AAAHS Talks Programme 2023-24

The following talks were held:

 Thursday 21st September 2023 

Martin Buckland: Cowley Concrete – A vanished Abingdon Industry

Cowley Concrete started in a garden shed in Cowley in the early 1920s but soon moved to Abingdon, Radley Road, where more plentiful gravel supplies were available to meet the increased demand for the products.  The company expanded over the years until finally closing down in 1970 having been taken over by Ameys some years earlier. There will be many illustrations of their products and of the pioneer pre-stressed concrete beam production process. There are several examples of their products to be seen locally.

Martin Buckland has been interested in Industrial Archaeology from the age of 4 when watching Great Western trains with his Dad at Iver where he was born. Nearly seven decades later he is involved with the Great Western Society at Didcot Railway Centre in the education team and as a tour guide. He leads walks in Abingdon along the historic and new sections of the Wilts & Berks Canal and he has recently added ‘The Rivers of Abingdon’ walk to the list. He volunteers at the Abingdon Museum in the education department explaining what life was like living on a narrow boat to primary school pupils. He is also a member of several local history societies.

Please note: This talk will be preceded by a short Annual General Meeting (AGM)

 Thursday 19th October 2023 

Simon Townley: Chipping Norton and Area: Recent Work by the Victoria County History of Oxfordshire

Simon Townley has been County Editor of the Victoria County History of Oxfordshire (old county boundary) since 1996, and has worked on the histories of numerous towns and villages including Witney, Henley, Bampton, and Benson. This illustrated talk will focus on Chipping Norton on the edge of the Cotswolds, which forms the subject of the VCH’s next volume (publication due 2024), and which was laid out as a planned ‘new town’ around the mid twelfth century, set on a hillside above the pre-existing church and Norman castle. The talk looks at its development from those early beginnings through to the twentieth century, exploring aspects of its buildings, economy and social history.

Thursday 16th November 2023 

Andy Hood: The Roman Villa at Cholsey – Recent Excavations

Excavations at Celsea Place, Cholsey revealed multiple phases of archaeological activity, spanning the Bronze Age to Anglo Saxon period. Roman settlement within the site included a previously unknown ‘farmstead’ villa, which appeared to have been occupied throughout the Roman period. This talk will present the findings of the investigations, specifically the excavations within and around the villa, and it will attempt to situate the site within the wider contemporary landscape.

Andy Hood has over 20 years’ experience in commercial archaeology. He has managed archaeological projects throughout England and Wales and he has written numerous grey-literature, as well as publication reports. He is currently an Associate Director at Foundations Archaeology, with both fieldwork and office-based responsibilities.

Thursday 21st December 2023

Sean Callery: Christmas and the Cotswolds

‘Tis the season to be jolly knowledgeable about Christmas and some of its Cotswolds connections. My talk explains many Christmas customs, from Advent to Yule logs, including the three Cs – Cards, Carols and Crackers. Today’s Yuletide celebrations grew from a mixture of pagan customs, folklore and royal fashions. I also cover some Cotswold traditions and explain the Cotswolds background to one of our most famous Christmas songs.

Sean Callery is a qualified (Blue Badge) tour guide and has experience as a teacher, journalist and author.   He researched Christmas customs to support a guided walk at Christmas time, and found the topic so interesting that he explored it further to create this talk.

Thursday 18th January 2024

Dave Townsend:

Singing from the Gallery in Oxfordshire – The Lost Church Music Tradition of the 18th and 19th Centuries

West Gallery Music is a largely-forgotten genre of church music which flourished all over the English-speaking world from the early 1700s to the mid-nineteenth century. It was a tradition of vernacular music-making, performed and often composed by people of humble origins operating outside the mainstream of contemporary art music. Dave will describe its origins, development, gradual decline and present-day survivals with reference to local churches and communities, illustrating his talk with sound recording.

Dave Townsend has been performing, researching and teaching west gallery music since the 1980s. He founded The Mellstock Band in 1986, and has since produced a series of benchmark recordings of west gallery and village band music from Thomas Hardy’s Wessex and beyond, as well as providing music for theatre productions, radio, film and television. He was the co-founder, with Gordon Ashman, of the West Gallery Music Association, of which he was for several years the Musical Director. He has presented workshops and classes all over Britain, Europe and America, and has published a series of books of west gallery repertoire.

Thursday 15th February 2024 

Amanda Ingram: The History of Pembroke College Oxford and its Abingdon Connection

Description: Pembroke College archivist, Amanda Ingram, takes us through the history of Pembroke College, from its foundation in 1624 to its 400th anniversary this year. She will explain the development of the College site and reveal some of the significant characters from Pembroke’s past. We will also hear about Pembroke’s connection to Abingdon which began with one of the College’s founders, Thomas Tesdale.

