I wanted to walk the same route as a person could 110 years ago, but to stand where it was impossible for them to stand. Which is how I found myself in the Bicester Triangle.

Let me explain. If I were 1914 me, following the OS map (on paper not an app), I would find myself heading out of Bicester along Launton Road and crossing the Oxford-Cambridge railway at Tubb’s crossing. Following the lane and then a footpath across fields I would stand to face the still-feels-new London to Birmingham railway high up on the embankment. I could’ve walked the same route in 1895 too (and likely for many years before) but the embankment and the railway would not have been there then.

2024 me can walk the same route. The roads, lanes and paths are perfectly preserved as public rights of way. But in 2015 a new railway line was opened to link the Oxford line to the Chiltern Mainline; this is the Bicester chord and forms the bottom edge of what I have coined the Bicester Triangle (marked by a star on the map above). The right-hand edge of the triangle is the Chiltern Mainline (London to Birmingham), which crosses the the left-hand edge of the East-West Rail line (Oxford to Bletchley, eventually) at the apex of the triangle. To preserve the right of way, a footbridge has been built over the chord and this leads to the middle of the Bicester Triangle. From there you can walk under the Chiltern line via another right of way: a foot passage, that was clearly built when the railway was constructed (c. 1910).

So let’s pick up the walk at Tubb’s crossing, now a footbridge. When I first moved to Bicester in 2007 this was a level crossing over the disused railway. Although the means of crossing the rails has changed, the route has not and continues along Tubb’s lane. Who Tubb is, I do not know. Once a country lane with fields either side, Tubb’s Lane is now enclosed on both sides by houses of the Langford Village estate.

Wellies are definitely needed now, as after crossing Gavray Drive I duck through the gap in the trees straight ahead and wade through a large puddle and a pool of mud to find myself in a field. The footpath / mud assault course then follows the same field hedge-line as it did in 1895.

Now is where things deviate from the past. Ahead of me looms a tall footbridge and I climb it to stand where 1914-me couldn’t – I would have been in the field at ground level then. I look east. The view over the field is unchanged but the DHL warehouse for definite wasn’t there in 1914 and the new Bicester chord runs gently up a gradient ahead of me.

I look west. The tower of St Edberg’s is visible, foregrounded by the urban expansion of Bicester, with Aldi featuring prominently.

I look north to the apex of the triangle. The future East West Rail line vanishes under the metal bridge of the Chiltern line; spare sleepers, galvanised fencing and railway infrastructure carpets the intervening space.

Time to enter the Bicester Triangle. It is strangely peaceful this Saturday morning as no one but me seems keen to traverse the mud-slicks to get here. The birdsong is loud, I can hear the rush of water from somewhere. Occasionally a Chiltern train rattles up or down the chord (there are engineering works, so no trains on the Mainline). I bet the buddleia is beautiful here in the summer.

Following the muddy path I find the fine brick arch under the railway. Victorian and Edwardian brickies really knew their stuff didn’t they? Indecipherable writing is scrawled above; is this a warning? The wall paintings on the other side tell me I’ve entered a new realm. Do they represent a deity? Some empty Stella cans below suggest an offering has been left and consumed. I could go on but feel unprepared (and hungry) so an explore of the land beyond the triangle is left for another day.