Headington Hill is a hill in the east of

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, in the suburb of Headington. The Headington Road goes up the hill leading out of the city. There are good views of the spires of

from the hill, especially from the top of

South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boysStan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand the ...

. Between 1644 and 1646, Headington Hill was used by the Parliamentarian forces while besieging Oxford during the

First English Civil War The First English Civil War took place in England and Wales from 1642 to 1646, and forms part of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. An estimated 15% to 20% of adult males in England and Wales served in the military at some point b ...

. Headington Hill Hall, built in 1824 for the Morrell family (local brewers), stands on the hill, and is now the home of Oxford Brookes University's School of Law.

Spanish anti-fascist memorial

Headington Hill is the home of the Oxford Spanish Civil War memorial which is dedicated to local residents who travelled to Spain to join the

International Brigades The International Brigades () were soldiers recruited and organized by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front (Spain), Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The International Bri ...

to fight against fascist forces backed by Hitler and Mussolini during the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939. The memorial is located where Headington Road meets During the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

, 29 British people with connections to Oxfordshire joined the

, with a further 2 who joined

POUM The Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (, POUM; , POUM) was a Spanish communist party formed during the Second Spanish Republic, Second Republic and mainly active around the Spanish Civil War. It was formed by the fusion of the Trotskyism, Tro ...

. Most of the volunteers were communist activists, and many had links to Britain's Jewish communities. Oxford was a hub for anti-fascist activism, homes within the county housed hundreds of Basque refugee children and various physical fights between anti-fascist activists and the Oxford University Fascist Association. The memorial was the focus of minor controversy when all plans to have an anti-fascist memorial in the city center were rejected by Oxford city council, until the current site was agreed upon.

References

External links

Headington Hill section on Headington Community website
Oxford Spanish War Memorial front

Hills of Oxfordshire Areas of Oxford {{Oxfordshire-geo-stub

Spanish anti-fascist memorial

See also

References

External links