Oxford News

The churchyard at St Mary and St Nicholas Church in Littlemore has been closed following damage caused by Storm Austen on Saturday 24 October. High winds brought down large branches from a mature cedar tree in the grounds, which sit next to the grade II listed building on Cowley Road. Oxford City Council’s tree service attended the site on Monday after reports of the damage and put up barriers while clearance work is carried out. A council spokesperson said two primary branches and several smaller ones had failed. The tree is being assessed and the grounds will remain shut until the work is finished and the area is safe. No injuries were reported. The storm caused some disruption to local transport on Saturday, but most services had returned to normal by the following day. The church said it would update residents once the churchyard can reopen.

The churchyard at St Mary and St Nicholas Church in Littlemore has been closed after Storm Austen caused damage on Saturday 24 October. High winds brought down large branches from a mature cedar tree in the grounds, which sit next to the Grade II-listed building on Cowley Road. Oxford City Council’s tree service attended the site on Monday after reports of the damage and put up barriers while clearance work is carried out. A council spokesperson said two primary branches and several smaller ones had failed. The tree is being assessed, and the grounds will remain shut until the work is finished and the area is safe. No injuries were reported. The storm caused some disruption to local transport on Saturday, but most services had returned to normal by the following day. The church said it would update residents once the churchyard can reopen. St Mary and St Nicholas Church, Cowley Road Photo © Roger Templeman ( cc-by-sa/2.0 )

Test caption We're starting something new, and we'd like you to be part of it. Oxford is an extraordinary place. But you don't need to be standing outside the Radcliffe Camera to appreciate it. Sometimes it's a conversation with a shopkeeper in the Covered Market. Sometimes it's finding out that a favourite café is closing, that a new business is opening on the Cowley Road, or that roadworks are about to make an already difficult journey across town even longer. And sometimes it's simply hearing that somebody down the road has done something rather wonderful. That's the Oxford we're interested in. The city people live in, work in, raise families in and occasionally get thoroughly frustrated with. The Oxford of school runs and Saturday markets, small businesses and big decisions, busy hospitals, local football pitches and neighbourhoods with their own unmistakable character. And, of course, there's the rest of Oxfordshire. Life in Banbury isn't qu...

Photo © David Hawgood ( cc-by-sa/2.0 ) A man died after a large tree fell on him in University Parks, Oxford, on the afternoon of 18 October 2026. Emergency services were called to the scene at about 4.15pm after reports that a tree had fallen across a footpath near the River Cherwell. Paramedics and fire crews attended, but the man, named locally as Tom Ellison, 34, was pronounced dead at the scene. He is believed to have been walking alone when the incident happened. Thames Valley Police said the death is not being treated as suspicious. Officers have spoken to witnesses and are working with the city council’s tree team to establish the circumstances. A section of the path remained closed into the evening while crews cleared the fallen tree. A council spokesperson said the tree, a mature horse chestnut, had been on the regular inspection list but showed no immediate signs of failure before the high winds that affected the city that day. The force of the gusts is thought to have bee...