Lectures

OAHS Lecture Programme


The 2025/6 series will begin on Tuesday October 14th. The programme will follow our recent pattern of 5 lectures at Rewley House (not online) in the autumn, and 5 lectures on Zoom from January to March. The final lecture will be available both at Rewley House and online. Details are available below, and on the programme card sent out to members. Some lectures are yet to be finalised but will be updated as soon as possible.

We look forward to seeing you in person at Rewley House and virtually in the new year.

John Ashdown Remembered: A Walk Past Some High Street Houses


Date: 14 October 2025
Time: 17.30-18.30
Lecturer: Julian Munby
Location: Rewley House
Cost: Free
No of Places: 110


This lecture is now over and there is no recording available.

John Ashdown arrived in Oxford as Conservation Officer in May 1972, on the very day that half a Grade I listed building at 126 High Street was demolished. His baptism by fire in a planning scandal was also a beginning for the speaker's involvement in building archaeology, and a fruitful dialogue between the City and local interest groups and individuals concerned for their heritage. This talk is offered as a tribute to John and his work, as partly reflected in the surviving (and lost) houses in High Street, and some lesser known aspects of their history and archaeology over 700 years.

Julian Munby FSA was Head of Buildings Archaeology at Oxford Archaeology. He has been researching the history of Oxford for many years and is a Trustee of the Oxford Preservation Trust. He currently chairs the OAHS Listed Buildings Committee.

A New Understanding of Oxford’s Divinity School Vault


Date: 28 October 2025
Time: 17.30-18.30
Lecturer: Duncan Taylor
Location: Rewley House
Cost: Free
No of Places: 110


No Booking Required

The 465 carved bosses on the fifteenth-century Divinity School vaulting have long puzzled and intrigued scholars and the many thousands of visitors who enter one of Oxford University’s oldest surviving buildings. A consideration of the political and religious context of the time unlocks previously hidden or lost meanings in the iconography and allows a new interpretation, to supersede previous understanding of it as merely a list of benefactors and unrelated images.

Duncan Taylor’s article on this research will be published in Oxoniensia in December, and has been awarded the 2025 Brian Cohen Essay Prize for a first publication in Oxfordshire history. He read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford and has a PhD in History from Bristol. His interest in the Divinity School vault was prompted through becoming a volunteer guide at the Bodleian.

An Architectural History of Town and Gown in Oxford


Date: 11 November 2025
Time: 17.30-18.30
Lecturer: Nigel Hiscock
Location: Rewley House
Cost: Free
No of Places: 110


No Booking Required

This talk will chart the architectural history of Town and Gown in Oxford from the birth of its university, through frequent riots in the middle ages, the Civil War, civic designs in Baroque Oxford, the expansion of colleges in Victorian Oxford, to collaboration between the two today.

Nigel Hiscock is a graduate of the Oxford School of Architecture, where he later taught for 35 years before retiring in 2005.

Proto-post Modern, Egocentric, Enriching: The Boathouses of Oxfordshire


Date: 25 November 2025
Time: 17.30-18.30
Lecturer: Michael Dawson
Location: Rewley House
Cost: Free
No of Places: 110


No Booking Required

Boathouses are significant in garden history, vernacular architecture, recreation and technological development. They are signifiers of change, not just boat garages. We dine and marry in them, venerate them with awards and project our humanity through them. Yet little has been written about them. They are hidden in plain sight. This presentation looks at the boathouses of Oxfordshire, their design, location and purpose as expressions of social relations, prestige and status.

Dr Michael Dawson FSA CIfA is an archaeologist who became fascinated by boathouses. His book Boathouses of Britain was published earlier this year.

Country House Building in South Oxfordshire 1700-1850


Date: 09 December 2025
Time: 17.30-18.30
Lecturer: Geoffrey Tyack
Location: Rewley House
Cost: Free
No of Places: 110


No Booking Required

The 18th and early 19th centuries saw substantial rebuilding and new construction of country houses in Oxfordshire, both by members of long-established gentry and aristocratic families and by newcomers to the county. Focusing on the southern part of the county, this talk examines some of the most notable houses of the period, drawing attention both to their architectural character and to their internal decoration.

Geoffrey Tyack is an architectural historian and the President of OAHS.

