Cutting through Oatlands Road Recreation Park to save time today. Two long trenches, caged in, scar the recreation field (pictured). An archaeological dig, It’s difficult to imagine this unassuming field surrendering anything of interest or worth.
But Oatlands runs along Ferry Hinksey Road. This mundane road was in times past a main thoroughfare into – and out of – Oxford. The road stretches all the way to the the stream behind The Fishes public house, where a punt-ferry would carry travellers, farmers, and cattle across. Indeed, it is thought that the Oxen ford from which the city gets its name was situated here. So treasures there may be.
A Field Guide to Osney Island 