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Speaking as a local, this genuinely is bizarre. Three miles from Kidlington is Woodstock, which is a picture-perfect village with stone cottages and quaint sho

Speaking as a local, this genuinely is bizarre. Three miles from Kidlington is Woodstock, which is a picture-perfect village with stone cottages and quaint shops. Ten miles away (where I live) you're into the genuine Cotswolds. The theories advanced in the BBC article don't stack up. Kidlington is not a "folksy cultural stop" or "a beautiful English village". It's really average suburbia - the fact it's formally a "village" is just an administrative quirk, it's not village-like in any way. It's incredibly unlikely that people are "mistaking Kidlington for Kirtlington" because the latter has a population of eight people and a dog, nothing really to look at, and is less pretty than a hundred other villages nearby. And it's not "on the way to Bicester Village shopping centre"; you have to take a detour to get there, and if you want to detour into a pretty village between (say) Oxford and Bicester Village, there are prettier ones to visit.

notahacker 10y ago
A cynic wonders if a local pub or eating establishment has cut a deal with tour bus companies...
bahjoite 10y ago
Do you worry that it may really be time travellers?
- 0xdeadbeefbabe 10y ago
  Yeah that or--do the tourist's have strange, unblinking eyes?
smegel 10y ago
Do us all a favour and go there on the weekend and ask them. Although I admit that sounds more like a Reddit challenge, perhaps where this story belongs.
- christoph 10y ago
  Cue the next plot development where a whole bunch of redditors turn up this weekend to ask said tourists why they are there and locals become equally baffled why a whole different demographic of people have just turned up in their village, but don't ask them either. The following week, researchers go there... 4chan were behind the whole thing.
beachstartup 10y ago
> It's really average suburbia from what i can see, it doesn't look like average suburbia in the US or china, which are basically just copies of the US suburbs (large mcmansions, cul de sacs, sterile landscaping, etc) it has a very specific english quaintness to it. fwiw, german suburbs (i was in bavaria) also have a very german quaintness to them.
- Doctor_Fegg 10y ago
  It's certainly English, but if you want quaint, this area is Quaint Central - pretty much everywhere apart from Kidlington. Here's Benmead Road in Kidlington, one of the places the tourists are reputed to be turning up: https://goo.gl/maps/urEVsQEmRqx https://goo.gl/maps/urEVsQEmRqx Here's historic Woodstock, which is just three or four miles away: https://goo.gl/maps/M2M9dzXv2e32 https://goo.gl/maps/M2M9dzXv2e32 Here's Charlbury, another five miles away, where I live: https://goo.gl/maps/EDgNtFERyLD2 https://goo.gl/maps/EDgNtFERyLD2 And literally 1.5mi from Kidlington, here's Thrupp, with its amazingly quaint canal and pubs: https://goo.gl/maps/Su1Y5uxAGB22 https://goo.gl/maps/Su1Y5uxAGB22 My only guess so far is that there's some slack in a tour schedule, and some jaded tour planner said "take them to a village, any village will do".
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - beachstartup 10y ago
    beyond a certain threshold, it's all the same to a tourist. what i see in your pictures: stone houses, thatched roofs (or whatever the modern equivalent is), cobblestone streets, roundabouts, little shops and pubs, old churches, gardens and trees, and of course english people milling about... pretty much exactly what pops into your head when you think 'english village'. looks like kidlington meets the criteria just fine: https://www.google.com/maps/@51.8177024,-1.2723015,3a,75y,2.4h,80.81t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1suqBvJjh_fyM9SygZNudHpw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.com/maps/@51.8177024,-1.2723015,3a,75y,2.... this area would be very appealing to someone looking for a slice of english suburbia.
