Answer to Question 2

The raised river bank

The simple answer may be that because the river Cherwell floods along this section of its course, the path has been raised to ensure that the path is usable at times of flooding; the other side of the river has no path. An alternative answer could be that the path has been raised to form a river embankment to protect Christ Church Meadows from flooding. The absence of an embankment on the other side of the river suggests either that it is deemed too costly to protect Magdalen College School grounds or that it is deliberately allowed to flood.

These answers are correct to varying degrees. Since the 16th-century the Meadows have been regarded as being within the precincts of Christ Church College, and as a trust to be handed down from generation to generation intact. Indeed, Oxford is very fortunate in having such an unspoilt area of land little more than 100 metres from the city centre. The original path was constructed in the 16th-century from earth that was dug out for Christ Church College buildings and the college paid for the building of this 'raised gravel walk round the Meadows'. The effectiveness of this raised walk as an embankment for flood protection is questionable given that the Meadows have been completely covered with floodwaters many times, most notably in 1809, 1833, 1852, 1882, and as recently as 1947. In December 1852 the Meadows were so badly flooded that it was possible to sail small boats across. Illustrations of the nineteenth century floods often presented Oxford to the nation as 'a Venice, in its apparent isolation from the land and in the appearance of its towers and spires reflected in the mirror of the floods'.

To sum up, the riverside walk was constructed for the pleasure of walking around Christ Church Meadows, but by successively raising the level of the path it has now
become a useful protection against all but the worst floods. However, floodwaters have to go somewhere: it is practically (and economically) impossible to contain all floodwaters within a river channel. If floodwater is stopped from overtopping the river banks along one stretch of the river then that water will add to the floodwaters further downstream, producing deeper and more extensive flooding there. In other words, flooding of a river's natural floodplain must be allowed wherever possible. Even if you are keen on sports, flooding of a playing field in Oxford must be preferable to flooding of streets and houses in say, Kennington or Abingdon, which lie to the south of Oxford!