Author Archives: Bob Goodenough

Local Oxfordshire talks – April 2015

Information provided by the OLHA (www.olha.org.uk)

9th – Didcot – Speaker tbc “Herbs in Medicine”. Northbourne Centre, Church Street, 7:30pm.

10th – Mark Davies “Oxford’s Historic Waterways – from Legend to Leisure”. Memorial Hall, Browns Lane, 8:00pm.

12th – Steeple Aston – David Boswell “Important Oxfordshire Churches”. Village Hall, Fir Lane, 4:00pm.

13th – Chipping Norton – Liz Woolley “How the Coming of the Railway Changed Oxford”. Methodist Church, West Street, 7:30pm.

13th – Goring & Streatley – Simon Draper “Recent Findings About the History of Newington”. Goring Village Hall, 8:00pm.

13th – Radley – Jessica Feinstein “Building your Family Tree: Pleasures and Pitfalls”. School Hall, 7:30pm.

14th – Marcham – Peter Barker “The Otmoor Year”. Marcham church, 7:45pm.

15th – Bloxham – Bill King “On Two Wheels: the Fascinating Story of the Bicycle”. Jubilee Hall, off Brickle Lane, 7:30pm.

15th – Littlemore – Speakers from the Garsington Local History Group “Artistic and Historical Lives at Garsington Manor”. Littlemore Community Centre, Giles Road, 7:00 for 7:30pm.

16th – Abingdon – David Beasley “The History of Howbery Park and its Connection with Jethro Tull”. Northcourt Centre, Northcourt Road, 7:45 pm.

16th – Eynsham – Martin Harris and Pamela Richards “Thirty Years of the Eynsham Record (includes AGM and refreshments). Church Hall, Thames Street, 7:30pm.

16th– Sibfords – David Beaumont “Edge Hill and Beyond”. Village Hall, Sibford Gower, 8:00pm.

16th – Whitchurch & Goring Heath – Elizabeth Hazeldine “The wilful murder of Kate Laura Dungey in Henley on Thames, 1893”. Whitchurch Village Hall, 8:00pm.

17th– Finstock – Tony Cooper “The Wychwood Census”. Village Hall, 8:00 pm.

19th – Wychwoods – Tony Hadland “The History of the Bicycle and Raleigh”. Shipton-under-Wychwood Village Hall, 7:30pm.

20th – Adderbury – Barry Davis “History of the Bells and Bell Ringing in Adderbury”. Methodist Chapel, Chapel Lane, 7:30pm.

20th – Bicester – Rowena Archer “Travelling in the Middle Ages. Clifton Centre, Ashdene Road, 7:30pm.

20th – Kennington – Chris Butterfield “Oxford Bus Museum”. Methodist Church, Upper Road, 7:45pm.

21st – Clanfield & Bampton – Paddy Walsh “The Indian Mutiny of 1857”. Carter Institute, Clanfield, 7:30pm.

21st – Cowley – Liz Woolley “Children and War: Experiences of the Second World War in Oxfordshire”. Temple Cowley United Reformed Church, Temple Road, 8:00pm.

21st – Iffley – Vivien Greene Memorial Lecture: Kate Tiller “Remembrance and Community – War Memorials and Local History”. Church Hall, Church Way, 7:30pm.

22nd – Dorchester –Nick Dudley “The History of Surgery”. Village Hall, 7:30pm.

27th – Oxfordshire Family History Society – Mark Stevens “Fair Mile Revealed: the Victorian Asylum”. Exeter Hall, Oxford Road, Kidlington, 8:00pm.

28th – Hanney – Stephen Barker “Oxfordshire on the Home Front 1914-18”. War Memorial Hall, East Hanney, 8:00pm.

28th – Kidlington – Martin Greenwood “Charles’ Painted Ladies”. St John Ambulance Hall, High Street, 7:50pm.

30th – Aston – AGM followed by Andrew Long & Martin Bowley “Cote Road and North Street”. Fellowship Centre, Cote Road, 7:30pm.

Artists in Wonderland: Oxford, “Alice” and the Pre-Raphaelites

Illustrating his talk with artists’ works, Mark Davies described the interaction between Thomas Combe and his wife, Martha, and the Pre-Raphaelites in Oxford. Having joined the Oxford University Press, Combe became its Superintendent. William Holman Hunt related that when Combe and his wife met artists John Millais and his friend Charles Allston Collins and heard of the poor food in their lodgings, Martha sent them a pie the next day.

The Pre-Raphaelite artists’ attention to detail was emphasised using the View of Port Meadow from Godstow Lock, which included the industrial buildings of Wolvercote Paper Mill and the Oxford University Press. For the painting, The Woodman’s Daughter, Millais requested Combe to ask the mother of the girl, Esther, for an old pair of her boots to be able to paint them with total accuracy. A Scene of the Oxford Canal included the Observatory and the OUP building, while Convent Thoughts may have been painted in the private garden of the Press where the Combes’ had their house. They had no children and bought many paintings.