Biography: Amanda Ingram has been the Pembroke archivist since 2007. She was also archivist for St Hugh’s College but, in 2023, became dedicated to Pembroke. Amanda qualified in 2005 and has also worked at Kew Gardens and Freemason’s Hall in London.

Thursday 21st March 2024

Dr Zbigniew Wojnowski: Russia’s War with Ukraine in a Historical Perspective

Description: This talk will address the historical origins of the current war. The main focus will be on the twentieth century, where the origins lie, but some references will be made to before and after the Soviet period.

Biography: Dr Zbig Wojnowski is an Associate Professor of Soviet History at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford. His research has focused on interethnic relations and imperial dynamics in the USSR. Zbig’s book entitled ‘The Near Abroad: Socialist Eastern Europe and Soviet Patriotism in Ukraine’ examines how the flow of people and ideas across borders shaped Ukrainian and Soviet identities after the death of Stalin. He has also published on identity politics in Crimea, the role of popular culture in the Ukrainian national project, and the impact of de-Stalinisation in the USSR’s Central Asian peripheries.

Thursday 18th April 2024

Mike Evans: The Fitzharry’s Estate – from Medieval Knights to Atomic Spies

Description: This talk will describe the long history of the Fitzharry’s Estate in north Abingdon, from the Norman Conquest to the creation of new homes for nuclear scientists in the twentieth century.

Biography: Mike Evans has lived on the Fitzharry’s Estate for twenty years. Before he retired he was Head of the Historic England Archive in Swindon, responsible for over 12 million photographs and other records documenting the archaeology and architecture of England.

 Thursday 16th May 2024 (The Lambrick Lecture 2024)

The annual Lambrick Lecture is kindly supported by George and Camilla Lambrick, in memory of Georges’s mother, Gabrielle Lambrick. Gabrielle was a highly-respected local historian of Abingdon, and in 1968 she also helped to found what is now AAAHS.

Paul Booth: From Roman Britain to Early Anglo-Saxon England: Archaeological Evidence from Dorchester-on-Thames

Description: The causes and processes of the transition from late Roman Britain to what followed in the 5th and 6th centuries are complex and controversial. Dorchester has some of the best evidence in the region for these changes, though this is itself far from straightforward. Key data from the Discovering Dorchester Project excavations (2008-2018) will be summarised alongside other evidence, both old and more recent, from the environs of the town.

Biography: Paul Booth was a Senior Project Manager at Oxford Archaeology for 30 years before his retirement in 2019. Amongst many other tasks he directed fieldwork for the Discovering Dorchester Project training excavation in the Dorchester allotments for the duration of that project. He has interests in a wide range of aspects of Romano-British archaeology, including settlement forms, burial, ceramics and coinage, often with a regional emphasis. He is particularly interested in the late Roman period, and his primary current concern is the post-excavation analysis of the Dorchester site.

 Thursday 20th June 2024 

Open Evening with short presentations by Society Members

Chris Brickwood: The ‘Brunel Houses’ at Steventon railway station

David Clark: The Lodge at Orchard Lea, Boar’s Hill

Roger Thomas: An Iron Age sword from the Thames at Abingdon

AAAHS Talks Programme 2022-23

The following talks were held:

Thursday 15th September 2022

The Society’s AGM will be held followed by a talk by Bob Evans on “The History of our Footpaths”.

Almost all of us walk on footpaths, at least from time to time, and maybe every day. If we didn’t, and hadn’t, they wouldn’t exist. Yet we tend to take them for granted. Their current state and status reflects their usage in the past and the changing values we have set upon them. This talk examines the when, how and why of our rights of way, with especial reference to the Abingdon area.

Bob Evans is a (local) historian and Rambler, and was chair of AAAHS from 2014 to 2019

Visitors are welcome at our in-person speaker meetings – suggested donation £3.

 Thursday 20th October 2022 at 7.15pm

 A talk by Richard Dudding on “The Deserted Settlements of Radley”

Hundreds of settlements across England were partially or wholly deserted in the years following the Black Death. Richard’s talk will look first at the national evidence, especially the complex interaction of factors which led to desertion. He will then look in more detail at three cases in Radley: the area near the Church, Thrupp and Sugworth (pictured).  Each is different and none of them are straightforward

Richard Dudding read history at Cambridge (supervised by a youthful Simon Schama), after which he worked in central government and then Oxfordshire County Council. The move to Oxfordshire brought his family to their current home, a cruck house in Radley, which helped to rekindle his interest in history.

He formerly chaired the Radley History Club, one of the most active in the area, and remains their archivist. He has written Early Modern Radley, people land and buildings 1547-1768 (2014) and was the lead author of Radley Manor and Village, a thousand year story (2019).

