Book onto a walking tour to find out about the hidden secrets, significant buildings and the people that made the city. Led by local historians Liz Woolley and Mark Davies. Themes will reveal a side of Oxford often overlooked including waterways, its industrial past, leisure and entertainment as well as famous literary connections.
Circular walks of 90 minutes on Wednesdays at 2.30pm starting from the Museum of Oxford throughout March and April. Full details and dates below.
Tickets £10 available from the MOX Gift Shop or buy online (booking fee applies).
Leisure and entertainment in Victorian and Edwardian Oxford, 15 March, 12 April
In the mid-nineteenth century changes in employment practices and rising real wages meant that ordinary working people found themselves, usually for the first time, with leisure time and with spare money to spend on recreation. All sorts of establishments arose to fulfil the new demand for entertainment, many of them aimed at keeping people out of the pub. Join local historian Liz Woolley to find out where and how Oxford citizens spent their free time, and how the middle classes attempted to impose ‘rational recreation’ on their working-class contemporaries.
The Real Alice in Wonderland Walk, 22 March, 19 April
A circular walk around beautiful Christ Church Meadow with local historian and author Mark Davies, a trustee of the Lewis Carroll Society. The route will follow waterside paths familiar to the real Alice (the daughter of the Dean of Christ Church) and Lewis Carroll to highlight in particular the all-important role of the River Thames in the creation of the Alice books. With reference to relevant local history and geography, as well as other classics of fantasy literature, the walk will reveal some of the real people, places, and events which inspired some of the characters and episodes. The walk does NOT include entrance to the buildings of Christ Church itself.
The majority of the route is suitable for wheelchair users, with the exception of the final (less informative) section where participants can carry on to the Museum, where numerous relevant objects are on display.
Industry and commerce in Victorian and Edwardian Oxford, 29 March, 26 April
In the later Victorian period rapid increases in population, rises in real wages, and the advent of the mass media fuelled a growing demand for manufactured goods, in Oxford as elsewhere. Join local historian Liz Woolley on a walk around the city centre to find out how activities like brewing, clothing manufacture, and bookbinding developed here, and to look at buildings which remind us of Oxford’s perhaps surprising industrial and commercial heritage.
River Thames and Christ Church Meadow Walk, 5 April
A circular walk around beautiful Christ Church Meadow with local historian and author Mark Davies, exploring the historical, geographical, and literary associations of a riverside location which has remained essentially unaltered for centuries. Topics will include the Civil War; the origins of the Oxford–Cambridge Boat Races and inter-college rowing rivalries; Oxford’s ancient municipal boundaries; the earliest British men and women to fly; Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice’ and other classics of fantasy fiction; Britain’s oldest Botanic Garden; and cricket (made interesting!) and drownings (made poignant).
The majority of the route is suitable for wheelchair users, with the exception of the final (less informative) section where participants can carry on to the Museum, where numerous relevant objects are on display.