County Dossier
Oxfordshire
A shire of scholars, rivers and rolling countryside.
Oxfordshire is an inland county, notable for its mix of rolling countryside, historic towns, and cultural landmarks. The Cotswolds stretch into the west, where towns such as Chipping Norton and Burford display the region’s quintessential charm.
At a glance
Oxfordshire at a glance
A shire of scholars, rivers and rolling countryside.
- Ford of oxen: 1st record 912
- Formed from Wessex and Mercia Upper Thames territory
- Oxford University founded 1096
- Area: 754 sq miles
- Population: 512,345
- County Top: Bald Hill
County Geography
The Thames gives much of Oxfordshire’s southern line against Berkshire, the Chilterns shape the eastern side, and the Cotswold country rises in the west and north-west. Those river and upland edges make the county easy to read as one historic territorial unit.
Oxfordshire is held together by river corridor and upland frame.
Map Reference
View Oxfordshire on the map
Oxfordshire is the county. The map also shows lieutenancies and council areas that use the county name.
The county.
The lieutenancy.
Council areas.
Places and routes
Oxford, Banbury, Bicester, Witney, and Woodstock show the county from its university city and northern market corridor to its west-side town and historic estate country. Together they explain how Oxfordshire works between river, road, and upland edge.
Connections
The Thames and Cherwell corridors, together with the long routes linking London, Oxford, and the Midlands, have shaped movement across the county for centuries. Oxfordshire is therefore practical geography as well as historic geography.
Names
- Oxfordshire
- County of Oxford
County of Oxford is the formal historical style. Oxon remains the established short documentary form, while Oxfordshire itself reflects the shire that formed around the ford of oxen and the town that grew there.
By the early 10th century Oxfordshire was already functioning as a county, and later cultural prominence through the university added to a county identity that was already in place. That early shire identity still gives Oxfordshire clear historic-county meaning.