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A journey from Oxford to Deddington visiting locations important in Newman's early career and other places reflecting his influence
Whilst John Henry Newman’s connections with the city of Oxford are well known, there is perhaps less awareness of his associations with the north of the county of Oxfordshire. Here, however, on Wednesday June 23rd 1824, at Over Worton, Newman preached his first sermon and in the following year he gave his first public address at a Church Missionary Society meeting at Deddington, a couple of miles from Over Worton. On one occasion Newman walked to Over Worton from Oxford, a distance of eighteen miles, starting at 4am and arriving ‘punctually at the breakfast table’, as he himself put it.
This walk of Newman’s and the beginnings of his career as a preacher and orator in North Oxfordshire are commemorated in a pilgrimage route from Oxford to Over Worton and Deddington inaugurated in June 2013. Newman’s own probable route to Over Worton is not followed, since much of it is now the busy A4260; rather the pilgrim path bends initially westwards to take in a number of places of ecclesiastical interest, several relating to Newman and his influence.
Whilst John Henry Newman’s connections with the city of Oxford are well known, there is perhaps less awareness of his associations with the north of the county of Oxfordshire. Here, however, on Wednesday June 23rd 1824, at Over Worton, Newman preached his first sermon and in the following year he gave his first public address at a Church Missionary Society meeting at Deddington, a couple of miles from Over Worton. On one occasion Newman walked to Over Worton from Oxford, a distance of eighteen miles, starting at 4am and arriving ‘punctually at the breakfast table’, as he himself put it.
This walk of Newman’s and the beginnings of his career as a preacher and orator in North Oxfordshire are commemorated in a pilgrimage route from Oxford to Over Worton and Deddington inaugurated in June 2013. Newman’s own probable route to Over Worton is not followed, since much of it is now the busy A4260; rather the pilgrim path bends initially westwards to take in a number of places of ecclesiastical interest, several relating to Newman and his influence.
