by Liliana Baltra
Carfax Tower is the only remnant of the earliest parish City Church. Its antiquity is confirmed by the discovery of some Anglo Saxon coins beneath the church nave. The coins, now at the Ashmolean Museum, belong to the period of Edward the Elder and Athelstan and can be dated from very few years after the first historic mention of Oxford.
After the demolition of the church, the Tower and the clock were carefully repaired and restored. The two quaint figures, which originally struck the quarters of the hour in the old church bells, were replaced by exact replicas in 1937.
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