One of a group of treatments of Oxford High Street made in the early 1830s (see Nos. 444-447). The introduction of figures into two of the studies (Nos.445 and 447) shows that these variations on a single subject are not experiments in a vacuum. They are almost certainly preliminary exercises in the development of an England and Wales composition which was never realised. This conjecture is supported by the fact that the motif is taken from a pencil study in the 'Kenilworth' sketchbook (No.442), used during the tour of the Midlands of 1830 which Turner undertook with the specific intention of collecting material for England and Wales. The theme is one which Turner had already explored in his painting of about 1810 (No.159), which was itself based on a considerably earlier drawing, T.B.CXX-F.

A number of other colour-beginnings in the Turner Bequest appear to have been made, like the 'Oxford' series, in connection with England and Wales subjects; many of them were not used for finished watercolours.