Grandpont is a mainly residential area in south

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. It is west of

Abingdon Road Abingdon Road is the main arterial road to the south of the city of Oxford, England. The road passes through the suburbs of Grandpont and New Hinksey. It is named after the town of Abingdon to the south. History Part of the road was known a ...

, and consists mainly of narrow streets that run at right angles to the main road, with terraced late- Victorian and

Edwardian The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...

houses. It also contains the Grandpont Nature Park—a riverside park managed by

Oxford City Council Oxford City Council is the lower-tier local government authority for the city of Oxford in England, providing such services as leisure centres and parking. Social Services, Education and Highways services (amongst others) are provided by Oxfor ...

(). The park covers and was created in 1985 on the site of a gas works that was demolished in 1960. The former railway bridge, used to carry coal from the main railway line across the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

to the older gas works in St Ebbes on the north bank, still stands, and is in use as a footbridge. A later bridge,

Grandpont Bridge Grandpont Bridge is a footbridge across the River Thames near the centre of Oxford, England that was temporarily closed in March 2021. It links Friars Wharf in St Ebbes on the north bank to the Geoffrey Arthur Building of Pembroke College, buil ...

, provides a more direct pedestrian and cycle route across the river to St Ebbes.

History

The name of the area derives from the Grandpont, a medieval stone

causeway A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet Tr ...

now known to survive within the core of the modern Abingdon Road for a distance of at least 700 metres south of the city centre. The causeway may have been first built in the Anglo-Saxon era, and rebuilt in the late 11th century by the first Norman lord of Oxford, Robert D'Oyly I, crossing the low-lying ground south of the City, still very liable to winter flooding from the nearby

. In 1279 there were 62 houses in Grandpont. The suburb grew slowly in the following centuries, and extensive development did not take place until the 19th century. In 1844 the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

opened Oxford's first railway station in what is now Western Road, and that stimulated development.Hibbert, 1988, s.v. ''Grandpont'' One of the houses built there is Grandpont House named after the neighbourhood. Built for Sir William Elias Taunton, the Town Clerk of the city of Oxford, in 1785, his family controlled the house until Brasenose College acquired the house in 1847. Brasenose maintained the house until 1959 when it was purchased by the Netherhall Educational Association. Until 1889 Grandpont was in Berkshire, although it was a

tithing A tithing or tything was a historic English legal, administrative or territorial unit, originally ten hides (and hence, one tenth of a hundred). Tithings later came to be seen as subdivisions of a manor or civil parish. The tithing's leader or ...

of the parish of St Aldate's, Oxford. The area was added to the municipal borough of Oxford and to

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primaril ...

in 1889. The

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

Saint Matthew Matthew the Apostle,, shortened to ''Matti'' (whence ar, مَتَّى, Mattā), meaning "Gift of YHWH"; arc, , Mattai; grc-koi, Μαθθαῖος, ''Maththaîos'' or , ''Matthaîos''; cop, ⲙⲁⲧⲑⲉⲟⲥ, Mattheos; la, Matthaeus a ...

, Grandpont was built in 1890,Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 335 presumably as a

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently. Often a chapel of ease is deliberately bu ...

. The church was consecrated by Bishop William Stubbs on Thursday October 29, 1891. It became a parish separate from St Aldate's in 1913.

References

Sources

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External links

Oxfordshire County Council. Paths for All: Grandpont Nature Park
{{Oxford Areas of Oxford Parks and open spaces in Oxford