Boars Hill

Boars Hill does not have its own Church of England parish church. As it straddles two parishes the respective parts of Boars Hill are served by St. Peters, Wootton and St. Leonard's, Sunningwell.

St. Thomas More Roman Catholic chapel in Boars Hill[2] is part of the Roman Catholic parish of North Hinksey.[3]

The first poet to leave a record of a visit to the hill was Arthur Hugh Clough. In his diary for 1841, edited by Anthony Kenny, he describes how a walk across the hill inspired the ninth of his 'Blank misgivings of a creature moving about in worlds not realized'; however, he was concerned over his family's financial straits and his impending final exams, and he found the barrenness of the scene under a grey February sky depressing. When Matthew Arnold came up to Oxford later in 1841, Clough introduced him to Boars Hill, which later provided the inspiration and setting for two of his best-known poems, The Scholar Gipsy (1853) and Thyrsis (1866), the latter written in memory of Clough. The famous phrase in the latter "the dreaming spires" encouraged people to visit the hill and settle there.

Three prominent poets lived on the hill, the first being Margaret Louisa Woods in the 1880s. She was followed by Robert Bridges and John Masefield, successive Poets Laureate. For a couple of years after the First World War, they were joined by three of the war poets: Robert Graves - Masefield's tenant - and Edmund Blunden, both future Oxford Professors of Poetry (as Arnold had been) and (for a few months) Robert Nichols. Bridges' wife Monica Bridges lived there until 1943, when it was hit by a bomb,[4] their daughter, the poet Elizabeth Daryush, continued to live after it was repaired on the hill until her death in 1977. Robert Bridges lived at Chilswell House, which was purchased circa 1963 by the Carmelite order for use as a priory and retreat.[5]

The hill was also the home of Gilbert Murray, famous for his verse translations of classical Greek drama, and later the classicist Leighton Durham Reynolds, Emeritus Professor of Classical Languages and Literature, until his death in 1999.[6] Other notable residents were the sculptor Oscar Nemon who fled from Nazi rule in Vienna in 1938, and the archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans who lived on Boars Hill from 1894 until his death in 1941. His house, 'Youlbury', notable for its Minoan decoration, was bought after his death by his next-door-neighbour Arthur Lehman Goodhart, who later demolished it. Goodhart's son William Goodhart, Baron Goodhart built a modern house on its site, preserving the Victorian gardens.[7] (Those of Margaret Woods, Robert Bridges and Gilbert Murray burnt down.)

Herbert Edward Douglas Blakiston, for many years President of Trinity College, Oxford, and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, lived in Boar's Hill from his retirement in 1938 until his death in 1942, after he was struck by a car while walking in Boar's Hill.[8] The political scientist and public servant W. G. S. Adams lived there, at a house called Powder Hill, and entertained Horace Plunkett, Sir William Beveridge, Gilbert Murray, John Masefield and Robert Bridges.[9] The husband and wife historians Hugh Trevor Lambrick and Gabrielle Lambrick lived here. The composer Lennox Berkeley was born in Sunningwell Plains, Boar’s Hill, in 1903.[10] The historian Basil Joseph Mathews (1879–1951) lived at Triangle Cottage.[11] Catherine Octavia Stevens, astronomer, built a house and observatory on Boars Hill in 1910 and she lived there until 1956.[12]

During the 1930s, Boars Hill was home to a famous family of left-wing revolutionaries and intellectuals known as the Carritt family, notable for their deep involvement in anti-fascist activism, activism within the Communist Party of Great Britain, and academic achievements within Oxford University. Famous members of the Carritt family who lived in Boars Hill include:

• Liesel Carritt: A German-Jewish refugee and communist revolutionary who fled Nazi Germany to Oxford with her family. She married into the Carritt family and later fought in the Spanish Civil War.
• Michael Carritt: An Oxford University professor and communist spy who infiltrated the British civil service to pass on intelligence to Indian pro-independence activists.
• Anthony Carritt: An anti-fascist revolutionary and the son of zoologist Arthur Dukinfield Darbishire. He was killed by fascist forces during the Spanish Civil War.
• Edgar Frederick Carritt: English philosopher and Oxford University professor at University College.
• Noel Carritt: Communist, aviation engineer, and anti-fascist revolutionary who fought against fascism during the Spanish Civil War.
• Bill Carritt: British communist activist, politician, humanitarian aid worker, and foreign editor for the Daily Worker.

The Carritt family's home in Boars Hill became famous as a hub for left-wing intellectual debate, attracting a wide number of people including communist trade union leader Abraham Lazarus, multiple labour politicians including Dick crossman, the novelist Iris Murdoch,^[1] and numerous poets including WH Auden^[2] and Stephen Spender.^[3] The Carritt family were also friends with another family of left-wing activists which lived close to them called the Thompsons, whose famous members included the historian E. P. Thompson and his brother Frank Thompson.^[1] The children of both families attended Dragon School together.^[4]