Thursday 17th November 2022

A talk by David Clark on “The Lost Buildings of Abingdon”

This illustrated talk will review the extent to which historic buildings in Abingdon have been demolished in recent years. We shall consider some of the reasons for this, and the lessons we might draw for the future. Case studies of Caldecott House and the Ferry Boat House will show how two contrasting lost buildings can be reconstructed from a range of sources.

David Clark trained as an architectural historian after retiring from a management career with the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. He created and ran an undergraduate course on Vernacular  Architecture at Rewley House, and is currently actively involved in building recording as secretary of the Oxfordshire Buildings Record. He is a member of the AAAHS team that writes material on buildings and people for the town council’s website.

 Thursday 15th December 2022 

A talk by Melanie King on “Food of the Gods: Adventures in Chocolate”

Chocolate has enjoyed a long and storied—and sometime controversial—history since the Spanish first brought it back from Mesoamerica, where the Aztecs had used it in their rituals for human sacrifices. Since then, chocolate has been used as a murder weapon, in a plot against the British monarchy, as a hangover cure, and even as a balm for the testicles. If the English were at first distrustful of chocolate, thinking that drinking it hot would boil the blood, the Italians enthusiastically embraced this new-fangled food, creating weird and wonderful dishes such as chocolate-covered liver and lasagne with  chocolate sauce. Melanie King, British author and social historian, will share some of the lesser known myths and legends about the strange adventures of chocolate.

Melanie King graduated from Sussex University and has worked in Bangkok as a staff writer for the Nation, in Brussels with eurocrats, in the publications department at Chatham House, and in London with refugees and victims of torture. She earns a living as a writer and speaker, exploring the oddities of little-known byways of history. She has published eight books of historical non-fiction, covering subjects from prophecy and espionage to the history of chocolate. Her latest book, The Secret History of English Spas, was released in September 2021. For more details see her website: www.melaniekingbooks.com/books.

 Thursday 19th January 2023

A talk by Tim Healey entitled: “Drovers’ roads in Oxfordshire and beyond”

In times past cattle were guided through Oxfordshire on in epic treks from the far reaches of Wales and on to London. The county is meshed with traces of their routes – in the landscape, in place names and much more besides. Known as drovers’ roads or ‘green lanes’ they evoke a heroic trade which dates back to prehistoric times. Abingdon was on the drovers’ route – and their wild Welsh ponies caused havoc in its streets…

Tim Healey is a freelance writer and broadcaster who has presented many programmes on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4. He is also a frequent contributor to The Oxford Times for which he has written on drovers’ roads in Oxfordshire.

 Thursday 16th February 2023

A talk by Trevor Rowley on “The Landscape of the Bayeux Tapestry”

The Bayeux Tapestry (really an embroidery) is one of the supreme achievements of the Norman era. It dates from about 1075 and provides a unique pictorial account of the events leading up to the Battle of Hastings (14th October 1066) and the battle itself.  The talk will examine the tapestry through the landscapes, buildings, towns and castles it depicts and compare them to the buildings, ruins and earthworks that can be seen in the landscape today.

Trevor Rowley, Emeritus Fellow of Kellogg College, Oxford and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. Formerly Deputy Director of Oxford University’s Department for Continuing Education and author of many books on the Normans and the historic landscape. These include, ‘The Man Behind the Bayeux Tapestry’, History Press, 2013, ‘ An Archaeological Study of the Bayeux Tapestry’, Pen and Sword 2016 and ‘Landscapes of the Norman Invasion’, Pen and Sword, 2022.

 Thursday 16th March 2023

A talk by Ben Ford on “Recent Archaeological Discoveries at Frewin Hall, Oxford – a Lost College and so much more” 

This highly illustrated talk, presented by Ben Ford FSA, will bring you up-to-date with some of the highlights and latest thinking from archaeological excavations undertaken by his team from Oxford Archaeology at the start of this year. Originally partially excavated and researched by Prof. John Blair (Queens College, Oxford) in the 1970’s, the central Oxford site of Frewin Hall (formerly St Mary’s College) has thrown up significant new evidence from recent archaeological work in advance of construction for Brasenose College student accommodation. Initial interpretation suggests that a large Bronze Age burial mound influenced the occupation of the site 3,000 years later in the first century of Oxford’s development as a defended Saxon border town. This influence carries through to when the site becomes part of a large post-Conquest urban land-holding for local Norman elites. Frewin Hall itself is from this period and is probably the oldest secular building still in use in Oxford.Subsequently, under the promotion of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey the Cistercians finally realised the completion of their teaching school – St. Mary’s College…but this is only a short time before the Tudors enacted the Dissolution and all was lost, to be buried over the next 500 years under many feet of rich garden soils.

Ben M Ford BA MCIfA SMSTS FSA, Senior Project Manager, Oxford Archaeology. 1990 BA (Hons) Archaeology, University of Reading. Member of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Ben joined Oxford Archaeology in 1996 and has been a Senior Project Manager since 2004.

