Thursday 3rd December 2009 Buy yourself a bridge over the Thames
Property magnates who think they have everything now have a chance to
add something very special to their portfolio, a bridge over the
historic River Thames. But don’t get too carried away dreaming of
owning London’s Tower Bridge or even London Bridge itself, this bridge
crosses the Thames downstream in Oxfordshire.

The Swinford toll bridge, built to span the River Thames at Eynsham in
1767 is going to auction with a guide price of £1.25m. The bridge
collects tolls from the significant volume of traffic that crosses it
each day. The new owners of the bridge, which is inside Tory leader
David Cameron’s constituency, will enjoy a historic tax free status on
all the income from the bridge as a result of a 1767 Act of
Parliament. Oxfordshire

Monday 23rd November 2009 £60,000 toilet book goes to auction
A rare first edition of Charles Darwin’s ‘Origin of The Species’ will
go to auction at Christie’s later this week and is likely to fetch
around £60,000. That’s a lot of money to get for an old book, but it’s
even more impressive given that the tome was rescued from a family’s
guest toilet at their Oxfordshire home.

The book outlines Darwin’s theory of evolution and as such it might be
not be out of place in the papal loo being used as toilet paper. But
such a find of this rare edition in such a humble location is unusual
and fortunate, to say the least. Oxfordshire

Thursday 20th August 2009 Wind turbines for Oxford
A commercial-scale wind turbine is set to be built on council owned land in Oxford. The City Council’s decision would mean Oxford would become the first city in England and Wales to have such a facility on public sector land.

The turbine would reach up to 130ft, about the same as the London Eye, and would generate two or three megawatts of power. The developer, Partnership for Renewables, was established in 2006 by the Carbon Trust to develop renewable energy projects on public sector land. The site, near the Horspath Road Athletics Track is now being examined closely for suitability. Tests will begin shortly to establish if the site is windy enough to make it viable. Oxfordshire