Welcome to Oxfordshire
The Oxfordshire Association is concerned to promote the historic and un-changed identity of our county which has been extremely confused in the minds of some people, especially those working in the broadcasting and newspaper industries, since the local government reorganisation of 1974.
Oxfordshire literally means the ‘district’ (or ‘shire’) of and around the town of Oxford. It was established over a thousand years ago, in Saxon times, as a unit of the newly formed and recently united nation of England. The county stretches across the southern midlands of England from the commuter belt of London up to that of Birmingham. Its bounds remained unaltered in the public consciousness until very recently, when central government interference disturbed an immemorial common geographical reference.
The Government at the time of the Local Government Act 1972 stated that the “new counties” created by that statute were administrative areas only, and that the boundaries of traditional counties such as Oxfordshire had not been changed. Unfortunately, the media refer to these administrative areas all too frequently and ignore the fact that places such as Abingdon, Botley, Didcot, Wantage, Wallingford, Uffington, and Faringdon are in Berkshire. If administrative areas had not been called counties much of this confusion would have been avoided.
Our campaign must continue until it is recognised that the boundaries of Oxfordshire are still those that were first defined in the eleventh century, rather than those created for administrative purposes in 1974!
