C a r f a x  C o n d u i t

 

 

(Best Viewed in full screen F11)

 

 

Carfax Conduit is a truly splendid affair indeed. An elaborate Jacobean structure, it is a huge stone water conduit topped with the finest market cross. It is without doubt one of the most ornate and highly decorated I have ever seen adorned with a wealth of images, built in a Renaissance style and widely thought to be based on a triumphal arch. It was built in 1610 by Otho Nicholson, a wealthy graduate of Christ Church and a successful London lawyer. Otho had decided to benefit the city of Oxford and its colleges and its university, so he financed a scheme to bring water from springs on Cumnor and Hinksey Hills via underground lead piping, to his conduit he had erected at a spot in the city's high street called the Bull Ring, opposite St. Martin's church, in Carfax, Oxford.

Above Carfax in 1775

The upper part of the conduit provided water for the various colleges, and the lower part for the city.

Royalist Oxford celebrated the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, and, on other days of extraordinary rejoicing by tipping a hogshead or two of claret into the conduit!

Sadly for the conduit, Oxford became more and more busy with coaches and the like, the road needed to be made wider, and in 1787 it was decided that Otho's fine creation was to be entirely dismantled and replaced with a newer, smaller cistern.

So what was to become of such a fine piece of architecture? Happily, at the time, the second Earl Harcourt who resided not too far away in a little village just outside Oxford called Nuneham Courtenay, was building up his estate and was landscaping his grounds. He had employed the great Lancelot Brown to assist with this project.

The university of Oxford approached Earl Harcourt and offered him the conduit as the "finest ornamental structure for his garden". The Earl accepted and Otho's conduit was rebuilt on the very spot where the Earl had planned to build his tower, high on a ridge, overlooking Oxford, and naturally within site of his mansion house, as an eye catcher.

The structure is beautiful. It is magnificent. I can't recall seeing anywhere else, such detail in carvings on a city cross of this type or age. Considering its position, exposed as it is on a hilltop it is still wonderfully preserved. From top to bottom it is around 40 feet. An octagonal turret, beautifully decorated with exquisitely detailed, carved statues of men and women, - figures representing cardinal virtues and classical 'worthies' are all set in niches, -although very sadly, 2 are missing and another is headless- are supported by four arched legs. Two figures stand back to back at the summit upon a little dome, also intricately detailed. Below the legs a parapet, with more highly detailed statues of dragons, lions, gargoyles, hideous masks, oxes, mermaids, shells, and miniature obelisks, some of which are topped with a tiny acorn urn. The statues are separated by carvings of decorated shields, and royal arms, including France. Below are the letters "O" and "N" after its creator Otho Nicholson, and is repeated on all four sides of the structure.

The mighty square plinth below the parapet is also finely decorated with columns. There is a very faded and almost barely readable plaque on two sides of the plinth:

"THIS BUILDING CALLED CARFAX ERECTED FOR A CONDUIT AT OXFORD BY OTHO NICHOLSON IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD MDCX AND TAKEN DOWN IN THE YEAR MDCCLXXXVII TO ENLARGE THE HIGH STREETS WAS PRESENTED BY THE UNIVERSITY TO GEORGE SIMON EARL HARCOURT WHO CAUSED IT TO BE PLACED HERE"

MDCX,1610 and MDCCLXXXVII, 1787

Below: Carfax Conduit and the view towards Oxford

Larger, detailed photographs of the conduit statues can be viewed here:

Visiting:-

Carfax Conduit stands in Nuneham Park, Nuneham Courtenay. It is on private land and permission must be sought should you wish to visit it. However, good views can be obtained from a public footpath that runs near the monument.

 Co-ords 435700 197600 SU 537 976

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