Ben loves urban archaeology and has experience in Abingdon, Bristol, Dorchester (Dorset), Oxford, London, Reading, Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum), Winchester and central Montpellier, France, as well as the Mayan site of La Milpa, Belize. Over the last 13 years Ben has principally focussed on excavations in Oxford – his project at the Westgate, Oxford won British Archaeology’s 2016 Project of the Year, and more recently Frewin Hall won the Oxford Preservation Trust’s 2023 Temporary Project Certificate. Ben manages OA’s archaeological and historic building recording services for Historic Royal Palaces. At Hampton Court Palace, Ben led large-scale archaeological and historic building investigations in and around Base Court (RICS Project of the Year 2016, and the Civic Trust/AABC Conservation Award 2017). He also has significant experience of directing large-scale excavations of Industrial archaeology at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, London. Ben is the author of a number of monographs and articles, with many more in the pipeline.

Thursday 20th April 2023

A talk by Dr Amy Styring on “Science and Archaeology – How Chemistry can tell us about the human past”

Amy Styring is Associate Professor of Archaeological Science at the University of Oxford. As an archaeological chemist, she is interested in advancing scientific methods that reveal a direct and detailed picture of everyday life in the past, particularly in relation to how people produced their food and the impact that this had on the environment.

This Meeting was a joint event with the ATOM Science Society.

 The Lambrick Lecture 2023

The annual Lambrick Lecture is kindly supported by George and Camilla Lambrick, in memory of Georges’s mother, Gabrielle Lambrick. Gabrielle was a highly-respected local historian of Abingdon, and in 1968 she also helped to found what is now AAAHS.

 Thursday 18th May 2023

A talk by Tim Allen on “Archaeological Excavations in Dunmore Road,  Abingdon”

Tim Allen has directed and written up archaeological excavations for Oxford Archaeology in Britain and in Europe for over 40 years. He carried out the excavations for the Abingdon Vineyard redevelopment from 1989-1997, and has maintained an interest in Abingdon’s archaeology ever since.  Although he has worked upon archaeology of all periods, he has a particular interest in later prehistory and the Iron Age to Roman transition.

 Thursday 15th June 2023

An Open Evening (formerly Members’ Evening) giving AAAHS Members an opportunity to share their research on topics of local interest. This is a free event.

There will be 3 Presentations by Members of the Society:

Roger Thomas: ‘The AAAHS Online Map of Abingdon Archaeology’
John Foreman: ‘The Road From Abingdon To Oxford – An Exploration’
Mike Evans: ‘Picturing Abingdon – The Archive Of The Friends Of Abingdon’

Meetings Programme 2017-18  

 Welcome to our meetings page. You can see that our year runs from September through till June. All presentations (apart from the Local History Group) are usually held at the Northcourt Centre, Northcourt Rd. Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 1NS. at 7.45 pm.

Attendance for Members is free and visitors are welcome (suggested donation: £3.00). If you are interested in joining the society, please speak to any committee member who will be identified by their badge.

There is on-site parking and dedicated disabled spaces. Refreshments are available on most evenings.

Thursday 21 September 2017 [Please note this meeting starts at 7.30pm.]

The meeting will start with the AGM. This will be followed by the talk:

 Jackie Smith:  The Development of Albert Park 

 Albert Park, established on Conduit Field was described by John Betjeman as England’s finest example of a Victorian suburb. The park itself, now with mature specimen trees and pleasant walk and views, dates from the 1860s. Shortly afterwards building plots were offered and soon the wealthy of Abingdon had villas built. Streets were built to access the area and these were filled with new houses that now make Albert Park probably the most desirable area to live in Abingdon. Jackie Smith will tell the story of the Park, street and houses that make this area such a local asset. 

 Jackie Smith has been an AAAHS member since September 1969 when she became interested in Abingdon’s history, particularly in all aspects of the Albert Park area and 19th century Abingdon. She worked for about 17 years in the Centre for Oxfordshire Studies now the Oxfordshire History Centre. She has been Hon Archivist to Abingdon Town Council since 1995 and to Christ’s Hospital since 2008. She has co-authored three books, one on Abingdon pubs and two on Christ’s Hospital and currently contributes monthly articles to The Herald. 

 Thursday 19th October 2017

Michael Heaney: Percy Manning, the extraordinary antiquary of Oxfordshire (with a bit of Berkshire)

 Percy Manning (1870-1917) was an extraordinary collector of all things Oxfordshire; his diverse interests ranged from archaeology and local buildings history to cricket and Morris dancing. Manning was interested in all periods of history and prehistory, collecting stone age tools, Roman coins, medieval tiles, and relics of ways of life that were disappearing in his own day, such as decorated police truncheons and local pottery.  He moved beyond material objects to uncover and document superstitions, folklore and customs. Although he was working to the old county boundaries, there is also a considerable amount of material relating to Berkshire hidden in the collections. The talk will look at his life and work and take a special look at the Berkshire elements.

