October 20 –Muriel Pilkington: ‘The Lost Railways of Oxfordshire’.

Muriel Pilkington, who has entertained the society with talks on subjects as diverse as the Mitford sisters and the Burford Mutiny, will talk about ‘how the railways came to Oxfordshire, and the gradual development of the branchline network across the county. We look of the heydays of the system and then the reasons for its gradual demise. However, the story is not ended and railways may still have a future’.

 

November 17 – Andrew Sargent: ‘The Observer Observed: the photography of John Gay’.

Andrew Sargent, who wrote a book on John Gay for English Heritage, says: ‘John Gay (1909-1999) was one of a generation of German émigrés who made an immense contribution to British culture and academic life and at the height of his career he was one of the most respected photographers in the country. His stimulating perspective was to see England through the eyes of a foreigner, an observer on the outside looking in. Many of his photographs can be read as attempts to capture the essence of Englishness’.

 

February 16 – Martin Way: ‘The Golden Age of Coaching’.

Martin Way, a local historian whose popular talks range chronologically from the Romans to the early days of RAF Brize Norton, and just as wide in context, says: ‘The height of the coaching era is generally reckoned to be from 1784, when the first Royal Mail coaches ran, to 1823, and the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway. My talk, which will extend beyond those dates, will make special reference to the Oxford-Gloucester road, highwaymen and turnpikes’.

 

March 16 – Christine Gadsby: ‘The Ladies of Blenheim’.

Christine Gadsby, a long-serving lecturer and guide at Blenheim Palace, notes that: ‘The Ladies of Blenheim have always played a large part in the history of this great house, which was the prize to John Churchill for his great victory over Louis XIV at Blenheim in 1704. The fascinating and engaging stories of the Ladies of Blenheim, of royal favourites, artists and writers, dedicated wives and mothers and society hosts throw a new light on the times in which they lived.

 

April 19 - Anthony Hall: ‘The History of Champagne’.

Anthony Hall, among other things a stalwart of the Bampton Classical Opera, is more usually seen (or rather not much seen) by members of the society manipulating the splendid sound and vision system at Bampton Village Hall, but will come front of stage in Clanfield to explain: ‘Who put the bubbles in the bottle? Learn how the English have played a leading role in the development and consumption of Champagne’.

 

May 18 – Mark Davies: ‘A Literary Tour of Oxfordshire Waterways’.

Mark Davies, a popular Oxford historian and guide whose last talk to us was about the Welsh connection to Jesus College, writes: ‘From Chaucer’s pilgrims to Jerome’s ‘Three Men’ and Tom Brown’s higher education, via the children’s classics of Alice and The Wind in the Willows, and the more recent ‘gyptians’ of Philip Pullman’s Dark Materials, the rivers and canal of Oxford feature in innumerable works of classic and lesser-known literature. An alternative, sometimes whimsical, history of Oxford, revealed in a virtual cruise inspired by the descriptions of writers across the centuries.

 

June 21 – AGM and dinner.

 

Contacts: Alan Smith (chairman: tel. 01367 810245. Email: smithequi@aol.com). Raena Farley (Hon. Sec. & Treasurer: 01367 810604)