  - 10y ago
nostromo 10y ago
I've been one of these weird foreigners taking pictures of "boring landscapes" for no appreciable reason. For me it was on the backroads of SE Asia. I just found everything -- the farms, the houses, the roads -- to be beautiful and interesting compared to what I experience in America. I'm sure some of the locals thought I was a weirdo for taking pictures of water buffalo and dirt roads and farms, but to me it was all completely novel and interesting.
dsfyu404ed 10y ago
Maybe they're visiting it because it's "average suburbia" aka how people really live in an English suburb and not some town that goes out of its way to be tourist friendly. Someone in China may have very well chosen it specifically because it represents normal and not an image projected by a place that is already a tourist destination.
rdtsc 10y ago
Didn't catch in the article if it was mentioned, but has anyone thought of you know, asking tourists why they picked to come there, or what they expect to see? Guessing the implication they can't speak English very well? I have seen a similar phenomenon when going to Jamaica. Our driver who was supposed to take us from the airport to the hotel to the other side of the island, happened to stop for a "break" at a road-side cafe with a shop full of what looked like overpriced Chinese made handbags, clothes and some random things. There was a woman working there who was probably his wife or relative. The idea was to hopefully get the tourists to buy some of those things. We stood there entirely too long, and he thought he was being sly but it was kind of obvious what is happening. So perhaps some pub owner or someone owning a business in the area somehow managed to convince a tourist company to bring clients in that area? A busload full of tourists is a nice captive audience who are already in a happy spending mood, so not surprising if someone would capitalize on that.
- yohui 10y ago
  > Didn't catch in the article if it was mentioned, but has anyone thought of you know, asking tourists why they picked to come there, or what they expect to see? Guessing the implication they can't speak English very well? Yes, that's exactly what the article said: > Michelle Young, who lives in The Moors, Kidlington, says they did try to solve the mystery. > "A neighbour did try to ask them where they were from but they didn't speak any English and we didn't get very far," she said.
- DougWebb 10y ago
  I had a similar experience in Barbados, when I took a tour from the cruise ship I was on to visit the Concorde they have at Barbados' airport. It was pretty comical; on the way back our driver unexpectedly stopped at this little bar and grill in the middle of nowhere. We weren't the only ones surprised; the owner had to be woken up to open the place. I think there was some negotiating going on too, to convince her it was worth the trouble. It wound up being nice; she had an outdoor patio overlooking a valley, and the food and drinks were just fine. It could have been an official part of the tour, but I guess if it was the cruise line would get a cut.
- xirdstl 10y ago
jameshart 10y ago
Some sort of GPS default is one possibility I didn't see listed in the article. Where does google maps take you if you ask it to go to 'Oxfordshire'?
LightThatPours 10y ago
Speaking as an ex-local of Bicester and a Kirtlington, it's surely not Kidlington itself. Kidlington, like Bicester (sans the "village") is your typical nondescript that exists near some beautiful Oxfordshire villages (such as Islip and Kirtlington). For Dr Fegg, outside of the A4095 you probably drive through on your way to Oxford, there is a very beautiful village hidden from you - for example http://www.kirtlingtonpark.co.uk/ http://www.kirtlingtonpark.co.uk/ - Unlike some other obviously lovely villages, you actually have to explore to find the beauty. As a local of Chicago, I miss being able to visit Kirtlington (although given, Kidlington used to have some of the best chippies)

