A report on Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire

A campus of the University of Gloucestershire

Brasenose Lane in Oxford city centre, a street onto which three colleges back.

The University of Oxford's Chemistry Research Laboratory.

The Abbey, Sutton Courtenay, a ‘textbook’ example of the English medieval manor house.

The south cloister of Gloucester Cathedral was used for filming scenes in the Harry Potter films.

A boar of the local Gloucestershire Old Spot breed.

The ceremonial county borders Warwickshire to the north-west, Northamptonshire to the north-east, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, Wiltshire to the south-west and Gloucestershire to the west.

- Oxfordshire

Gloucestershire borders Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire to the east, Wiltshire to the south, Bristol and Somerset to the south-west, and the Welsh county of Monmouthshire to the west.

- Gloucestershire

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Wiltshire

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Historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of 3485 km2.

The County Ground, Swindon is the home of Swindon Town, the only football league club in Wiltshire

A bridge over the River Avon at Bradford-on-Avon

The flight of 16 locks at Caen Hill on the Kennet and Avon Canal

It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the northeast and Berkshire to the east.

Warwickshire

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County in the West Midlands region of England.

Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick from Church Street

Warwickshire is bordered by Leicestershire to the northeast, Staffordshire to the northwest, Worcestershire and the West Midlands to the west, Northamptonshire to the east and southeast, Gloucestershire to the southwest and Oxfordshire to the south.

Cotswolds

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Region in central-southwest England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale.

Row houses of Cotswold stone in Broadway, Worcestershire; the quaint buildings of the village attract numerous tourists

Some of the stone cottages feature thatched roofs, although slate is now more common (Stretton-On-Fosse)

It lies across the boundaries of several English counties; mainly Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, and parts of Wiltshire, Somerset, Worcestershire, and Warwickshire.

Ceremonial counties before the creation of Greater London in 1965 (depicting each county corporate as part of its main county)

Ceremonial counties of England

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The counties and areas for the purposes of the lieutenancies, also referred to as the lieutenancy areas of England and informally known as ceremonial counties, are areas of England to which lords-lieutenant are appointed.

Ceremonial counties from 1974 to 1996 (City of London not shown)

Apart from minor boundary revisions (for example, Caversham, a town in Oxfordshire, becoming part of Reading county borough and thus of Berkshire, in 1911), these areas changed little until the 1965 creation of Greater London and of Huntingdon and Peterborough, which resulted in the abolition of the offices of Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex, Lord Lieutenant of the County of London, and Lord Lieutenant of Huntingdonshire and the creation of the Lord Lieutenant of Greater London and of the Lord Lieutenant of Huntingdon and Peterborough.

The County of Avon that had been formed in 1974 was mostly split between Gloucestershire and Somerset, but its city of Bristol regained the status of a county in itself, which it had lost upon the formation of Avon.

River Thames

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River that flows through southern England including London.

A statue of Old Father Thames by Raffaelle Monti at St John's Lock, Lechlade

Sculpture of Tamesis. Downstream keystone of the central arch of Henley Bridge

The marker stone at the official source of the River Thames named Thames Head near Kemble

The Thames Barrier provides protection against floods

The Thames passes by some of the sights of London, including the Houses of Parliament and the London Eye

The Thames passing through the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames

London Stone at Staines, built in 1285 marked the customs limit of the Thames and the City of London's jurisdiction

Waterstand of Thames at low tide (left) and high tide (right) in comparison at Blackfriars Bridge in London

London City Airport is on the site of a dock

European LGM refuges, 20,000 years ago. The Thames was a minor river that joined the Rhine, in the southern North Sea basin at this time.

A geological map of the London Basin; the London Clay is marked in dark brown

The confluence of the Rivers Thames and Brent. The narrowboat is heading up the River Brent. From this point as far as Hanwell the Brent has been canalised and shares its course with the main line of the Grand Union Canal. From Hanwell the Brent can be traced to various sources in the Barnet area.

The Tower of London begun in the 11th century, with Tower Bridge, built 800 years later

A 1616 engraving by Claes Van Visscher showing the Old London Bridge, with St Mary's Overie (over-the-river), now Southwark Cathedral in the foreground

Michael Faraday giving his card to Father Thames, caricature commenting on a letter of Faraday's on the state of the river in The Times in July 1855

Satirical cartoon by William Heath, showing a woman observing monsters in a drop of London water (at the time of the Commission on the London Water Supply report, 1828)

The Thames as it flows through east London, with the Isle of Dogs in the centre

Houseboats on the River Thames, in the St Margaret's, Twickenham district

The London Cable Car, over the River Thames

Pool of London looking west, from the high-level walkway on Tower Bridge. Click on the picture for a longer description

A container ship unloading at Northfleet Hope terminal, Tilbury

A ship heading downstream past Coryton Refinery

Rubbish traps are used on the Thames to filter debris as it flows through central London

The Millennium Footbridge with St Paul's Cathedral in the background

Cambridge cross the finish line ahead of Oxford in the 2007 Boat Race, viewed from Chiswick Bridge

A seal in the river at St Saviour's Dock, London

The flooded Canvey Island sea front, amusements and residential areas in 1953

Houses of Parliament Sunlight Effect (Le Parlement effet de soleil) – Claude Monet

The first Westminster Bridge as painted by Canaletto in 1746.

The River Thames from Richmond House by Canaletto, 1747

Maidenhead Railway Bridge as Turner saw it in 1844

Monet's Trouée de soleil dans le brouillard, Houses of Parliament, London, Sun Breaking Through the Fog, 1904

Whistler's Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Old Battersea Bridge (c. 1872–1875)

Foggy Morning on the Thames – James Hamilton (between 1872 and 1878)

Boating on the Thames - John Lavery, circa 1890

The river rises at Thames Head in Gloucestershire, and flows into the North Sea near Tilbury, Essex and Gravesend, Kent, via the Thames Estuary.

Sculptures titled Tamesis and Isis by Anne Seymour Damer can be found on the bridge at Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire (the original terracotta and plaster models were exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, in 1785.

The Counties of England as recorded in the Domesday Book.

Historic counties of England

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The historic counties of England are areas that were established for administration by the Normans, in many cases based on earlier kingdoms and shires created by the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Celts and others.

An 1824 map of the English and Welsh counties

This (rather inaccurate) 1814 map shows Dudley in a detached part of Worcestershire surrounded by Staffordshire. Note the exclave of Shropshire (the parish of Halesowen), just to the south-east and part of Staffordshire (Broome and Clent) to the south-west as well.

Notice on the Corn Exchange, Royal Tunbridge Wells, mentioning the historic county boundary

The ancient county boundaries of Warwickshire cover a larger area than the administrative area in 1974 (in green).

Former postal counties of England from 1974 to 1996

Some abbreviations are not obvious, such as "Salop" for Shropshire, from the Norman-derived word for its county town Shrewsbury; "Oxon" for Oxfordshire, from Latin Oxonium (referring to both the county and the city of Oxford); "Hants" for Hampshire; and "Northants" for Northamptonshire.

A "lost" Saxon county was Winchcombeshire which lasted from 1007 to 1017 before being incorporated into Gloucestershire.