This was our first full day of our weekend break in Oxford in 2022 and we’d already visited the Oxford University Parks And The Museum Of Natural History and the Oxford Ashmolean Museum but weren’t quite done with the cultural or historical aspects of what we hoped to see. Next on our list – which was a list in our heads formed by looking at the map and saying “Ooh, there’s a thing!” – was the castle and prison. Astute readers and those with a better than average comprehension of English will realise this post isn’t about that place, though, and the reason for that is that we got there, saw there was some information about a guided tour only, and decided we couldn’t be bothered. We don’t mind a guided tour, but we like to have the option not to, and perhaps we just didn’t read the sign correctly but it was enough to send us off elsewhere.
After a quick stop for something to eat and a few drinks we set off instead for the botanic gardens. This took us along Oxford’s High Street and past architecture quite typical for the area. Several colleges and University Church of St Mary the Virgin were among the landmarks that we strolled past.
The Oxford Botanic Garden was founded in 1621 as a physic garden – a garden for growing herbs for use in medicinal research – and today houses over five thousand species of flowers and plants. Situated along the banks of the River Cherwell – where people could be seen punting along it with varying degrees of success – it is broadly arranged in three sections: the Glasshouses, the Lower Garden, and the Walled Garden.
We started our wander through the garden with the Glasshouses. Numerous climate zones were represented in the occasionally cramped and very warm spaces here: a cloud forest, a water lily pond, a rainforest, a carnivorous plants house, and an arid zone for cactuses. Each had its appeal, but I’m always drawn to pitcher plants for some reason. It’s because I was a fly in a previous life.
We’re not botanists and our knowledge of flowers in general is extremely small, but the plants on show were attractive, some were clearly exotic and not native to these shores, and, ultimately, when it comes to nature, you either like it or you don’t. I won’t pretend to try to determine what each plant was, but if you’ve got an interest in flowers or what sorts of plants grow in different climates then it’s a great way to spend an hour or two.
It was good to get outside and into some fresh air after exploring the Glasshouses; as I mentioned, they could be a little cramped with a sensible one-way system of exploring their interior spaces that was only mostly observed by people visiting on the same day that we were there. The outside garden spaces were more typical of what you’d find in any English estate, but there were areas given over to medicinal herbs still among rare plants too.
One other area of the Walled Garden was the literary walk. It is known that authors such as Lewis Carroll and J.R.R. Tolkien visited Oxford Botanic Garden, and if you’re a fan of the His Dark Materials books by Philip Pullman or its TV adaptation then the bench that Will and Lyra pledge to sit on at noon each Midsummer’s Day in their respective worlds is located in the garden too, and quite likely smothered with other fans at that time if you’re thinking it might be nice to pop along there and do so as well.
That ended up being enough of Oxford’s cultural and historical elements for one day for us, and we would spend the rest of this day visiting some pubs. What can I say? We like pubs.