You may have noticed the security fencing on the pavement at the top of Headington Hill. Behind it there used to be an old stone wall, part of the wall round the Headington Hill Hall estate, now Brookes’ campus. All there is at the moment is the remains of a pile of rubble.
I’m told that the Brookes estates people were worried that this section of the wall was bulging badly, so they brought in specialist contracctors to rebuild it. Perhaps not surprisingly, once the contractors started to dismantle the wall they found that a whole stretch was likely to fall at any time. In the end they carried out a ‘controlled collapse’ of about a 15 metre length, leaving the gap you can see behind the fencing.
The wall will be rebuilt using as much of the original stone as possible.