Having had our autumnal cruise through Oxfordshire cut short last weekend, we decided to finish the jaunt on Saturday. Unfortunately the weather was not as inviting this time around so the autumn colours were not displayed to their best.
Nevertheless, we discovered a few new villages and re-visited other villages on our meander through the byways.
Leaving Oxford we stopped at Stanton Harcourt for a look at the colourful tombs
of the Harcourt family and then paused briefly for a photo-op at Kimber House, the MG Car Club headquarters at Abingdon, the spiritual home of the MG marque.
Sutton Courtney was another new discovery, with its half-timbered houses, before we went back to some old favourites such as Ewelme, Dorchester and Watlington.
At Ewelme we encountered some very odd behaviour from a local.
We needed to execute a u-turn and the narrow streets do not accommodate such manoeuvres so when an appropriately broad driveway appeared I attempted to reverse a little way into it in order to turn around.
Just as I began an old chap came running down the driveway; I stopped, he stopped.
Having established that we had both seen one another, I waited for him to move; he didn’t. Since he was not apparently moving I pulled forward a little and began reversing into another part of the driveway at which point he jumped across behind me again. All very odd – if his driveway is that precious why does he not put a gate across it? So, if you are ever tempted to change direction while travelling along the High St in Ewelme, under no circumstances attempt it
here.
Banbury is familiar from the nursery rhyme. Saturday was such a lovely day we did a circular drive from Banbury, after first exploring the town. The town has the iconic cross (although not the one that the nursery rhyme refers to), but also many other historic building.
Most interesting is the Reindeer Inn, once a haunt of Roundheads and Royalists, depending on who was in control of the town. 
Its Globe Room has an interesting history, and was returned to the pub, after nearly being shipped to America then ‘lost’ in a warehouse for over 50 years.
As it was autumn, not winter the Winter Garden was not at its spectacular best but the autumn colours in the other areas of the property more than compensated 
as did the chance to wander through the house left, complete with furniture, ornaments and paintings, by the man who restored it.
Having had our autumnal cruise through Oxfordshire cut short last weekend, we decided to finish the jaunt on Saturday. Unfortunately the weather was not as inviting this time around so the autumn colours were not displayed to their best.
of the Harcourt family and then paused briefly for a photo-op at Kimber House, the MG Car Club headquarters at Abingdon, the spiritual home of the MG marque.
Sutton Courtney was another new discovery, with its half-timbered houses, before we went back to some old favourites such as Ewelme, Dorchester and Watlington.
We needed to execute a u-turn and the narrow streets do not accommodate such manoeuvres so when an appropriately broad driveway appeared I attempted to reverse a little way into it in order to turn around.
Having established that we had both seen one another, I waited for him to move; he didn’t. Since he was not apparently moving I pulled forward a little and began reversing into another part of the driveway at which point he jumped across behind me again. All very odd – if his driveway is that precious why does he not put a gate across it? So, if you are ever tempted to change direction while travelling along the High St in Ewelme, under no circumstances attempt it here.
About a day's journey north of London (in a coach and horses) is the small settlement of Stony Stratford, so named because of some stony ground that afforded a crossing over the River Great Ouse valley. The old Roman road, Watling Street, used this crossing but now the A5 which follows the line of Watling Street has been diverted around the town, returning the High St to the locals.
Almost adjacent on the High St are two Inns; The Cock and The Bull, and it was at these inns that the travellers would stay at the end of their day's journey from London and regale one another with tales of their journeys, no doubt enhanced after a few jugs of the publicans' finest ale, These fanciful tales were given a name of their own; "a cock and bull story."
Earlier in the day we followed another town trail, this one around Wolveton, or New Wolverton - to be precise. Wolverton was created as a railway town in the 1830s to service the trains on the London-Birmingham line.
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