On Saturday 4 May we visited Oxford. On the way we passed by the Uffington White Horse and stopped in at Faringdon.

The White Horse is carved into the highest hill in Oxfordshire. We walked across a few paddocks towards it, from where we had a magnificent view of the valley across to the Cotswolds and towards Oxford, but close up it’s hard to make out the horse.

My 10th and 9th great grandfathers, Robert Pye (1585 – 1662) and his eldest son Robert Pye (1620 – 1701), fought each other in the Civil War, with son besieging father at Faringdon from May to June 1646. After 360 years, of course, nothing remains to suggest there ever was a war, except, perhaps, that the fighting destroyed much of what might have been there to see today.

In Oxford, we met one of my cousins, walked around the the University town, and had a pleasant lunch together. We visited Magdelen, one of the colleges. I was passing the World War I Honour Roll and caught the name Cudmore out of the corner of my eye. I had forgotten that some of my great grandfather’s cousins had studied in Oxford. I have written about both Collier Cudmore, a notable rower, and Milo Massey Cudmore, who died at St Eloi, near Ypres, in 1916.

The place where Thomas Cranmer was burned to death in 1556.