William Holman Hunt chronicled the Pre-Raphaelite history and told how William Morris and his friend at Exeter College, Edward Burne Jones, recruited Dante Gabriel Rosetti to paint the Oxford Union with large murals. A rare sketch by Morris of his plan for a mural was shown. It was said, however, that “Topsy” (Morris ) “can’t draw the head or where the hips come of ‘stunner’ Lipscombe”, the daughter of the keeper of the Trout. John Ruskin was the most influential art critic and he helped the Pre-Raphaelites to become important.

In1854, the year Charles Dodgson finished his studies, he was ordained and he gave his first sermon at St. Barnabas Church which Combe had had built for the people of Jericho, and where he was Church Warden. Holman Hunt described Martha as “foster mother of the whole house”. Dodgson rowed Alice and her sisters to Godstow in 1862, and was asked by Alice to write the stories he told them. An attractive edition of “Alice’s Adventures Underground” was produced in 1864 with “A Christmas Gift” on the back cover. However Dodgson’s sketch of Alice was not deemed good enough by sculptor Thomas Woolner, and Tenniel, who rowed at Oxford came to be the illustrator. This year is the 150th anniversary of first publication of Alice in Wonderland.

(Summary prepared by Elizabeth Simons)

Local Oxfordshire talks – March 2015

Information provided by the OLHA (www.olha.org.uk)

12th – Banbury – Stephen Wass “A Way with Water: Water Resources and the Life of an Eighteenth Century Park, Farnborough Hall, Warwickshire”. Banbury Museum, Spiceball Park Road, 7:30pm.

12th – Didcot – Eugene Coyle “The Civil War in Oxfordshire”. Northbourne Centre, Church Street, 7:30pm.

12th – Wootton & Dry Sandford –  Mark Davies “Alice in Wonderland: Oxford ‘Alice’ and the pre-Raphaelites”. Community Centre, Lamborough Hill, Wootton, 7.30pm.

13th – Charlbury – Conrad Keating “Great Medical Discoveries: 800 Years of Oxford Innovation”. Memorial Hall, Browns Lane, 8:00pm.

16th – Bicester – Chris Day “A History of the English Parish”. Clifton Centre, Ashdene Road, 7:30pm.

16th – Kennington – Liz Woolley “Children’s Experiences of the Second World War in Oxfordshire”. Methodist Church, Upper Road, 7:45pm.

17th – Adderbury – Deborah Hayter “Ridge and Furrow’ – What’s it All About?” Methodist Chapel, Chapel Lane, 7:30pm.

17th – Cowley – Edward Dixon “Women on the Home Front”. Temple Cowley United Reformed Church, Temple Road, 8:00pm.

17th – Iffley – Christine Gadsby “Blenheim – Battle for Europe”. Church Hall, Church Way, 7:30pm.

18th – Bloxham – Katherine Bradley “Votes for Women: the History of the Women’s Suffrage Movement in Oxfordshire, 1870-1918”. Jubilee Hall, off Brickle Lane, 7:30pm.

18th – Clanfield & Bampton – Alastair Lack “Oxfordshire Country Houses”. Bampton Village Hall., 7:30pm.

18th – Littlemore – John Stewart “Shell Shock in WWI Oxford”. Littlemore Community Centre, Giles Road, 7:00 for 7:30pm.

19th – Abingdon – Maureen Mellor “Pots and Food: Do Medieval Pottery Studies Add to the Enjoyment of Eating and Drinking?” Northcourt Centre, Northcourt Road, 7:45 pm.

19th – Eynsham – Steve Parrinder “The Stones of Eynsham Abbey”. Church Hall, Thames Street, 7:30pm.

19th – Sibfords – AGM followed by Chris Mason “Swift Stories”. Village Hall, Sibford Gower, 8:00pm.

19th– Wychwoods – Bob Harris “The Early Life of Lord Nuffield”. Milton-under-Wychwood Village Hall, 7:30pm.

20th – Finstock – Stephen Barker “Oxfordshire – the Home Front 1914 – 1918”. Village Hall, 8:00 pm.

23rd – Oxfordshire Family History Society – Anthony Adolph “Joining the Dots and Bringing it all Together – Connecting up Normal Genealogical Research, Origins of Surnames, and DNA”. Exeter Hall, Oxford Road, Kidlington, 8:00pm.

24th – Enstone – Victoria Huxley “Jane Austen’s Local Connections and the Lives of Regency Women”. Venue tbc (contact 01608 677246, carolawt@gmail.com), 7:30pm.

24th – Hanney – Malcolm Graham “Victorian North Oxford – Suburban Paradise or Leafy Sobriety?”. War Memorial Hall, East Hanney, 8:00pm.

24th – Sutton Courtenay – Simon Wenham “The History of Salters Steamers.” The Village Hall, 7:30pm.

25th – Dorchester – Greg Stores “Sleeping through the Ages: an Historical Account of Human Sleep”. Village Hall, 7:30pm.

26th – Aston – Moira Byast “Taste the Past”. Fellowship Centre, Cote Road, 7:30pm.

31st – Kidlington – Brian Lowe “Odder Oxford”. St John Ambulance Hall, High Street, 7:50pm.