Oxford is the stomping ground of many of my favourite authors, notably CS Lewis, Lewis Carroll and JRR Tolkien. After doing some research the night before, we set off to see what footprints these three had left in Oxford!
First up …… Lewis Carroll. Below is Folly Bridge. This is where Lewis set off on a leisurely trip with Alice Liddell and her sister. It was on this trip that the ideas for Alice in Wonderland were born. Alice Liddell was the daughter of a friend of Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) and she is the ‘Alice’ in Alice in Wonderland (in spite of having short dark hair)
While visiting beautiful Christchurch (one of the 39 Oxford colleges!) We discovered these references to Alice in Wonderland in the great dining hall.
It was interesting to find out more about the real Alice, when we visited a little museum in the town hall.
Next author to investigate was CS Lewis. We found the famous pub where he and Tolkien used to regularly meet to read each other excerpts of their latest works. They called themselves ‘The Inklings’. Unfortunately the pub has been permanently closed since 2020.
Following this we visited the church where CS Lewis was a regular (he also preached there). His grave is also here.
Inside the church there is a special Narnia window. It is very close to the pew where CS Lewis liked to sit. Unfortunately it was hard to get a good photo of the window.
There is also a CS Lewis nature reserve but we only had a quick glimpse of this.
JRR Tolkien– we found out that there were two places he lived in Oxford. At one he wrote ‘The Hobbit’ and at the other ‘The Lord of the Rings’ was published. However, we did not get around to viewing these places so no photos I’m afraid.
This was one of my favourite days! If you are a literature buff, these are must do’s for your visit to beautiful Oxford.
Traveling Further 