VCH Oxfordshire

New boxes piled high in the search room during our box delivery

Plans laid out in the conservation studio

Our search room desks taken over with various collections projects

Our 2026 stocktake is already a week in. Wonder what we're up to?

So far we’ve had a box delivery, taken over the search room with various projects, completed Incident Plan and Collections Handling refresher training, tidied the strongrooms, re-boxed Estate collections and had many meetings! Phew!

Much enjoyed speaking about VCH Oxon's coverage of small towns and urban buildings at this weekend's Vernacular Architecture Group winter conference - part of a stimulating and wide-ranging programme, amidst some august company!

Many thanks to the 70-plus VCH supporters who came along to our annual VCH Oxon Xmas lecture and reception this week - and not _solely_ for the mulled wine and mince pies afterwards, we trust! (Though I'm sure that helped).

Happy birthday @oxhistcentre.bsky.social 🎂 - where would we all be without you?! @vch-oxon.bsky.social hasn't been around _quite_as long as you (not counting one single vol in 1907) - but we've been constant users since well before your 1985 Golden Jubilee, and continue to be so! 😊

Using a tacking iron to repair a map

Cleaning glass negatives prior to digitisation

The first theme in this year’s Explore Your Archive campaign is #EYAConservation. Conservators are vital in helping to look after collections, including preserving and repairing material so that it remains accessible. And we’re delighted to have welcomed a new Conservator to our staff this week!

Art historian and gallery owner Philip Mould giving a superb lecture in support of VCH Oxon at Ditchley Park Fri 10 Oct, exploring the paintings of Winston Churchill and the difficulties of attribution. Warm thanks to Philip, all at Ditchley, and the 80-odd people who attended - a memorable event.

An important milestone - the complete draft of this volume is the latest of the VCH production line. The last - for the historic county, but not *the last* - will be on the area around Burford, but come back in a year or so for that.

Why not *the last*? Well, watch this space... #Skystorians

Find out more at www.history.ac.uk/research/vic...

Chilson: the final draft for our forthcoming West Oxon Chadlington area vol! - and an interesting one too. A chapelry and township of Charlbury until C19, but with early links to the vast Shipton-under-Wychwood royal estate and with Wychwood Forest. Plus a DMV and gt church wall paintings..!

Celebrating Local and Place-Based History: Westmorland and the 250th VCH ‘Big Red Book’

Tomorrow! - a celebration of the publication of the VCH's 250th Big Red Book volume nationwide! - Westmorland Volume I (from Cumbria County History Trust). Plus a look back at 126 years of VCH and how the modern project is still evolving and developing: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Ticket price includes a drinks reception at Ditchley Park, one of Oxfordshire's finest C18 country houses, and not normally open to the public. Plus: you'll be helping the VCH Oxon project on its way to completion!
Please repost to your friends and followers and anyone who may be interested...

Philip Mould: Discovering Churchill - a lecture at Ditchley Park A lecture in support of VCH OXFORDSHIRE by art historian and dealer Philip Mould, presenter of BBC 1's award-winning series Fake or Fortune?

A reminder that tickets are on sale for a lecture in support of VCH Oxfordshire by the art historian Philip Mould (of BBC Fake or Fortune fame), exploring rediscovery of a lost painting by Winston Churchill (Ditchley Park: Friday 10 Oct 6 pm): www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/philip-mou....

Barbara Harvey CBE FBA (1928-2025) - Somerville College Oxford Barbara Harvey, CBE, FBA, Fellow and Tutor in Medieval History, 1955-1993, has died at the age of 97. She had also been an undergraduate and graduate student at Somerville between 1946 and 1951, befor...

Sad to hear of the death (at 97!) of the great Barbara Harvey (www.some.ox.ac.uk/news/barbara...), whose early work on Islip introduced her to the Westminster abbey archives, and also spawned a VCH Oxon parish history. Coincidentally, she also examined the current VCH Oxon Editor's doctoral thesis!

We shall endeavour to find a local church altar featuring four candles... (Dean has no church, unfortunately...)

An iconic slice of modern cultural history attached to a site noted in Domesday - that's @vchlondon.bsky.social for you! (We did manage to slip in a reference to it featuring in 'an iconic record cover' 😉.)

😂 - though as it was found in Aug 2020 I don't suppose any of us were getting out that much at the time!

Metal detectorist's hoard could be bought for public display An iron age hoard discovered by a metal detector user in Oxfordshire in 2020 could be bought by a museum. It features a stunning horse brooch.

Be great if this can stay in Oxfordshire! - www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/2532105... (Even if its discovery came a little late for inclusion in our 2011 account of Rotherfield Peppard parish in VCH Oxon XVI - which, incidentally, you can read at www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol...)

Never mind the Norman bollocks: Reading’s replica Bayeux tapestry is a prudish triumph! It may not be completely anatomically accurate, but the Victorian copy of the Bayeux tapestry is as much an emblem of its time as the 11th-century original

Interesting piece on a (sanitised) Victorian copy of the Bayeux Tapestry preserved in Reading Museum: www.theguardian.com/artanddesign.... (Images online at www.readingmuseum.org.uk/collections/...)

Thankyou Linda! - a very nice welcome so far 😊

Thanks for your kind words! (We couldn't possibly comment...! 😂)

Thankyou! 😊

For more, see the draft texts for our next volume at www.history.ac.uk/research/vic... - and for the rich documentation (in Oxfordshire History Centre), the commendably full listing at discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/79... (covering the C16 to C19)

The signature (bttm rt on his 1635 marriage settlement) of Peter Browne, heir to the Kiddington estate, who 10 yrs later was mortally wounded at Naseby - leaving his widow Mgt to oversee the estate while bringing up a young family. As Royalists and Catholics the family suffered doubly in the 1650s.

And thanks to all those who've followed, reposted, and liked over the past 24 hours ... what a civilized place this is! 😊

Oxfordshire vol. XXII - Chadlington and Area This volume will cover a swathe of west Oxfordshire rural parishes from Chastleton on the west through to Spelsbury, Enstone, and Kiddington on the east

... which will be covered in our forthcoming volume on the Chadlington area: history.ac.uk/research/vic... (under Spelsbury). Hope to see you there! (And please repost the thread...🙏)

Philip Mould: Discovering Churchill - a lecture at Ditchley Park A lecture in support of VCH OXFORDSHIRE by art historian and dealer Philip Mould, presenter of BBC 1's award-winning series Fake or Fortune?

VCH Oxfordshire
@VCHOxfordshire
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Details and booking (including drinks reception) at eventbrite.co.uk/e/philip-mou.... Besides the lecture, this is a rare chance to see one of Oxfordshire's finest C18 houses, now home to the Ditchley Foundation ...

Ditchley Park

On sale now! Discovering Churchill, a lecture in support of VCH Oxfordshire by the art historian Philip Mould (of BBC Fake or Fortune fame), exploring the rediscovery of a lost painting by Winston Churchill - Friday 10 Oct 6pm in the splendid surroundings of Ditchley Park!

Thankyou! 👍

And meanwhile, just to mention that our most recent volume (on the Chipping Norton area of west Oxfordshire) is still available to buy at boydellandbrewer.com/book/victori... ... (Just saying! 😉) The image above is Swerford church and castle site, both covered in the book...