I.

Introduction

Oxfordshire (abbreviation Oxon), county, central-southern England, bounded on the north by the counties of Warwickshire and Northamptonshire, on the west by Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, and Swindon unitary authority, on the south by West Berkshire, Reading, and Wokingham unitary authorities, and on the east by Buckinghamshire. Under the local government reforms of 1974 the county's boundaries were extended to take in parts of the former county of Berkshire north of the Berkshire Downs, including the towns of Abingdon, Faringdon, Wallingford, and Wantage. Oxfordshire now has a land area of 2,608 sq km (1,007 sq mi). Primarily an agricultural county, lying almost entirely within the basin of the River Thames, it is renowned worldwide for the University of Oxford, the oldest in the United Kingdom. Oxford is the administrative centre.