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Oxfordshire

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Oxfordshire (abbreviated Oxon, from the Latinised form Oxonia) is a county in the South East of England, bordering on Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, and Warwickshire.

It is divided into five local government districts: Oxford, Cherwell, Vale of White Horse (after the Uffington White Horse), West Oxfordshire and South Oxfordshire.

The county has a major tourism industry. The area is noted for the concentration of performance motorsport companies and facilities. Oxford University Press has headed a concentration of print and publishing firms; the university is also linked to the concentration of local biotechnology companies.

The main centre of population is the city of Oxford. Other significant settlements are Bicester, Banbury, Kidlington, and Chipping Norton to the north of Oxford; Witney to the west; Thame and Chinnor to the east; and Abingdon, Wantage, Didcot and Henley-on-Thames to the south. Future population growth in the county is hoped to be concentrated around Banbury, Bicester, Didcot and Witney, near the South Midlands growth area.

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Coat of arms of the University of Oxford

The University of Oxford, located in the city of Oxford, England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world.

The university traces its roots back to at least the end of the 11th century, although the exact date of foundation remains unclear. This dating would make its duration now equal to 900 years, like Plato's Academy (400s BC to AD 500s). According to legend, after riots between students and townsfolk broke out in 1209, some of the academics at Oxford fled north-east to the town of Cambridge, where the University of Cambridge was founded. The two universities have since had a long history of competition with each other, and are the most selective universities in the UK. (See Oxbridge.)

The list of distinguished scholars at the University of Oxford is long and includes many who have made major contributions to British politics, the sciences, and literature. Since its founding in 1823, the Oxford Union, a private club devoted to formal debating and other social activities, has numbered among its members many of Britain's most noted political leaders.


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Stephen Hawking.StarChild.jpg

Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA, (born 8 January 1942 in Oxford) is a British theoretical physicist. Hawking is the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He is known for his contributions to the fields of cosmology and quantum gravity, especially in the context of black holes, and his popular works in which he discusses his own theories and cosmology in general. These include the runaway popular science bestseller A Brief History of Time, which stayed on the British Sunday Times bestseller list for a record-breaking 237 weeks.


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Credit: Magnus Manske
Panoramic view of Blenheim Palace


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