Medieval Oxford: Town, County and University from the 13th to the end of the 15th centuries

Towards the end of the 12th century, Oxford Castle and the town defences began to be replaced in stone; in Medieval times anyone approaching the town would have seen it entirely surrounded by high stone walls with parapets, with river, moat and marsh running round.

The County’s prison was now established within the Castle precinct (where it was to remain until the 20th century), and a town organisation (the future Oxford City Council) and the University in its very early stages, were both now in existence. The centre of town organisation was the Medieval Guildhall (on the site of the present Victorian Town Hall), while the University’s focal point was the church of St Mary the Virgin in the High Street, where all University functions took place throughout Medieval times.

Oxford lay close to the attractive royal forest of Woodstock. The royal palace of the 12th and 13th-century Angevin kings just outside the north gate of Oxford, Beaumont Palace, was the birthplace of Richard the Lion Heart and King John. The palace and the Medieval hunting lodge at Woodstock both ensured that successive English kings and queens would take a strong interest in Oxford and its University.

© 1998 Oxfordshire Museum Service, Setúbal Museums and the Benaki Museum