Ongoing: The Museum of Oxford continues its popular series of free gallery tours, Stories of Oxford, led by knowledgeable and enthusiastic volunteers. From football to fairgrounds, marmalade to Morris Motors, patron saints to pubs, barges, bones, and all types of quirky customs, there’s something to interest everyone. Further information and booking here.
Saturdays, ongoing: Tours of Oxford’s magnificent Town Hall take place twice a month on Saturdays at 11am. These are a great opportunity to see behind the scenes and to learn about the building’s fascinating history. Find out more here.
Sunday 30 March, 2pm: Alastair Lack will lead a guided walk on Oxford Poets, part of the Oxford Literary Festival which runs from Saturday 29 March to Sunday 6 April. Further information and booking here.
Tuesday 1 April to 18 November: From Conflict to Peace: Celebrating VE & VJ Day at the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum (SOFO) in Woodstock. The exhibition will explore what happened as the Second World War ended in Europe and the Pacific, from stories of Oxfordshire people and county regiments serving in the final stages of the conflict, to celebrations in the county itself. For more information and to share a story with the museum, click here.
Wednesday 2 April, 8pm: The Oxford Civic Society will host a talk by Chris Church entitled 50 Years of Environmental Concern in Oxford and the UK: What Have We Achieved? at Worcester College, Oxford. The modern environmental movement started in the 1970s, and now includes work ranging from urban design and transport to tropical rainforests and the climate crisis. This talk will look at how environmental action has developed across the UK, with a special focus on what happened in and around Oxford. Free and open to all, no need to book; further information here.
Saturday 5 April, 10am: Ashley Jackson will give a talk on Oxford’s War 1939-1945, part of the Oxford Literary Festival which runs from Saturday 29 March to Sunday 6 April. Further information and booking here.
Starting on Saturday 5 April: The Museum of Oxford’s popular series of city walks led by local historians is back in 2025 with three new walks, plus some of last year’s favourites. Topics include Beer, Sausages and Marmalade; Shakespeare and Oxford; Oxford’s Rebels and Radicals; Canal, Castle and Convicts; Oxford’s Queer History; and The Lost Streets of St Ebbe’s. 90-minute walks are scheduled for selected Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2pm throughout the spring, summer and autumn. Further information and booking here.
Wednesday 9 April at 7:30pm: the next on-line meeting of the Oxfordshire Buildings Forum. The forum is open to anyone interested in the historic buildings of Oxfordshire. Participants share new discoveries, suggest puzzling architectural features they would like to discuss, ask questions, or recommend books. One topic for discussion on 9 April will be the recently-announced proposal to build (near the Evenlode) MacKay Hugh Baillie Scott’s design for a House for an Art Lover which gained top marks in a competition run by a German interior design magazine in 1901, but which was never realised. The forum is free and open to all. If you would like a link to the on-line meeting, contact David Clark on secretary@obr.org.uk.
Sunday 13 April, 3:00pm: A new film celebrating the life and works of composer and folk song collector George Butterworth, All My Life’s Buried Here, will be screened as part of the Oxford Folk Festival. Butterworth is best remembered for his orchestral works A Shropshire Lad and The Banks of Green Willow. His promising career was cut short when he was killed at the Somme in August 1916 aged 31. This compelling documentary traces Butterworth’s journey, including his student years at Trinity College Oxford, his time collecting folk songs in Edwardian rural England with his friend Ralph Vaughan Williams, and his involvement in Cecil Sharp’s display team of morris dancers. This special screening at Oxford’s historic Ultimate Picture Palace Cinema will include a post-film Q&A with the director Stewart Morgan Hajdukiewicz and with Oxford folk dance expert Mike Heaney. Tickets only £6; book yours here.
Monday 14 April, 2:00-3:30pm: The Society of Genealogists is running a free on-line session on Researching in Oxfordshire, featuring short presentations by staff from Oxfordshire History Centre, Oxfordshire Family History Society, Oxfordshire Record Society, Victoria County History, the Historic Towns Trust, and others. Further information and booking here.
Wednesday 16 April, 1:00pm: The Museum of Oxford’s popular Lunchtime Talks series continues with distinguished Oxford folk dance scholar and musician Mike Heaney speaking on Oxfordshire at the Heart of Morris Dancing, as part of the Oxford Folk Festival. Morris dancing has been a feature of Oxfordshire life for nearly half a millennium. This talk looks at some of the ups and downs of Oxfordshire’s morris history, how its dancers inspired the folk revival, and how to spot the different styles of the teams you might see on the streets of Oxford today, from men dressed in white to women in clogs and masked dervishes with whirling and clattering sticks. Advance booking highly recommended; tickets here.
