 Book your UK & Europe Hotels here
& help preserve the Lewis legacy..
Please consider booking your UK, Europe holiday accommodation via any of the following links, thus helping me to preserve the Lewis legacy. You will get your hotel accommodation cheaper than going direct to the hotel, and I get my website looked after by Pictures Of England.com as their contribution to what I am trying to achieve here in Oxford.
Oxford, England, UK, Europe/hotels link London Hotels & Oxford Hotels with www.PicturesOfEngland.com - Official Sponsors of the C.S.Lewis Tour |
Legendary Ron Brind and Third Day - See
http://nigeljames.typepad.co.uk/nigels_notes/2007/05/a_truly_memorab.html
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About the C.S.Lewis Tour ~~~
This wonderful tour takes place in Oxfordshire, England, and
visits places of interest including Lewis's former home 'The Kilns'
and the beautiful Holy Trinity Church, Oxford, which was Lewis's
final resting place.
The tour duration which is approximately 3 hours, is organized
by Ron Brind, childhood pal of Lewis's stepson Douglas Gresham
(Doug) and a frequent visitor to Lewis's former Oxfordshire home
in the 1950's. The tour commences from outside the Randolph Hotel
in Beaumont Street, Oxford, which is noted for its connections
with Colin Dexter, who wrote the very famous Inspector Morse novels,
and frequents the Randolph. En-route you will see the remains
of the old 'City Wall', Magdalen College from Longwall Street
where Lewis was elected a Fellow in 1925, Magdalen Bridge, where
the famous Oxford May Day celebrations take place, and Magdalen
College School, which was attended by Doug.
You
will be taken through Headington to see one of the former homes
of J R R Tolkien and to The Kilns, Lewis's former home which was
purchased jointly in October 1930 by Mrs Moore, Jack and Major
Lewis. A short stroll away is the lake that yielded the Punt from
the murky depths, owned by Lewis. How did the Punt get there?
Find this out on the tour!
In leaving the Kilns, the tour passes a local watering hole used by Jack and Warnie and travels to Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry where the Vicar Rev. Tim Stead will, subject to commitments allow you to see inside this beautiful building. Please note, things have changed.... dated 20th May 2010: Due to the termination of an agreement by Rev. Tim Stead between Holy Trinity Church and Ron Brind and despite me having paid £100 for the keys to the Church to allow visitors a unique peep inside, I can no longer offer this service unless you plan your visit for a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday when in fact the Church will be open for all! According to the Rev. Tim Stead they are not covered under the terms of their insurance policy for me to hold the keys (despite my holding them for the past six years without any problem whatsoever!).
Holy Trinity Church will be open to all on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from the end of June until the end of September so please keep this in mind when you consider booking your C. S. Lewis Tour. You will of course see the Church from the outside no matter when you visit, and in the Churchyard you will see the grave of C. S. Lewis and Mrs Janie King Moore, mother of the writer's close friend Paddy Moore.
You will also see the entrance to the Mayfair Suite at the former Wingfield Hospital to read : Due to the recent demolition and rebuilding of the new Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, the entrance to the Mayfair Suite at the former Wingfield Hospital (where Jack and Joy's marriage was blessed in a bedside ceremony in December 1956 because her death was thought to be imminent) is no longer possible.
The tour finishes at the Eagle and Child pub in Oxford's magnificent
St Giles thoroughfare. This famous watering hole was regularly
used by Lewis and his circle of intellectual and literary friends
known as 'The Inklings'. It is here that you will be presented
with a personalised Certificate recording your visit to 'The Kilns'
- a memento of your tour and a reminder that the Lewis legacy
lives on.
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Tour Booking & Lewis Awareness~~~~
Book your London
Hotels & Oxford
Hotels with
www.PicturesOfEngland.com - Official Sponsors of the C.S.Lewis
Tour
Oxford
City Guide - Established by an American now living in Oxford
who was frustrated by the lack of tourist information available,
we’ve made it our job to scout out the best of the best Oxford
has to offer.
~~~~~~~
'C S Lewis Tours Oxford' is neither involved or
associated with the C S Lewis Foundation of Redlands, California
other than to have regular communication in an attempt to convince
them that the former Lewis home should at least be recognised
with a 'plaque' and open to all for viewing. My personal view
is that the National Trust should aquire this important site for
the benefit of future generations. It is after all part of Britains
Christian heritage!
