JANUARY

IT WAS to be a year dominated by floods and war. And it was to begin in Oxford with the ending of an era. After five years of planning, the historic Radcliffe Infirmary closed and staff and patients headed up Headington Hill to the expanded John Radcliffe's new West Wing.

Pupils and staff at Cherwell School, in North Oxford, paid tribute to Ben Halsey-Jones, 15, who died after falling into the Thames. His death led to a major review of the safety of sections of the towpath.

A woman was injured when letter bombs were posted to scientific firms in Abingdon and Culham.

Opposition mounted to Oxford's new waste collection service with a residents' pressure group formed to campaign for a return to weekly collections.

Concert-goers in Oxford were treated to a surprise performance by one of the biggest bands in the world, REM. The American rock group made an unannounced appearance at the Zodiac club during a show by Robyn Hitchcock.

A dream came true for bricklayer Dave Sharp, who had always hoped he would be able to trace his real family after discovering he had been given away by his mother at a rail station. His real brother turned out to be the acclaimed author Ian McEwan. Ironically, while Mr Sharp, 64, was living in Wallingford, the novelist lived a few miles away in Oxford.

FEBRUARY

HEAVY snow caused chaos across the county, with schools closed and rail services disrupted by a 10cm snowfall.

Bailiffs turned up the heat at Thrupp Lake in Radley, as they moved in to evict campaigners from a house at the side of the lake. A protester was later arrested as workers began cutting vegetation ahead of dumping ash at the site, while 500 people demonstrated in Abingdon against the RWE npower plan.

An Oxford Crown Court, Judge Julian Hall was labelled "from another planet" by parents of a girl after sparing an attacker jail. Seventy-one year old Eric Cole, who admitted sexual assaulting the girl in Barton, was told to compensate her with money for a new bicycle.

Work began on the RAF's new £47m superbase in Oxfordshire. The project at RAF Brize Norton will more than double the number of planes at the base.

A popular Oxford teacher collapsed and died during a club rugby match. Andrew Dawson, 27, who taught geography at Matthew Arnold School, had a history of heart trouble.

MARCH

MORE than 25,000 people filled Broad Street, Oxford, to see the flaming centrepiece of Oxfordshire's millennium celebrations. About £100,000 was spent on Luminox, a spectacular fire display which lit up the historic street over three nights.

Down the road, Oxford University unveiled its plans to create a new £600m campus in the city centre on the Radcliffe Infirmary site. Brookes University was meanwhile, planning to transform its Headington campus.

Another Oxford educational establishment, Peers School, was given approval by the Government to became the city's first flagship academy.

But there was a hard lesson for a teenager who became the first person in Oxfordshire to be fined for using a mobile phone while riding a moped. Stephen Wilkes, 17, of Witney, was caught by police while texting his mother.

Oxford's Castle Mound suffered several landslips, sparking safety fears on New Road. Oxford City Council's bid for unitary status also collapsed.

The Government rejected the bid that would have ended the current two-tier local government set up in Oxfordshire.

Prison officers struggled to restore order at Campsfield House detention centre in Kidlington after a fire broke out. Nine people needed hospital treatment after detainees and staff inhaled smoke.

Tributes were paid to North Oxford girl Georgia French, 19, who died in a bus crash on a remote mountain pass in the Andes. Her father Ian French would later launch a charity to help young people on gap years.

APRIL

FATHER Michael Wright thanked his congregation for their support during a nine-month ordeal fighting allegations of sexual abuse. Father Wright, 69, vicar of St Barnabas Church, Jericho, was acquitted of six counts of a serious sexual offence.

For more than ten years two small paintings bought for £200 hung on a bedroom wall in the terraced Oxford home of former curator Jean Preston. The 15th-century masterpieces were discovered shortly after her death and fetched more than £1.7m at auction.

To show off even more valuable collections in the city, work began on a new £49m exhibition centre at the Ashmolean Museum.

There was a massive increase in the number of cannabis factories discovered in Oxford. In one raid in Derwent Avenue, Headington, police found five rooms filled with about 450 mature cannabis plants.

MAY

OXFORD United fans faced the reality of yet another season in the Conference after a dramatic penalty play-off semi-final defeat to Exeter City.

A 72-year-old academic broke a world long-distance running record after completing ten marathons in ten days. Sir Christopher Ball, the former warden of Keble College entered the Guinness Book of Records as the ultimate marathon man after completing 262 miles around Lake Windermere.

Fears of a nuclear station being built at either Harwell or Didcot were fuelled by a Government report into identifying the best potential sites.

JUNE

ARMED US Secret Service agents were on the streets of Oxford as Jimmy Carter was awarded an honorary degree. The former American President later enjoyed a punt trip with his wife, Eleanor.

There was celebrity spotting in Woodstock when England captain John Terry tied the knot at Blenheim Palace.

The Rt Rev John Pritchard was enthroned as the 42nd Bishop of Oxford at Christ Church, Oxford. Firefighters had to battle 60ft flames as fire wrecked the drama block at Lord Williams's School in Thame.