Thursday 17 April: Our colleagues at the Berkshire Local History Associaton (BLHA) invite you to their AGM on at the Biscuit Factory Cinema in Reading, followed by a special screening of archive films showing life in Berkshire from the 1920s to the 1960s. Further information and booking here.
Ongoing until 19 April: The current exhibition at the Museum of Oxford (currently celebrating its 50th anniversary) is Ronnie Barker: Oxford’s Comedy Legend. The display celebrates one of the country’s best-loved comedians, who grew up in Cowley and began his career at the Oxford Playhouse. It also looks at Oxford’s unique comedy heritage, spotlighting some of the venues across the city that have enabled past success stories and are now inspiring new ones. Find out more here.
Starting on Friday 25 April: Tours of the North Hinksey Conduit House. Oxford Preservation Trust looks after the conduit house on behalf of English Heritage, and is offering free tours of this remarkable building over the summer. The conduit house was built in 1617 on a hill overlooking Oxford. It enclosed and protected a 20,000-gallon lead cistern; clean drinking water from the springs at North Hinksey flowed from here down to the Carfax Conduit, an extravagant fountain in the centre of the city. Tours will take place between 2pm and 4pm on Fridays 25 April, 6 June and 25 July. Free and no need to book; further information here.
Sunday 27 April, 9am-2pm: The Oxford Antique Bottle Collectors’ Fair will be at Exeter Hall in Kidlington, with dozens of stalls will be selling a vast array of antique bottles, pot lids, flagons, enamel signs, tins, and postcards, many of them from Oxfordshire. Find out more here.
Saturday 10 May, 4pm-8pm: Woodstock will be celebrating the 80th anniversary of VE Day on with a street party in the town’s Market Square. Visitors can enjoy live 1940s-style music, living history and military vehicle displays, plus great food from local businesses and fun for the whole family. All events are free and open to all, no need to book. Find out about other events to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of the War at the nearby Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum here.
Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 May, 12pm-4pm: Celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of the Cowley Shopping Centre. Built at a time when 28,000 people were employed at the Cowley car works, the site has a fascinating history. Come and see a display of vintage and classic cars made at Cowley, plus historic photographs of the local area, and join local historian Maurice East on regular free walking tours. You can also find out how to get involved in a major forthcoming project to record memories of working at the car factory and living in the area. All events are free and open to all, no need to book.
Friday 16 to Sunday 18 May: Special festival in Ewelme to mark the 550th anniversary of the death of Alyce Chaucer, granddaughter of poet Geoffrey Chaucer. Alyce Chaucer inherited the manor of Ewelme from her mother, and with her husband William de la Pole built the almshouses and village school, which are still going strong in their original 15th-century buildings.
Those buildings will be open to visit the whole weekend, and there is also a two-day programme of talks, a concert of medieval music in the church, an exhibition about Alyce’s life and times, and a commemoration service on Sunday sung to a medieval setting of the mass. Find out more here.
Saturday 17 May, 4pm-7pm: The Shotover Preservation Society invite you to a free drop-in event to explore and celebrate the history of Slade Camp, at the Bullingdon Community Centre, Headington, Oxford. Slade Camp was an WWII army camp, and after the war it housed hundreds of otherwise homeless families, some of whom stayed until the 1970s. Thereafter the site was abandoned and returned to nature. However, in the last few years it has been ‘rediscovered’ by a group of local residents. Join them and original members of the Slade Camp community to find out more about this fascinating but little-known aspect of Oxford’s 20th-century history. Free and open to all; further information here.
Ongoing until 1 June: a special exhibition at The Oxfordshire Museum in Woodstock Michael Black: Chisel, Wood, Stone explores the life and work of one of Oxford’s most talented sculptors. Michael Black, who carved the Emperors’ Heads outside the Sheldonian Theatre in Broad Street, lived and worked in Oxford throughout his career. He restored the stonework of churches, colleges and other buildings across the city, received other notable public commissions, and exhibited artwork at prestigious galleries. Free and open to all; further information here.
If you know of any relevant events which could be advertised on this page, please send details to: membership@olha.org.uk
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