Book reviews

New book reviews are often added to this page, allowing readers to assess recent publications in between editions of the OLHA journal, and offering support to local historians wanting to publish their work.

If you would like your book reviewed, please contact OLHA’s journal editor Vanessa Moir.

Posted in April 2025:

Treasures of the Burford Tolsey Museum, compiled by Chris Walker, reviewed by museum professional Marie-Louise Kerr

Posted in March 2025:

The LMS Occupation: Oxford’s 1998 urban road protest, by Rob Sykes, reviewed by archaeologist Tom Hassall

Posted in February 2025:

• Stanford in the Vale, The Hidden Past Revealed, by David Ashby, reviewed by Oxfordshire VCH County Editor Simon Townley

Posted in January 2025:

• Minutes of the Oxford Paving Commissioners 1771–1801, edited by Malcolm Graham, reviewed by Oxford City Archivist Chris Gilliam

Posted in August 2024:

• Hayfield Road: Then and Now, by Catherine Robinson, reviewed by All Souls College archivist Norma Aubertin-Potter

• Oxfordshire County Council Staff Cricket Club: Centenary Year 2023, edited by John Tuck, reviewed by Oxfordshire writer and photographer Martin Stott

Posted in April 2024:

• Georgian Banbury, by Barrie Trinder, reviewed by Enstone historian Carol Geare

Posted in March 2024:

• Boy on a Bicycle: An Oxfordshire Childhood, by Rory Putman, reviewed by Oxfordshire and cycling historian Tony Hadland

Posted in February 2024:

• Hook Norton at War 1939-1945, by James Tobin, reviewed by Oxfordshire museum curator Marie-Louise Kerr

Posted in January 2024:

• Methodism in Victorian Oxford: The Oxford Wesleyan Local Preachers Book 1830 – 1902, by Martin Wellings, reviewed by Oxford historian Emily Greig

• Seventeenth-century Water Gardens and the Birth of Modern Scientific Thought in Oxford: the Case of Hanwell Castle, by Stephen Wass, reviewed by gardener and garden historian Timothy Walker

Posted in July 2023:

• A Yankee in an English Village: 50th Anniversary Edition, edited by Margot Metcalfe, reviewed by Oxfordshire museum curator Marie-Louise Kerr

Posted in June 2023:

• Oxford University: Stories from the Archives, by Alice Blackford Millea, reviewed by Oxford history blogger Tony Morris

• The Ascott Martyrs: Why did the rural establishment imprison sixteen women and two babies in 1873?, edited by Keith Laybourn, reviewed by Oxford historian Annie Skinner

Posted in May 2023:

• Drawn From Life, The Ruskin Diaries 1949-1953 by Steve Hurst, reviewed by Gaginwell historian Carol Geare

• Aston, Cote, Shifford and Chimney – A Parish History by Andrew Long (ed) and Aston History Group, reviewed by the editor of the Oxfordshire VCH, Simon Townley

Posted in April 2023:

• The Victoria County History of Oxfordshire Volume XVIII (Benson, Ewelme and the Chilterns), reviewed by Harwell historian Malcolm Thick

• The Victoria County History of Oxfordshire Volume XX (South Oxfordshire Chilterns, Caversham, Goring), reviewed by Harwell historian Malcolm Thick

Posted in February 2023:

• The archeology of East Oxford: Archeox: the development of a community by David Griffiths and Jane Harrison (eds), reviewed by East Oxford historian Martin Stott

Posted in January 2023:

• Wholesome Dwellings: Housing Need in Oxford and the Municipal Response, 1800-1939 by Malcolm Graham, reviewed by architectural historian Geoffrey Tyack

Posted in December 2022:

• From Tillage to Terrace: a study of the southward expansion of the town of Henley into the adjoining parish of Rotherfield Greys by Hilary Fisher, reviewed by Oxfordshire historian Malcolm Graham

Posted in November 2022:

• boats, locks and bridges, A look back at life on the Upper Thames seen from Wallingford and Benson by John Dalton, reviewed by Henley-on-Thames historian Hilary Fisher

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