Michael Heaney is a well-known researcher into folk music and folklore who has published widely on the subject. He combines this with extensive knowledge of the collections in the Bodleian Library where he spent his professional career. He is a Editor of and chief contributor to the book Percy Manning: The Man Who Collected Oxfordshire. Folk Music Journal (2017) and curated the centenary display on Manning at the Bodleian Library.

Thursday 16th November 2017

Mike Hurst: Tracks to Trenches. Ambulances and Military Transport Trains in WW1

 This will be an affecting account of railway activities in the South of England and in France during the Great War. Railways permitted the mass movements of munitions, equipment and men and the harrowing resulting casualties, many of whom were taken through the Thames Valley. As well as the many technical innovations introduced by the GWR they were the pioneer of ambulance trains. This talk will include the transport and care of the wounded back to Blighty with some focus on South Oxfordshire and West Berkshire. 

 Mike Hurst trained as a microbiologist, but has always been interested in history, particularly transport and industrial history. He helps run Goring Gap Local History Society and, since moving to Goring in 2004, has carried out original research on various aspects of the local area and its past inhabitants. 

He is a volunteer at Sir William McAlpine’s private railway at Fawley Hill near Henley, runs the Goring Gap Transport History Group and acts as a Schools Guide, Museum Steward and Guard at Didcot Railway Centre.

 Thursday 7th December 2017  (Please note change of date)

 Tim Healey: A 17th Century Christmas

 An entertaining romp through Yuletide celebrations at the time of the English Civil War and Restoration. Wassailing rites, frost fairs, Twelfth Night customs – and the Puritan backlash against Christmas itself: all encompassed with a wealth of colourful PowerPoint images. [Image shows none other than The Lord of Misrule himself]

 Tim Healey is a freelance writer and broadcaster. A frequent contributor to the Oxford Times colour magazine Limited Edition, he has also presented many programmes on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4, chiefly on heritage themes and the popular music of the past.  Tim is also director of the 17th-century costume band the Oxford Waits with whom he appears in period attire.

  Thursday 18th January 2018

Hubert Zawadzki: The Land of the White Eagle: the Story of Poland

 The talk will provide a historical background to the largest of the recent accession states to the European Union. Since 2004 Britain has become the home of a large Polish community which is currently estimated as exceeding 800,000 people, and Polish is currently the second most widely spoken language in the country. It is hoped that the talk will help in a better understanding of who the Poles are and what factors have shaped their national identity, such as geography and frontiers, language and religion, Poland’s multi-ethnic past and political traditions, foreign domination in the 19th century, and the impact of war and totalitarian rule in the 20th century, ending with some reflections on events since 1989. [Image shows the Polish Eagle]

Dr. Hubert Zawadzki read Modern History at Keble College, Oxford, before obtaining a doctorate at Wolfson College, Oxford where he was also subsequently a Junior Research Fellow. He taught history at Abingdon School for thirty years while continuing with his academic interests in Poland and Eastern Europe. He is the author of  A Man of Honour: Adam Czartoryski as a Statesman of Russia and Poland, 1795-1831 (Oxford, 1993), and co-author (with Jerzy Lukowski) of A Concise History of Poland (Cambridge, 1st edn. 2001; 2nd edn. 2006). He is currently preparing his mother’s memoirs for publication.

Thursday 15th February 2018

Various Presenters: Old images of Abingdon. Various images and what they show.

 The 2018 event will follow the same template as in previous years, with volunteer speakers choosing their own image to talk about.

We shall have the cream of Abingdon’s history experts (and possibly John Foreman) for this meeting on the 15th. In no particular order: Anne Smithson, Judy White, Jackie Smith, Jessica Brod, Manfred Brod, and John Foreman will give short presentations based around an image or images that have local connections.  The presentations will be less formal and more like those which take place at the Local History Group that will be on the 20th of this month.

Do come along to one or both

 Thursday 15th March 2018

 Bryan Brown:  A Celebration of the Life of John Henry Brookes (1891 – 1975): The man who inspired a University

 All members of The Friends of Abingdon Civic Society are invited to attend as guests of AAAHS.

 Bryan Brown the author of the recently published biography John Henry Brookes: The man who inspired a University, will talk about the modern founder of Oxford Brookes University. Brookes developed the first further educational institution for the working people of Oxford and it was not an easy path. The Great Depression of the late 1920s and 1930s, through World War Two and its deprived aftermath until the glimmer of recovery in the 1950s, was the most challenging of contexts. However his achievement is perhaps unparalleled in British education. Bryan will talk about his character and influences, his Oxford years, his work as an artist/craftsman/author and his outstanding legacy.

