Set on the banks of the river and studded with elegant stone houses, a few Tudor relics, chichi shops and affluent residents, Henley is a conservative but well-heeled kind of place that bursts into action for its world-famous regatta and festival each year. Outside the summer festivities it’s a reasonably pleasant but workaday commuter town [...]
Bookish, conservative, closeted and elite, Oxford is a privileged place, highly aware of its international standing as one of the world’s most famous university towns and yet remarkably restrained for a city driven by its student population. It’s the kind of place where the pursuit of excellence, the weight of academic achievement and the whiff [...]
Conveniently close to Oxford, yet a quintessential rural retreat, the charming village of Woodstock makes a wonderful day trip from the city. The big draw here is Blenheim Palace, the opulent country pile of the Churchill family, but the village itself is full of picturesque creeper-clad cottages and elegant town houses.