notahacker 10y ago

A cynic wonders if a local pub or eating establishment has cut a deal with tour bus companies...

bahjoite 10y ago

Do you worry that it may really be time travellers?

0xdeadbeefbabe 10y ago
Yeah that or--do the tourist's have strange, unblinking eyes?

smegel 10y ago

Do us all a favour and go there on the weekend and ask them. Although I admit that sounds more like a Reddit challenge, perhaps where this story belongs.

christoph 10y ago
Cue the next plot development where a whole bunch of redditors turn up this weekend to ask said tourists why they are there and locals become equally baffled why a whole different demographic of people have just turned up in their village, but don't ask them either. The following week, researchers go there... 4chan were behind the whole thing.

beachstartup 10y ago

> It's really average suburbia from what i can see, it doesn't look like average suburbia in the US or china, which are basically just copies of the US suburbs (large mcmansions, cul de sacs, sterile landscaping, etc) it has a very specific english quaintness to it. fwiw, german suburbs (i was in bavaria) also have a very german quaintness to them.

Doctor_Fegg 10y ago
It's certainly English, but if you want quaint, this area is Quaint Central - pretty much everywhere apart from Kidlington. Here's Benmead Road in Kidlington, one of the places the tourists are reputed to be turning up: https://goo.gl/maps/urEVsQEmRqx https://goo.gl/maps/urEVsQEmRqx Here's historic Woodstock, which is just three or four miles away: https://goo.gl/maps/M2M9dzXv2e32 https://goo.gl/maps/M2M9dzXv2e32 Here's Charlbury, another five miles away, where I live: https://goo.gl/maps/EDgNtFERyLD2 https://goo.gl/maps/EDgNtFERyLD2 And literally 1.5mi from Kidlington, here's Thrupp, with its amazingly quaint canal and pubs: https://goo.gl/maps/Su1Y5uxAGB22 https://goo.gl/maps/Su1Y5uxAGB22 My only guess so far is that there's some slack in a tour schedule, and some jaded tour planner said "take them to a village, any village will do".
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- beachstartup 10y ago
  beyond a certain threshold, it's all the same to a tourist. what i see in your pictures: stone houses, thatched roofs (or whatever the modern equivalent is), cobblestone streets, roundabouts, little shops and pubs, old churches, gardens and trees, and of course english people milling about... pretty much exactly what pops into your head when you think 'english village'. looks like kidlington meets the criteria just fine: https://www.google.com/maps/@51.8177024,-1.2723015,3a,75y,2.4h,80.81t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1suqBvJjh_fyM9SygZNudHpw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.com/maps/@51.8177024,-1.2723015,3a,75y,2.... this area would be very appealing to someone looking for a slice of english suburbia.
- 10y ago

nostromo 10y ago

I've been one of these weird foreigners taking pictures of "boring landscapes" for no appreciable reason. For me it was on the backroads of SE Asia. I just found everything -- the farms, the houses, the roads -- to be beautiful and interesting compared to what I experience in America. I'm sure some of the locals thought I was a weirdo for taking pictures of water buffalo and dirt roads and farms, but to me it was all completely novel and interesting.

dsfyu404ed 10y ago

Maybe they're visiting it because it's "average suburbia" aka how people really live in an English suburb and not some town that goes out of its way to be tourist friendly. Someone in China may have very well chosen it specifically because it represents normal and not an image projected by a place that is already a tourist destination.

rdtsc 10y ago

Didn't catch in the article if it was mentioned, but has anyone thought of you know, asking tourists why they picked to come there, or what they expect to see? Guessing the implication they can't speak English very well? I have seen a similar phenomenon when going to Jamaica. Our driver who was supposed to take us from the airport to the hotel to the other side of the island, happened to stop for a "break" at a road-side cafe with a shop full of what looked like overpriced Chinese made handbags, clothes and some random things. There was a woman working there who was probably his wife or relative. The idea was to hopefully get the tourists to buy some of those things. We stood there entirely too long, and he thought he was being sly but it was kind of obvious what is happening. So perhaps some pub owner or someone owning a business in the area somehow managed to convince a tourist company to bring clients in that area? A busload full of tourists is a nice captive audience who are already in a happy spending mood, so not surprising if someone would capitalize on that.

yohui 10y ago
> Didn't catch in the article if it was mentioned, but has anyone thought of you know, asking tourists why they picked to come there, or what they expect to see? Guessing the implication they can't speak English very well? Yes, that's exactly what the article said: > Michelle Young, who lives in The Moors, Kidlington, says they did try to solve the mystery. > "A neighbour did try to ask them where they were from but they didn't speak any English and we didn't get very far," she said.
DougWebb 10y ago
I had a similar experience in Barbados, when I took a tour from the cruise ship I was on to visit the Concorde they have at Barbados' airport. It was pretty comical; on the way back our driver unexpectedly stopped at this little bar and grill in the middle of nowhere. We weren't the only ones surprised; the owner had to be woken up to open the place. I think there was some negotiating going on too, to convince her it was worth the trouble. It wound up being nice; she had an outdoor patio overlooking a valley, and the food and drinks were just fine. It could have been an official part of the tour, but I guess if it was the cruise line would get a cut.
xirdstl 10y ago

jameshart 10y ago

Some sort of GPS default is one possibility I didn't see listed in the article. Where does google maps take you if you ask it to go to 'Oxfordshire'?

LightThatPours 10y ago

Speaking as an ex-local of Bicester and a Kirtlington, it's surely not Kidlington itself. Kidlington, like Bicester (sans the "village") is your typical nondescript that exists near some beautiful Oxfordshire villages (such as Islip and Kirtlington). For Dr Fegg, outside of the A4095 you probably drive through on your way to Oxford, there is a very beautiful village hidden from you - for example http://www.kirtlingtonpark.co.uk/ http://www.kirtlingtonpark.co.uk/ - Unlike some other obviously lovely villages, you actually have to explore to find the beauty. As a local of Chicago, I miss being able to visit Kirtlington (although given, Kidlington used to have some of the best chippies)