 Bryan Brown is closely associated with John Henry Brookes. He was born in Oxford, attended Cheney School which was founded by Brookes and similarly trained as a designer. Bryan practised design and helped to forge the design consultancy sector whilst Brookes focussed on education. In 1992 when Oxford Polytechnic became a university, he recommended the name and developed the brand identity for Oxford Brookes University. Bryan is an Honorary Fellow and Doctor of the University and has led a campaign to reassert John Henry Brookes fading legacy. Bryan also unearthed the photographic work of the Oxford photographer Henry Taunt and published his college thesis as a fully illustrated biography in the 1970s. He has lived in Abingdon for over 40 years and after running his company from the town centre is now very engaged in Abingdon civic and community life and is the current chairman of The Friends of Abingdon Civic Society.

Thursday 19th  April 2018 

The 2018 Lambrick Lecture

 The Lambrick Lecture is sponsored by George Lambrick in memory of his mother, Gabrielle Lambrick. 

 George is an archaeologist and member of our society.

Mrs Gabrielle Lambrick was a highly respected medieval historian who died in 1968. She did a lot of work on Abingdon Abbey. Most notably, she and C F Slade edited Two Cartularies of Abingdon Abbey, published in two volumes by the Oxford Historical Society in 1990-2. These are collections of legal and internal documents of the abbey. She contributed to a set of papers on ‘The Early History of Abingdon, Berkshire, and its Abbey’ in the journal Medieval History, Vol XII, 1968. She wrote a booklet for the Friends of Abingdon in 1966 on ‘Business affairs at Abingdon Abbey in medieval times’ describing the obedientiary system and numerous other papers in the academic journals.

Manfred Brod.  Abingdon: Monastic Estate to Borough 

What was it like living in Abingdon as it became a self-governing community in the mid-16th century? What really changed? Who gained, and who lost? How did the new rulers legitimise their authority? How was Abingdon different from other towns being chartered about the same time? These questions cannot be fully answered, but Manfred has been looking hard at what the records and the physical remains can tell us.

 Manfred Brod trained as a historian after retirement from paid work, obtaining a doctorate in English Local History. He specialises in the 16th and 17th centuries and in Abingdon and Berkshire in particular and is author of two books and numerous published papers. He has been a member of AAAHS for many years and has filled most of the administrative posts in the committee. He is currently convenor of the Abingdon Buildings and People website group which is part of the Society.

Thursday 17th May 2018

 Jonathan Healey:  The People’s Politics in Tudor England

The Tudor period saw major changes to church and state in England, but how did ordinary people react? Did they have a say in the way England was governed? Or were they simply trampled under the feet of a tyrannical monarchy. This talk looks at how local history can help us see the great changes of the sixteenth century through the eyes of ordinary people, and put them back at the heart of the story of the Tudor age

 Jonathan Healey is Associate Professor in Social History at the University of Oxford’s Department for Continuing Education. He writes about the history of ordinary people in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. His first book, The First Century of Welfare, about poor relief in Lancashire in the seventeenth century, was published in 2014.

 Thursday 21st June 2018

50 years of AAAHS. A Social celebration

  Saturday 30th June 2018

History Day.  An all day event with 5 speakers

Meetings Programme 2015-16

 Welcome to our meetings page. You can see that our year runs from September through until June. All presentations (apart from the Local History Group) are held at the Northcourt Centre, Northcourt Rd. Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 1NS. at 7.45 pm.  

Attendance for Members is free, and visitors are welcome (suggested donation: £3.00). If you are interested in joining the society, please speak to any committee member who will be identified by their badge.

 There is on-site parking and dedicated disabled spaces. Refreshments are available on most evenings.

Please check this page for changes and updates. Last updated 25/02/16.

 17   September 2015 

AGM. 

‘Forgotten Fields: a History of Thrupp and Wick’

presented by Rachel Everett.

 A talk which uses examples from local archaeology – mostly researched by the AAAHS  to introduce the question of how the richly forested post Ice landscape became the tamed and familiar countryside we have today. 

 Rachel Everett joined the AAAHS as a teenager and it was her enthusiasm for digging at Thrupp that led her to study archaeology at Southampton University. She has subsequently taught English as a Foreign Language and for the last twelve years, history at Matthew Arnold School.

  15 October 2015 . 

 ‘Polish Resettlement Camps in Oxfordshire and the Cotswolds, 1947-69’,

 presented by Dr. Hubert Zawadzki.

 The Second World War and its immediate aftermath brought thousands of Polish servicemen and civilians to Britain. Of the sixty-three known Polish resettlement camps across Britain in 1947-69 eight were situated in Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire. The talk will explain why such camps were established and will set their story in the wider context of international politics.

