Oxford, New Zealand

Mt Oxford behind park

"Welcome to Oxford" sign, with "NZ Beautiful Small Town" claim

Oxford is located at the inland edge of the Canterbury Plains, approximately 50 km northwest of Christchurch. The township is about 30 km from Rangiora to the East, and the townships of Sheffield and Darfield to the west.

The climate of Oxford is warm and temperate. Snowfalls are rare, but surrounding hills get snowfall on an annual basis.

It is unclear whether the town is named after Oxford in England or after its university, but it is more probable that it was named after Samuel Wilberforce, who was the Bishop of Oxford from 1845 to 1870. It was named by the chief surveyor of the Canterbury Association, Joseph Thomas, in 1849.[5][6]

The town of Tīrau in the North Island was originally also named Oxford, in a name pairing with Cambridge 30 km to the west. Owing to confusion between the two towns, the North Island town was later renamed Oxford North before adopting its current name in 1895.

The town has one school, Oxford Area School.[7] It is a state composite (Year 1–13) school with a role of 522 students (as of March 2020).[8] The principal is Mike Hart.

In 2006, Oxford had a population of 1728, growing to 1929 in 2013 and 2214 in 2018.  The median age of the residents in 2018 was 45.1 years old. In terms of ethnicity, 95.3% of residents identified as European, 6.6% identified as Maori and 9.3% identified as of Maori descent. The majority of residents were born in New Zealand (80%). The majority of residents identified with no religion (52.6%) while a sizeable minority (36.2%) identified as Christian. Some residents (41.5%) were in full time employment. The median income was $26,900 with 13% earning over $70,000.[9]

In 2018, there were 867 occupied private dwellings and a further 60 unoccupied private dwellings.[9]

Looking east

The Town Hall before earthquake renovations

The community saved hard during 2005 and 2006 to raise funds for projects such as the Oxford Community Pool, a community-based swimming pool in Burnett Street, and a first-response ambulance. The town prides itself on its ability to self-fund community projects through organizations such as the Lions.

Oxford has several Churches and organisations:

Oxford Union Church (Presbyterian)
Oxford Baptist Church
Sacred Heart Catholic Church
Seventh Day Adventist Church
Anglican Church
Tawera Masonic Lodge
Oxford Working Men’s Club
West Oxford Hotel (Public House - The West)

Oxford was linked to Christchurch in 1878 by the narrow-gauge Oxford Branch from Oxford West to Rangiora to meet the broad gauge from Christchurch. With the gauge conversion of 1878, it became easier to transfer passengers and freight from the branch line to Christchurch, though passengers still had to change at Rangiora from the Waipara train to the branch train. The branch stretched from Rangiora through Bennetts Junction (where the Eyreton Branch joined), Oxford and Sheffield. This necessitated a high road-rail bridge across the Waimakariri Gorge.

From Oxford to Sheffield closed in 1931 along with the Eyreton Branch, leaving the Oxford branch as a rural branch line. It lost its passenger service in the 1940s. Due to declining revenue, the branch closed on 31 May 1959 and the track was sold to Scotts Engineering of Christchurch, which used the rails from several branch lines to build farm sheds.

The line was latterly worked by the A and A^B class 4-6-2 and C class 2-6-2 tender locomotives. No diesel locomotives or railcars are known to have used the branch, although thought was given in the 1940s to running a small railcar.

The OB&I was formed during World War I to provide charitable support to war widows. To raise money, it showed films in the old Oxford Town Hall. It provides charitable support to the citizens of Oxford. Movies are screened in the Town Hall approximately every other Saturday during the winter. The heyday of the OB&I movies was the middle of the 20th century, when three or four films would be shown every week and queues often extended around the building. This was before private car ownership became popular, as the nearest cinema was in Christchurch, some 50 km distant.

The Oxford Town hall, where movies were shown, was closed, along with several other Council operated buildings, in late 2011, as the building was determined to be earthquake prone.[10] The Oxford Town hall was reopened on 19 February 2015.[11]

Oxford town hall after earthquake renovations

New Township Entry Sign

During 2009, Main Street underwent a major renovation with the road resurfaced, pedestrian refuges in strategic locations and new footpaths with garden beds. The old welcome signs were replaced with new "Experience Oxford" signs at east and west entries. This project was a joint undertaking by the Waimakariri District Council and the Oxford Promotions and Action Committee (OPAC), but they ran out of money and did not finish both sides of the street.

There are a number of books about Oxford.

Littledene: a New Zealand rural community[12] published in 1938 is perhaps the most comprehensive; the book is a "sociological study of a typical New Zealand small town", with the fictional name of Littledene, but the research and details of the book all relate to Oxford.

Media related to Oxford, New Zealand at Wikimedia Commons

• Oxford website
• Somerset, H. C. D. (1938). Littledene: A New Zealand rural community. Wellington: New Zealand Council for Educational Research.