Kelmscott Community Archaeology Research Programme


Date: 13 January 2026
Time: 17.30-18.30
Lecturer: Martin Watts
Location: Online on Zoom
Cost: Free
No of Places: 100
Closing Date for Bookings: 11 January 2026


Bookings will open on 01 December 2025

Recent refurbishment works at Kelmscott Manor, home of 19th-century philosopher and designer William Morris, was accompanied by a Community Research Project to discover more about the archaeology of the village and local landscape that so inspired Morris in his works. A programme of test pits, geophysical survey, field evaluation and area excavation was undertaken over 3 seasons by volunteers from Kelmscott and beyond, led by Cotswold Archaeology. This talk describes both the archaeological results of that work, and the community engagement that enabled the investigations.

Martin Watts is the Director of Research and Engagement for Cotswold Archaeology.

The Oxfordshire Buildings Record Lecture 2025:
Three Houses in St Ebbes: Investigating the History and Development of Oxford Preservation Trust’s houses in Turn Again Lane


Date: 27 January 2026
Time: 17.30-18.30
Lecturer: Nick Wright
Location: Online on Zoom
Cost: Free
No of Places: 100
Closing Date for Bookings: 25 January 2026


Bookings will open on 01 December 2025

Using documentary, visual and oral sources, combined with close examination of the buildings' fabric, a small group is working on a project to reach a better understanding of the row of houses saved from the wrecker’s ball by OPT in 1971: among the last survivals of old St Ebbes. This lecture presents preliminary findings from the project.

Nick Wright works in conservation and undertakes research into vernacular buildings.

Initial Results from Recent Excavations at Oriel College and Hertford College


Date: 10 February 2026
Time: 17.30-18.30
Lecturer: Ben Ford
Location: Online on Zoom
Cost: Free
No of Places: 100
Closing Date for Bookings: 08 February 2026


Bookings will open on 01 December 2025

Recent excavations by Oxford Archaeology at Oriel and Hertford Colleges in central Oxford will be discussed, showing how their results shed new light on the form of the earliest Anglo-Saxon burh defences. The main focus of the talk will be on very recent excavations at Old Buildings Quad, Hertford College, with evidence about Catte Street as a centre of medieval book production, and about three academic halls – Catte, Black and Hart Halls – in this area.

Ben M Ford BA MCIfA SMSTS FSA, Senior Project Manager, Oxford Archaeology. Over the last 15 years Ben has principally focused on excavations in Oxford; his project at the Westgate won British Archaeologies 2016 Project of the Year. He is the author of a number of monographs and articles, with many more in the pipeline.

Photo: Excavations during renovation works to Oriel's bar and kitchens - OA.

'A Good Man for his Age': Dr W.T.G. Woodforde, Abingdon Medical Officer of Health 1873-1908


Date: 24 February 2026
Time: 17.30-18.30
Lecturer: Peter Steere
Location: Online on Zoom
Cost: Free
No of Places: 100
Closing Date for Bookings: 22 February 2026


Bookings will open on 01 December 2025

This remark was made by a Local Government Board Inspector in his report into the work of Dr W.T.G. Woodforde, who was responsible for most of Berkshire as Medical Officer of Health from 1873 until his death aged 81 in 1908. Using examples of his work in both the Abingdon Urban and Abingdon Rural districts, the story of gradual improvement in the public health of the town and its environs will be told, drawing on local newspaper reports, central government documents, and council minute books. Abingdon town and its surrounding villages presented different challenges with regard to disease prevention, clean water and access to modern sanitation. This talk will discuss Dr Woodforde’s involvement with both the urban and rural sanitary authorities and his contribution to improvements in public health.

Peter Steere began to take a serious interest in local history in 2009 and has an MSc in English Local History. He is about to complete a DPhil, researching public health in Berkshire in the nineteenth century. He was formerly the OAHS Membership Secretary, and during Covid in 2020 he was instrumental in setting up our programme of online Zoom lectures.

The Tom Hassall Lecture 2026


Date: 10 March 2026
Time: 17.30-18.30
Lecturer: TBA
Location: Rewley House, Oxford, and online on Zoom
Cost: Free
No of Places: 110
Closing Date for Bookings: 08 March 2026


Bookings will open on 01 December 2025