Coordinates: 51°43′09″N 1°17′50″W / 51.719113°N 1.297111°W
| Boars Hill | |
  Boars Hill
 Boars Hill shown within Oxfordshire |
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| OS grid reference | |
|---|---|
| District | Vale of White Horse |
| Shire county | Oxfordshire |
| Region | South East |
| Constituent country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | OXFORD |
| Postcode district | OX1 |
| Dialling code | 01865 |
| Police | Thames Valley |
| Fire | Oxfordshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| European Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | Oxford West and Abingdon |
| List of places: UK • England • Oxfordshire | |
Boars Hill is a hill and community south of Oxford, in the English county of Oxfordshire. In 1974 it was transferred from Berkshire. The community is partly in the civil parish of Sunningwell and partly in the civil parish of Wootton.
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History
Boars Hill (or Boreshill) was first mentioned in the 12th century. The greater part of Boars Hill was historically a manor of the parish of Cumnor[1], until the 19th century when the parish of Wootton was formed.
Until the late 19th century the hill was almost bare and had fine views - northwards to the city of Oxford, southwards to the Downs and westwards to the upper Thames valley. At that time many houses were built on Boars Hill, and the new residents planted trees and erected fences and walls; within a few decades they had hidden the celebrated views from all but a few places.
Notable residents
Poets
The first poet to leave a record of a visit to the hill was Arthur Hugh Clough. In his diary for 1841, edited by Anthony Kenny, he describes how a walk across the hill inspired the ninth of his 'Blank misgivings of a creature moving about in worlds not realized'; however, he was concerned over his family's financial straits and his impending final exams, and he found the barrenness of the scene under a grey February sky depressing.
When Matthew Arnold came up to Oxford later in 1841, Clough introduced him to Boars Hill, which later provided the inspiration and setting for two of his best-known poems, The Scholar Gipsy (1853) and Thyrsis (1866), the latter written in memory of Clough. The famous phrase in the latter "the dreaming spires" encouraged people to visit the hill and settle there.
Three poets eventually came to live on the hill, the first being Margaret Louisa Woods in the 1880s. She was followed by Robert Bridges and John Masefield, successive Poets Laureate. For a couple of years after World War I, they were joined by three of the war poets: Robert Graves - Masefield's tenant - and Edmund Blunden, both future Oxford Professors of Poetry (as Arnold had been) and (for a few months) Robert Nichols. Bridges' daughter, the poet Elizabeth Daryush, continued to live on the hill until her death in 1977.
Other notable residents
The hill was also home to Gilbert Murray, famous for his verse translations of classical Greek drama. Proposals for the redevelopment of former site of his home, Yatscombe Hall, have been the subject of an ongoing controversy since 1997.[2][3]
Other notable residents were the sculptor Oscar Nemon, who came to it after fleeing fascism in 1940s Europe, and the archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans, who lived on Boars Hill from 1894 until his death in 1941. His house, 'Youlbury', notable for its Minoan decoration, has since been burnt down (as were those of Margaret Woods, Robert Bridges and Gilbert Murray).
Sites
Arthur Evans had Jarn Mound built (by hand), in order to create a view-point from which to see the famous vistas that had been hidden by development. The surrounding trees have continued to grow taller, and the views are again obscured. Evans left most of his estate to the Boy Scouts and Youlbury Camp is still available for their use.
Several sites on Boars Hill, including Jarn Mound, Matthew Arnold Field and land on the north side of the hill with views of the "dreaming spires" of Oxford, are now owned by the Oxford Preservation Trust[4].
From 1933 to 1975 Boars Hill was the home of Ripon Hall. The site is now known as Foxcombe Hall, and is the regional headquarters of the Open University.
Brideshead Revisted
Boars Hill is twice mentioned in the 1945 novel Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966).
First, Cousin Jasper advises the young Charles Ryder upon his coming up to Oxford to "...Keep clear of Boar's Hill."
In contrast, Sebastian Flyte describes a model student at Oxford as one who "smokes a great pipe and plays hockey and goes out to tea on Boar's Hill and to lectures at Keble..."
References
- ^ Victoria History of Berkshire: Cumnor
- ^ MP bids to break plans deadlock This is Oxfordshire 7 February 2004
- ^ Village for Elderly planned for Boars Hill The Oxford Times 23 June 2006
- ^ Oxford Preservation Trust website
- Anthony Kenny 'The Oxford Diaries of Arthur Hugh Clough' (1990)
- Mary Bright Rix 'Boars Hill, Oxford' (1941)
- Arthur Evans 'Jarn Mound' (1933)
- James S. Candy 'A Tapestry of Life' (1984)
External links
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