[1] It is about 3 miles (5 km) northwest of the city centre, on the northern edge of Wolvercote Common, which is itself north of Port Meadow and adjoins the River Thames.

In 1850 the Buckinghamshire Railway was completed through a tunnel and cutting along the eastern edge of Upper Wolvercote.

Lower Wolvercote borders the River Thames at Godstow to the west, and Port Meadow and the canal to the east.

The mill stream takes its water from the nearby River Thames, and is crossed in Wolvercote at a former toll-bridge.

Part of Port Meadow was used as a military airfield in the First World War; the Royal Artillery also had a base there.

The University of Oxford planned to develop the site as housing for its staff, but faced rising cost estimates[9] and local objections.

In 1860 the church except for the tower was demolished, and rebuilt to Gothic revival designs by the architect Charles Buckeridge.

The Norman tub font and a 14th-century south window of the chancel were retained, as well as 17th- and 18th-century monuments to the Walter family.

A paper sign in the parish church warns people that Tolkien is not buried in the churchyard, and provides directions to the cemetery.

[16] Wolvercote was featured in a 1987 episode of the ITV detective drama Inspector Morse,[17] in which a wealthy American tourist was found dead in her hotel room shortly after arriving in Oxford to return a valuable artifact, the Wolvercote Tongue, one-half of an ancient belt buckle, to an Oxford archaeological museum.

In the novel related to the television episode, The Jewel That Was Ours, the valuable tongue is never given to the museum, as it is stolen for the insurance money.