On 8 May History Club members and guests enjoyed a fascinating talk by Josie Midwinter about her parents’ shop in Didcot, enhanced by a model of the shop and specimens of ration books.

Josie’s father Henry Midwinter shrewdly set up the grocery, confectionery and tobacco shop immediately opposite Didcot railway station, attracting much custom from railway staff, train and bus passengers, and the Army Ordnance Depot. During rationing, the shop received exactly the cheese needed to supply each registered customer with their allotted 2 oz per week. In practice, customers got their precisely cut ration, and the Midwinter family had the crumbs left over.

The shop was a cheerful place, where Henry always found time to listen to customers. Without refrigerators, they could not stock, for example, meat pies, but did sell their own bacon. They also provided much-used cycle storage (for 4d a day), and took and received parcels carried by local buses.

The family sold the shop after Henry died in 1963, when customers had begun to prefer the chain stores in the new Didcot Broadway. Josie’s experience of being able to talk to anyone was the foundation for her subsequent vocation as a priest.

On 12 June, in a change to the previously advertised programme, Stephen Barker will talk about women who took part in the English Civil Wars, undertook spying missions and negotiated deals with politicians.

Reports of previous meetings

On 3rd April 2023, Alastair Lack spoke about The History of Oxford University.

Alastair’s talk outlined the history of the University, starting from the 900s when students are first recorded to have been in Oxford, through to its development into the modern University with 39 Colleges and 24,000 students, drawn from over 160 countries. Before the founding of the first colleges, students lived in halls throughout the city and little importance was attached to learning. The collegiate system began with the founding of University College in 1249 with the goal of providing an education to its students who, initially, numbered only four. Balliol followed in 1263 and, in the ensuing centuries, monarchs and churchmen founded more colleges. These included, New College, established by William of Wykeham in 1379 exclusively for students from Winchester College, which he had also founded, and Lincoln College, founded by the Bishop of Lincoln in 1427 as a bulwark against the Lollards and other unorthodox religious movements for which Oxford has always been noted. Two notable 15th century colleges are All Souls, which has no students, and Magdalen. Lady Margaret Hall and Somerville, both founded in the 1870s, were the first colleges to admit women.

Oxford has many important libraries, built on the original donation, by Duke Humphry, of 200 books, and developed by Sir Thomas Bodley who established the Bodleian as a legal deposit library, entitled to a copy of every book published in the country. The Radcliffe Camera was England’s first science library.

Oxford’s colleges, museums, libraries and churches are the work of many of the greatest architects of every century, including Wren and Hawksmoor in the 17th and George Gilbert Scott in the 19th.

On 8 May 2023, Josie Midwinter will give a talk on Growing up in a Corner Shop. This will be followed by refreshments to mark the coronation of King Charles III.

Reports of previous meetings

On 13 March 2023, Richard Dudding spoke about The Making of Radley Lakes to a packed church of members and guests.

Richard’s talk covered the history of the Radley Lakes area up to the year 2000. He began by explaining its topology and geography: by the river, an area of meadow, to the north of that, pasture, and further north again, arable land overlaying a gravel terrace. This mix proved ideal for human settlement and, by around 2000 BC, organized communities had been established. But around the time of the Roman occupation they disappeared, and it was not until after the 10th century founding of Abingdon Abbey that Thrupp was settled. The area was farmed in a strip system, with common land close to the river. Thrupp thrived for several centuries but after about 1300, and for reasons unknown, its population declined and never recovered.

 After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the Lakes area became part of the new manor of Radley. The land was enclosed towards the end of the 17th century and large tenant farmers, who employed labourers, replaced the self-sufficient husbandmen and yeoman farmers. In the 19th century the Dockar-Drysdale family acquired Wick Farm and went on to buy Thrupp Farm, which became the farming base with new buildings. After World War II the family began to sell some fields and lease others to companies who extracted gravel from what had been the arable acreages. Gravel extraction ceased in the 1990s. The pits filled with groundwater to form lakes, while trees and shrubs colonised what had once been thriving farmland, and the Radley Lakes area began to take on its current, but certainly not ancient, appearance.

On 3 April 2023, Alistair Lack will give a talk on The History of Oxford University. Please note that this meeting is taking place a week earlier than usual because the second Monday in April is the Easter Bank Holiday.

Reports of previous meetings

On 13 February 2023, Keith Parry gave a talk about the Thames bridges between Oxford and Abingdon to a well-attended meeting with over 40 guests.

The first part of Keith’s talk was a general overview of bridges.  In the 11th century, there was only one bridge over the Thames and that was in London.  In the following six centuries, the addition of further bridges over the Thames followed the ups and downs of the English economy, with a big increase from the middle of the 13th century as the population and economy grew.  Bridges often replaced fords or ferries, being safer and more efficient. They were particularly important in shaping the route of long distance trading networks.  Wooden bridges were gradually replaced by stone.  The costs of maintaining them were met in various ways, through bridge estates, which often derived their income from rents, through bequests and endowments, and through tolls levied on traffic passing over and under a bridge.

Having set the background, Keith went on to talk about four local bridges in more detail, one of which was Abingdon Bridge.  Before it was built, the east-west route through the town was difficult, requiring ferry crossings over the Thames and Swift Ditch.  As a result, wool from the Cotswolds that was sent to London for export avoided the town.   At the start of the 15th century, in a bid to capture this trade, four merchants from Abingdon built bridges across the Thames and Swift Ditch.  Unfortunately, wool exports from the Cotswolds were being replaced at this time by the export of cloth manufactured in the Newbury area. The cloth was sent directly to London, once again by-passing Abingdon.  Abingdon Bridge was improved in 1829 to take two-way traffic and entirely rebuilt in 1927: this is the bridge we see today.

Keith also talked about Folly Bridge in Oxford and the bridges at Sutton Courtenay and Clifton Hampden.

Reports of previous meetings

On 9 January 2023, Laurence Waters gave a very well-attended talk on The History of the Railway from Didcot to Oxford.

The Great Western Railway was founded in 1833 to build a line connecting Bristol to London, with Isambard Kingdom Brunel appointed engineer. Brunel was a believer in the advantages of a broad gauge (7 foot) track and it was not until 1892 that GWR wholly moved to the standard gauge. A branch line to Oxford was envisaged in the original GWR plans but a shortage of money, and opposition from some quarters, led to this idea being scrapped. However, in 1843 Parliament passed the Oxford Railway Act and in June 1844 GWR’s line connecting Didcot Junction (as it was then known) to Oxford was opened. At Culham Brunel built a brick and stone station, which is now a listed building. The station in Oxford was located at Grandpont, close to a wharf on the Thames. The line was later extended northwards, reaching Banbury in 1850 and Birmingham in 1852. In the latter year, the station at Oxford was moved to its present location. In 1854 a spur was built to link Abingdon and Oxford. The station at Radley opened in 1873 as a new junction station for the Abingdon branch.

 In telling the story of the Didcot to Oxford line, Laurence showed many fascinating pictures and photographs of its stations, locomotives and people, from the earliest years to the present day. It was striking to see the large numbers employed at the stations and also to learn that horses were widely used on the railway for shunting. Didcot played a crucial role in this, being the location of the feed store for the horses of the entire GWR network.

Reports of previous meetings