for students to learn. It was said to be the name of a prison that was hard to escape from. One of the rooms in Newgate Prison was also named Bocardo. An essay presented to the Oxford University Genealogical and Heraldic Society in 1835 suggested that the name was derived from the Anglo-Saxon Bocard, which meant a library or archive, and it's also said that it was probable that the academic prison lent its name to logic. And now I will finish with some information on Thomas Cranmer. Thomas Cranmer, 1489 to 1556, was the primary author of the Book of Common Prayer. So if you like the Book of Common Prayer, then you have him to thank. He offered profound reflections on his faith, scripture, but also on human frailty. His wisdom highlights the need for a pure heart, the comfort of scripture, and finding strength in God amid life's adversities. Famously writing, in the midst of life, we are in death. Human nature. Stating that what the heart loves, the will chooses, and then the mind justifies. Scripture and prayer. He emphasized scripture as pure feeding for the soul and offered prayers seeking comfort for those in adversity. In his final defiant moments, he renounced his previous fearful recantations. And with that, I wish you a very peaceful Tuesday. We'll be doing a strictly literature later on today, and I know that means three episodes in one day, but obviously you can just listen to everything in your own time. And it depends whether you're up for a bit of literature, up for listening to an interview, or to my witterings as I went round Oxford. So thank you so much for joining me, for your support, and I'll leave it at that. Thank you. Bye bye.