aerial photograph of Port Meadow, Oxford England UK. Legend has it that Port Meadow was given to the Freemen of Oxford by Alfred the Great for services rendered in defending the realm against the Danes. The area has not been ploughed at any time during modern history so it is rich in archaeological remains including Bronze Age round barrows and civil war fortifications. During the first world war the Royal Flying Corps had an aerodrome on the site. The River Isis flows along the side of the meadow and it was along this stretch of river that Lewis Carroll took Alice Liddell for a boat trip, telling her stories which would become Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.