Secret Oxford

Pub fights, prostitution, mummification and afternoon tea. 

A 5 hour  stroll back through Oxford's past looking at some of the people, places and stories you wished they'd taught you in history lessons. We'll discover the birthplace of two of England;s most famous kings, see the oldest continually serving coffee house in Europe, find the alley where prostitutes plied their trade in the 13th century, spot the site of the pub where 63 students were killed in a pub brawl.

 Newbies to the city will adore our next port of call, Magdalen College, considered by many to be Oxford's most beautiful college. 

• Founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete, and granted by Henry VI
• It's imposing tower completed in 1509 contains 10 bells, the heaviest was cast in 1623 and weighs 17cwt. Charles I, who was based in Oxford during the English Civil War, watched the 1st Siege of Oxford from the top of Magdalen Tower. In a tradition dating back to Henry VII the College choir still sings from the top of it at 6am on May Morning. 
• The Cloister was constructed between 1474 and 1480, as was the Grade 1 listed chapel.
• For the past 300 years a herd of fallow deer has grazed in The Grove which is where the royalists kept their ordnance during the civil war. 
• We will 'do' the tree-lined Addison's Walk - a one mile walk through meadow land bounded on 3 sides by the River Cherwell. From here we will see the terrace which houses Oscar Wilde's old rooms. 
• Alumni include: Edward Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII and Duke of Windsor), John Betjeman, Cardinal Wolsey, Jeremy Hunt, John Redwood, Earl Spencer (DIana's brother), Andrew Lloyd Webber, Seamus Heaney and CS Lewis - who would meet JRR Tolkien in his rooms here.  
• LGBT links: Oscar Wilde and his lover Lord Alfred Douglas were both students at Magdalen as was the author Alan Hollinghurst. Lord John Wolfenden, whose landmark Wolfenden Report, famously recommended the decriminalisation of homosexuality was a don here. 
• We will stop for a cup of tea etc at the Old Kitchen Bar with its terrace overlooking the punters gliding past on the River Cherwell below. 

 Finally we will explore the highlights of the Ashmolean Museum to see a Lesbian bank note, Guy Fawkes's lamp, a jewel belonging to Alfred the Great, a mantle owned by Pocohantas's Dad, the ornate carved Indian doors that Lawrence of Arabia erected next to his swimming pool and say hello to 'Djed the Dead', the mummy of an 8th century BC Egyptian prophet who is not resting in peace. 

NB THIS EVENTS IS NOT SUITABLE FOR DOGS AS THEY ARE ARE NOT ALLOWED INTO THE ASHMOLEAN DUE TO PRICELESS ARTEFACTS NOR INTO MAGDALEN COLLEGE AS THEY SPOOK THE DEER IN THE PARK THERE.