Harcourt Hill

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Harcourt Hill
Berkshire
Harcourt Hill from Harcourt Road - geograph.org.uk - 314604.jpg
Harcourt Hill from Harcourt Road
Location
Grid reference: SP4904
Location: 51°44’20"N, 1°17’35"W
Data
Post town: Oxford
Postcode: OX2
Dialling code: 01865
Local Government
Council: Vale of White Horse
Parliamentary
constituency:
Oxford West and Abingdon

Harcourt Hill is a hill and community in North Hinksey in Berkshire, west of the city of Oxford. There is a good view of the city from the hill. It lies between Hinksey Hill to the south-east, Boars Hill to the south and Botley to the north.

History

The Conduit House on the north-east side of Harcourt Hill was built in 1616–17[1] to supply water to the city of Oxford and was in use until the middle of the 19th century.

Harcourt Hill was part of an estate acquired by Earl Harcourt in 1772. The Harcourt family promoted various plans for developing the hill in the 19th century,[2] and about 50 houses were eventually built there between the 1920s and the early 1960s.

In 1959 Westminster College moved from London to a new site on the north-west side of Harcourt Hill, which is now a campus of Oxford Brookes University.

References

  1. Pevsner, Nikolaus (1966). Berkshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 186. 
  2. Hanson, W.J. (1996). A Thousand Years: a study of the interaction between people and environment in the Cumnor, Wytham and North Hinksey Area. Wytham Publications.