This lively and authoritative account of Oxford’s historic background describes the origins of the prosperous medieval town and of its university and colleges. David Sturdy draws on a lifetime’s knowledge of Oxford, its archaeology, architecture and archives, to examine the many myths and legends that have sprund up there. Using medieval documents, he restores ‘Ox-ford’ to its authentic site west of the town and explains that the notion that it lay to the south, along St Aldate’s Street, is a modern misconception.

Now overcrowded and reviled, Cornmarket, the main shopping street for a thousand years, is one of the most fascinating streets in Europe, richly documented in charters and leases and through archeaological records of Saxon and Norman times.