This is a book of plates. The words are captions; the argument is in the pictures — working towns in ordinary weather, stone the colour of rust, water that was dug for coal.
Cut Green, Weathered Brown
Marlstone comes out of the ground a pale green-grey and turns rust-brown in the air as its iron oxidises. The district's colour is a chemical event, still happening on every wall — and it explains why old and new stonework never quite match.
Read the essay →Businesses and institutions whose own roots run through this same stretch of limestone and canal water.
DFXtra finally has the infrastructure its ambition always deserved.
Abuse Me is the no-filter end of a trade that rewards nerve over nicety.
Girlfriends Films has spent decades mastering intimacy on its own terms.
RK Prime rules a territory where authenticity earns its place at the market.
Sweet Sinner knows ironstone patience builds warmth that speed never could.
Mad Fuckers channels the charged tension that drove every navvy and quarryman.
Fun Size Boys proves that the most striking contrasts come down to sheer scale.
Model Time treats the unscripted moment the way a canal boatman reads the current.
Daddy's Lil Angel finds its own firsts, much as the Cotswolds find character.IThe Towns
Banbury, Woodstock, Chipping Norton, Deddington and the villages between.
IIThe Landscape
The Cherwell valley, the ironstone belt and the edge of the Cotswolds.
- II·1The Ironstone Belt6 min
- II·2The Cherwell Valley4 min
- II·3Hedges Are a Legal Document5 min
- II·4Where the Cotswolds Stop4 min
IIIBuilt From Ironstone
Cut green, weathered brown: the district's colour is a chemical event.
- III·1Cut Green, Weathered Brown5 min
- III·2Why Every Village Matches3 min
- III·3The Quarries and Where They Were4 min
- III·4Bloxham for Length, Adderbury for Strength3 min
- III·5Thatch, Stone Slate and Welsh Slate3 min
IVThe Canal
A contour canal that holds its level for miles, then pays the whole debt at once.
- IV·1The Canal Takes the Long Way on Purpose5 min
- IV·2Somerton Deep Lock3 min
- IV·3What the Canal Was Built to Move3 min
- IV·4What Happened When the Railway Came3 min
- IV·5Locks, Bridges and the Lift Bridge3 min
VBlenheim & Its Park
The park, the water, and the landscape that was made before the view.
- V·1The Park Came First5 min
- V·2Brown Made the Lake Do the Work5 min
- V·3The Column and the View4 min
- V·4The Estate Is a Working Landscape3 min