The Development of Telecoms - Oxford
The Oxford area covers about 1,500 square miles and includes Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, with parts of Berkshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Northants and Gloucestershire.
The industrial and market town of Banbury, with its "Cross" remembered in the nursery rhyme, is in the north. Westward is the Cotswolds, extending across the area, with many lovely villages of local stone with its typical grey and tawny hues.
Southwards from the Cotswolds the rivers Windrush and Evenlode flow through rich pasture land and the native-bred Oxford Downs sheep are famous for fine fleeces, which account for the fame of Witney blankets.
The Thames flows south between the Chiltern Hills and the Berkshire Downs with much beautiful wooded scenery. To the south west the Downs are crossed by the pre-historic Ridgeway over the Vale of the White Horse. On the northern slopes is the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell. In the east are the Chiltern Hills amid which is "Chequers", the country home of the Prime Ministers.
West of the ChiIterns lies the fertile valley of Aylesbury, nearly 15 miles wide and mainly pasture. Chairmaking, an old rural industry in the Chilterns, has now developed into the manufacture of furniture concentrated in High Wycombe. East of High Wycombe the area is mainly residential.
Coming to Oxford itself, it is 1,200 years since Frideswide founded a priory among the green meadows where the river ran shallow enough for oxen to ford it. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, A.D. 912, first mentions a group of inhabitants in Oxford: soon after it became renowned for its university. The titular college, University, was the first to house scholars under its own roof, but it did not acquire status until 1280, although Balliol was endowed in 1263 and Merton has an even stronger claim to the greatest antiquity. Perhaps the College which most captures the imagination is Christchurch, founded by Cardinal Wolsey.
Telephone House is quite near to the fine Tom Gateway, surmounted by the tower in which "Great Tom" still sounds 101 bell strokes each night at curfew. Neighbouring Cowley has become a centre of the motor car industry.
The area has 120 exchanges (102 are automatic) and there are 42,593 exchange connections and 74,370 stations. The total staff (excluding telephonists) is 964.