Born in Scotland of Polish parents who came to Britain with the Polish Armed Forces during the war, Hubert Zawadzki lived in various Polish resettlement camps in Britain until the age of eleven, the last one near Moreton-in-Marsh. His talk, illustrated with many photographs, will give an insight into what life was like in the camps.

 Hubert Zawadzki read Modern History at Keble College, Oxford, before obtaining a doctorate at Wolfson College, Oxford where he was also subsequently a Junior Research Fellow. He taught history at Abingdon School for thirty years while continuing with his academic interests in Poland and Eastern Europe. He is the author of  A Man of Honour: Adam Czartoryski as a Statesman of Russia and Poland, 1795-1831 (Oxford, 1993), and co-author (with Jerzy Lukowski) of A Concise History of Poland (Cambridge, 1st edn. 2001; 2nd edn. 2006). He is currently preparing his mother’s memoirs for publication

 27th of October 2015. The Local History Group

The popular local author, Bob Frampton, will be talking about his forthcoming book about Abingdon during WWII. Please see the Current Activities, Local History page on this site.

All AAAHS members and guests are welcome.

 19 November 2015.   

‘The Camel that escaped the Nazis’,

presented by Dr. Sally Crawford and Dr. Katharina Ulmschneider. 

 The Ashmolean Museum’s East meets West gallery houses a large Tang Chinese pottery camel with a colourful past. Little was known about it until Dr Sally Crawford and Dr Katharina Ulmschneider started digging in the archives of the Oxford Institute of Archaeology.
Discover the story of this camel, from the first documented appearance in 1930s Marburg, Germany, to its current home, and find out how and why it travelled to England with its owner, the extraordinary archaeologist Professor Paul Jacobsthal.

 Dr Katharina Ulmschneider, F.S.A and Dr Sally Crawford, F.S.A. are Senior Research Fellows at the Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford. Both Medieval Archaeologists by training, they took over custodianship of the archives at the Institute five years ago with the aim of promoting and bringing to light its hidden treasures. Their current project HEIR (the Historic Environment Image Resource) is scanning, crowd-sourcing, and re-photographing thousands of historic images of landscapes and monuments from university collections to track global change (http://heirtagger.ox.ac.uk/).

 17 December 2015.    Christmas meeting.

‘What did amuse Victoria?’,

“Pictures in the Parlour”, presented by Kevin Varty

An evening of Victorian enlightenment, education and entertainment using the amazing and occasionally dangerous Magic Lantern. The facts are amazing, the images stunning and the jokes truly awful – but they did make the Victorians laugh – so come, join in and enjoy a unique show. “Pictures in the Parlour” is a show using only original Victorian equipment and glass slides. No computers are used in the presentation. 

 Kevin Varty was born in Derby, went to school in Ashby de la Zouch, to college in Loughborough and ending up working in the Motor Industry in Yorkshire. He now enjoys early retirement and lives in Milton Keynes with Amanda and dog Daks. His hobbies now include presenting Magic Lantern shows, giving talks about the Victorian way of death and researching the Great War.

 21 January 2016

‘The Life of Alfred Williams, 1877-1930’,

 presented by Graham Carter.

Graham presents an illustrated talk about the remarkable life of Swindon writer Alfred Williams (1877-1930). Known nationally as ‘The Hammerman Poet’, Wililams published six books of poetry and a series of books of prose about the Upper Thames and the Vale of White Horse – mostly while working full-time as a steamhammer operator in Swindon’s Great Western Railway Works. This year (2015) sees the centenary of the publishing of his book, Life in a Railway Factory, a rare account of industrial and social conditions in the early part of the 20th century. Williams is also nationally revered as a collector of folk song lyrics, and served his country in India during the First World War. Self-educated and self-made, his is an inspiring tale of what one man can achieve against the odds.

Graham Carter is freelance journalist and editor, based in Swindon. He is a founder and editor of Swindon Heritage, a quality quarterly magazine about the town’s rich and proud history, and has written a weekly column for the Swindon Advertiser for the last 11 years. He is also a co-founder of the Alfred Williams Heritage Society.  Graham is currently co-organising a week of events in Swindon to mark the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, including a spectacular flypast by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight on Battle of Britain Day.

 18 February 2016

‘The Thames from Oxford to Windsor. Shaping history through the centuries’,

presented by Peter Halman.

 The talk will focus on six principal aspects of the river’s influence on historical events and especially on the lives of the local population. Since the earliest of times, the Thames has provided an effective political and social boundary and has determined the siting of settle

ments which grew into today’s towns and villages. A wide range of employment opportunities developed and the river was an important source of food during medieval times. Until the coming of the railway, the Thames was a main highway for goods, people and ideas. Today, the river is a highly valued social and enviromental resource and continues to influence the lives of those who live along it’s banks.

