Harcourt Hill is a hill and community in North Hinksey

North Hinksey

North Hinksey , is a small civil parish in county Berkshire, 2 miles west of Oxford, and 5 miles north of of Abingdon,situated on the right bank of the Isis...

 in Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

, England, west of the city of Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

. There is a good view of the city from the hill. It lies between Hinksey Hill

Hinksey Hill

Hinksey Hill is a hill and residential area south of the centre of Oxford. It is in South Hinksey civil parish, about south of the village. Hinksey Hill was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire....

 to the southeast, Boars Hill

Boars Hill

Boars Hill is a hill hamlet southwest of Oxford, straddling the boundariy between the civil parishes of Sunningwell and Wootton. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire.-History:...

 to the south and Botley

Botley, Oxfordshire

Botley is a village in the civil parish of North Hinksey, just west of the Oxford city boundary in the English county of Oxfordshire. It was in Berkshire until 1974, when it was transferred to Oxfordshire...

 to the north. Until 1974 it was in Berkshire

Berkshire

Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...

, but was transferred to Oxfordshire in that year.

History

The Conduit House

Carfax Conduit

The Carfax Conduit was a water conduit that supplied the city of Oxford with water from 1617 until the 19th century.The conduit ran in an underground lead pipe from a spring on the hillside above the village of North Hinksey, beneath Seacourt Stream and the River Thames, to a building at Carfax in...

 on the northeast side of Harcourt Hill was built in 1616-17 to supply water to the city of Oxford and was in use until the middle of the 19th century.

Harcourt Hill was part of an estate acquired by Earl Harcourt

Simon Harcourt, 1st Earl Harcourt

Simon Harcourt, 1st Earl Harcourt, of Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire, PC, FRS, Viceroy of Ireland , known as 2nd Viscount Harcourt, of Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire, between 1727 and 1749, was a British diplomat and general....

 in 1772. The Harcourt family promoted various plans for developing the hill in the 19th century, and about 50 houses were eventually built there between the 1920s and the early 1960s.

In 1959 Westminster College

Westminster College, Oxford

Westminster College was a college of higher education in England. The college was founded in London in 1851 as a training institute for teachers for Methodist schools, and moved to Oxford in 1959. Following the move, the college also began to offer degree courses in Theology and Education. In 2000,...

 moved from London to a new site on the northwest side of Harcourt Hill, which is now a campus of Oxford Brookes University

Oxford Brookes University

Oxford Brookes University is a new university in Oxford, England. It was named to honour the school's founding principal, John Brookes. It has been ranked as the best new university by the Sunday Times University Guide 10 years in a row...

.

Notable people

Well-known residents of Harcourt Hill have included Professor Sir Walter Raleigh

Walter Raleigh (professor)

Professor Sir Walter Alexander Raleigh was an English scholar, poet and author.He was born in London, the fifth child and only son of a local Congregationalist minister...

, Sir Muirhead Bone

Muirhead Bone

Sir Muirhead Bone was a Scottish etcher, drypoint and watercolour artist.The son of a printer, Bone was born in Glasgow and trained initially as an architect, later going on to study art at Glasgow School of Art. He began printmaking in 1898, and although his first known print was a lithograph, he...

 and Martin Gilbert

Martin Gilbert

Sir Martin John Gilbert, CBE, PC is a British historian and Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford. He is the author of over eighty books, including works on the Holocaust and Jewish history...

.