JULY

OXFORDSHIRE was devastated by some of the worst flooding in living memory. More than 900 properties across the county were flooded with families forced to flee their homes and go to temporary rest centres. The crisis resulted from a massive downpour on July 20, which swelled rivers and streams and saw the Thames and Cherwell overtopping their banks.

A total of 168 properties were under water in Oxford, Osney, Binsey, Botley Road and Wolvercote. Major roads and the London to Oxford railway were closed for more than five days.

Abingdon witnessed the most damaging floods for 40 years with homes close to the Ock devastated. Witney was cut in two as the River Windrush burst its banks, flooding Bridge Street and High Street.

But Conservative leader David Cameron insisted he was right to visit East Africa while parts of his Witney constituency were under water. Another high profile Tory, Boris Johnson, the Henley MP, confirmed that he would be running for Mayor of London.

AUGUST

FATHER-OF-TWO Rufus Burdett was given a police caution for pinching the bottom of a Channel 4 news reporter live on television. The incident took place when Sue Turton was reporting on the floods from Osney Island.

A hunt began for redback spiders which had found their way into the luggage of Olive Acaser, who began finding poisonous spiders when she returned home to Abingdon from Australia. Fifty pigs died when a lorry overturned on a notorious roundabout at Kingston Bagpuize.

Tim Henman announced that he was to retire. The former world number four, originally from Weston-on-the-Green, will be spending more time at his home in Aston Tirrold, near Didcot.

SEPTEMBER

POSTAL strikes added to the county's misery as 160 workers at the sorting depot in Cowley walked out after a member of staff was suspended. The Royal Mail announced moves to shut the Oxford Mail Centre in Cowley and uproot the sorting operation to Swindon. But a judge cheered academic Dr Frances Kennett, who refused to pay her council tax after blaming the city' s controversial fortnightly bin collections for rats in her home.

Judge Brian Loosley told her she had no legal excuse to not to pay. But he believed there was a link between fortnightly rubbish collections and the rats in her Great Clarendon Street home.

The Marquess of Blandford was jailed for six months for a string of motoring offences. Oxfordshire was reminded of the cost of war when Sgt Mark Stansfield, 32, of Bicester, died in an accident in Iraq on the day before he was due to leave the country to see his pregnant wife. He died after a forklift truck accident while carrying out security checks in Basra.

OCTOBER

THE FOUNDER of the first children's respite hospice was named woman of the year. Sister Frances Dominica, opened Helen House in 1982. A BBC television earlier in the year gave an inside look into the work done at Helen House, which later celebrated its 25th anniversary.

Oxfordshire's rugby hero Andy Gomarsall was denied a fairytale ending after England narrowly missed out on World Cup glory. The former Bicester RFC junior had an impressive tournament as scrum-half.

We learnt that Oxford University is preparing to launch the biggest fundraising campaign in its history to raise more than £1bn. A costly facility was visited by the Queen at Harwell, where she opened the £260m Diamond Light Source at Harwell, near Didcot.

NOVEMBER

A BMW executive who lied to police about driving at 101mph on Oxford's Eastern Bypass was jailed for six weeks. German Thomas Moser, of Banbury Road, tried to pass the blame on to his 19-year-old son.

Police were criticised for allowing protesters to invade the Oxford Union. Fifty protesters gate-crashed the Oxford Union's debate on free speech, involving Holocaust denier David Irving and the BNP leader Nick Griffin.

But it was police who were doing the raiding in Summertown, when they smashed through the door to a three-bedroom house in Middle Way being used as a brothel.

Maternity staff at Oxford's John Radcliffe were celebrating after delivering the UK's first set of quintuplets for more than a decade. A team of 20 doctors and nurses took 20 minutes to deliver the five girls. The mother was a Russian music teacher.

The Bodleian Library plan for a £29m book depository on the Osney Mead Industrial Estate was rejected. Councillors refused planning permission because of the impact the proposed building would have on views of the city's dreaming spires.

Jim Smith's reign at Oxford United ended when Darren Patterson was paraded as the club's seventh manager in three years. A 5-0 humiliation at Rushden & Diamonds marked a low point in the club's history.

DECEMBER

The Golden Compass hit the cinemas, bringing hopes that the film adaptation of Philip Pullman's book would bring up to a million more visitors to Oxford. Mr Pullman joined scores of campaigners at Oxford Town Hall to urge councillors to reject plans to build flats on the site of Castle Mill Boatyard in Jericho. Councillors won a standing ovation when they threw out the plans.

There were no plaudits for Vale councillors, though, who kept everyone in the dark about who they have chosen to develop the town's Old Gaol.

Children ran to greet their fathers as troops returned home to Bicester after six months in Iraq. Family and friends waved banners as the soldiers from 23 Pioneer regiment arrived back in time for Christmas.

We wish them all a Happy New Year, as we do to all our readers.