 Peter has lived in the Thames Valley for many years and is actively engaged in local history and heritage matters in his home village of Wargrave. His interest in the river arose from research for his dissertation at Reading on the importance of water transport in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He is involved in editing and publishing of books relating to Wargrave’s history.

17 March 2016. Changes:

 Dr Kamash has had to cancel her presentation and David Clark has very kindly stepped forward to fill the vacancy. 

‘Collars, ties and braces – the wardrobe of Abingdon’s timber-framed buildings’

presented by David Clark

The study of carpentry is not just for anoraks – using trees to make a building was the conversion of nature into culture, and carpentry was a highly regarded craft in the Middle Ages. With the benefit of building recording and tree-ring dating of timbers this talk will show that – despite what one may think at first sight – Abingdon has a rich carpentry tradition of local and national importance.

David Clark became an architectural historian following a career with the UK Atomic Energy Authority. He specialises in vernacular buildings and ran a certificate course on the subject at Oxford University’s Department for Continuing Education. He has published on medieval shops, timber framing in Berkshire (for the revised Buildings of England volume) and co-wrote Burford: buildings and people in a Cotswold town, for the England’s Past for Everyone project. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.

 21 April 2016. The Lambrick Lecture. 

‘Reflections on aspects of Abingdon society c 1550-c 1700.’

presented by Joan Dils

 Abingdon, like some other Berkshire towns, experienced social change and economic challenges in the years following the granting of a borough charter. I hope to explore some of these developments including changing ways of earning a living, business and neighbourly relations and family and domestic life, enlivened by few tales which would not be out of place in a modern tabloid newspaper. 

 Joan Dils is an Honorary Research Fellow in History at the University of Reading where she was for a time a part-time lecturer in the former School of Continuing Education. For many years she has taught local history in Berkshire and South Oxfordshire for the continuing education departments of Reading and Oxford and for the WEA. A number of her courses were workshop classes which resulted in a number of booklets and journal articles. She has published in The Local Historian and Oxoniensia, edited the first edition of An Historical Atlas of Berkshire (1998) and co-edited an enlarged second edition with Margaret Yates in 2012. Her edition of Reading St Laurence Churchwardens’ Accounts 1498-1570 was published by the Berkshire Record Society as vols.19 and 20 in 2013.  Her history of Reading  is to be published soon. She is currently a Vice-President of the Berkshire Local History Association and President of the History of Reading Society

 The Lambrick Lectures.

Gabrielle Lambrick was a highly respected medieval historian who died in 1968. Much of her work was on Abingdon Abbey. Most notably, she and CF Slade edited Two Cartularies of Abingdon Abbey, published in two volumes by the Oxford Historical Society in 1990-2. These are collections of legal and internal documents of the abbey. She contributed to a set of papers on ‘The Early History of Abingdon, Berkshire, and its Abbey’ in the journal Medieval History, Vol XII, 1968. She wrote a booklet for the Friends of Abingdon in 1966 on ‘Business affairs at Abingdon Abbey in medieval times’ describing the obedientiary system of administration and was the author of numerous other papers in the academic journals.

She was the mother of the archaeologist George Lambrick who is an honorary vice-president of our society, and it is George who sponsors the annual Lambrick lecture in her memory.

 19 May 2016. 

‘Radley Church in the civil war’,

presented by Richard Dudding.

The Church of St James the Great, Radley lacks a north aisle and transept.  Local legend is that they were destroyed by Parliamentary troops in the English Civil War and that Royalist soldiers killed in the skirmish were buried in the churchyard.  This legend has developed traction and is supported by authorities such as The Victoria County History and the latest edition of Pevsner.

But can any evidence be found to substantiate this account?  Richard Dudding’s talk takes a rigorous look at the structure of the surviving building, archaeology in the churchyard and documentary accounts.  A rethink may well be required.

 Richard Dudding studied history at Jesus College Cambridge, and has recently returned to the subject after a 
career in central and local government.  In 2014 he published ‘Early Modern Radley, People, Land and Buildings 1547-1768’, and currently is researching for a Radley History Club book about Radley Church due to be published in Autumn 2016.

 16 June 2016

Open evening. 

An evening highlighting members’ interests and recent research.

 This year the annual members’ evening will also be an open evening. Members are encouraged to bring non-member friends, and anyone interested will be welcome. We won’t ask for donations, and anyone who joins the society will have their membership extended to the end of the 2016-17 season.

In no particular order: Roger Ainslie will be giving us ‘The Drayton Bronze Age enclosure – why houses are being built on part of it’.

Jackie Smith will be presenting  ‘William Watkin Waite (1778 – 1856) and St Helen’s Wharf. Jackie is local historian, archivist and author.

We also shall have an update of our societies Abingdon Buildings and People project.