October 2022 meeting: Keble College and ‘The Light of the World’ by Holman Hunt

On 10 October 2022, Lizzy Rowe gave a talk: Keble College and ‘The Light of the World’ by Holman Hunt. She began by recounting how Keble came to be founded. John Keble was the author of ‘The Christian Year’, published in 1827, a best-selling collection of religious poems. He was appointed Professor of Poetry at Oxford and, together with Pusey and Newman, was a central figure in the Oxford Movement. Following his death in 1866, his friends decided to found a college in his memory. Thirty-five thousand pounds were raised by public subscription and Keble College opened in 1870. The design, by William Butterfield, is in the high Victorian Gothic style, and uses brick rather than the traditional stone. It has long proved controversial. The chapel, also by Butterfield, was added in 1870, following a donation by William Gibbs.

William Holman Hunt’s painting, ‘The Light of the World’, hangs in a side chapel in Keble. Hunt was a leading member of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood and the painting was first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1854. It was given as a gift to Keble by its original purchasers. The picture shows Christ seeking admission at a door and is laden with religious symbolism. Two later versions believed to be by Holman Hunt exist. The larger, from 1900-1904, was purchased by the social reformer Charles Booth. Booth viewed the painting as a religious rather than artistic artefact and he arranged its exhibition throughout the British Empire where it met with huge interest, sometimes bordering on hysteria. This version now hangs in St. Paul’s Cathedral. ‘The Light of the World’ continues to be a very popular and much reproduced work of art.

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September 2022 meeting: A Guide’s Guide: Working in Historic Houses in the 21st Century

At RHC’s meeting on 12 September, Joyce Huddleston showed photographs from the Club’s archives of Radley schoolchildren at the late Queen’s visit to Abingdon in 1956, and of the Queen at Radley College in 1997. This was followed by our customarily swift Annual General Meeting.

Sarah Somerville then gave the Club a ‘Guide’s guide’, describing her experiences working in two historic houses: Highclere Castle and Shaw House.

Highclere Castle is the seat of the Earl and Countess of Carnarvon. The 5th Earl sponsored Howard Carter’s excavations in Egypt, culminating in the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922. Visitors can see copies of the tomb’s treasures, which had lain forgotten at Highclere until the butler showed them to the 7th Earl.

The house is now better known as the fictional ‘Downton Abbey’. Sarah was fascinated to observe the hours it took the television crews to make a few minutes of film. From 2011, there were thousands of visitors a day. Staff had to balance the needs of the current 8th Earl and his family, the film crews and actors, and the visitors – and chase escaping sheep.

Currently Sarah is managing visitor services at West Berkshire Council’s Shaw House, Newbury. Built 1579-81 in the then expensive brick, with huge windows and chimneys, the house was requisitioned in 1939, became a school in 1943, but was unsafe and unoccupied from 1985. From 2003, it was expensively restored. It is now a conference centre and Register Office, open to the public at weekends and holidays. Keeping out damp, and maintaining the Elizabethan windows, continue to be a challenge.

Reports of previous meetings

Programme for 2022-2023

All meetings are held at Radley Parish Church, Church Road, Abingdon OX14 2JN starting at 7.30 pm. Non-members are welcome – a donation of £2.50 is suggested.

Monday 12th September 2022 at 7.30 pm
Annual General Meeting followed by A Guide’s Guide: Working in Historic Houses in the 21st century
Speaker: Sarah Somerville
Sarah is the Visitor Services Officer at Shaw House, a Grade I listed Elizabethan manor house situated on the northern edge of Newbury and managed by West Berkshire Council as a visitor attraction and conference centre. As well as guiding tours of the house, Sarah manages events held at Shaw House and the gift shop there. Her talk highlights the varied skills needed to work in a historic house seeking to pay its way while being part of the local community in the 21st century.

Monday 10th October 2022 at 7.30 pm
Keble College and The Light of the World by Holman Hunt
Speaker: Lizzy Rowe
Lizzy looks at the origins of Keble College and tells some of the fascinating stories about its early days, focusing in particular on The Light of the World, the famous painting by William Holman Hunt that hangs in its Chapel. Lizzy teaches art history and leads guided tours of Oxford city centre and the Ashmolean Museum.

Monday 14th November 2022 at 7.30 pm
From Axtell to Zacharias: the men who built Oxford
Speaker: Liz Woolley
The talk examines some of the characters involved in the city’s enormous expansion during the Victorian period including builders, architects, property developers and landlords. Fortunes were made, reputations were lost, regulations were ignored, and political careers were boosted. Liz is a local historian specialising in aspects of Oxford and Oxfordshire, with a particular interest in the city’s ‘town’ as opposed to ‘gown’.

Monday 9th January 2023 at 7.30 pm
The History of the Railway from Didcot to Oxford
Speaker: Laurence Waters
Laurence draws on his extensive knowledge of local railway lines to tell us the history of the railway from Didcot to Oxford. Laurence has written several books about the Great Western Railway, the latest being Railways of Oxford: A Transport Hub that Links Britain. He is the Photo Archivist of the Great Western Trust at Didcot Railway Centre.

Monday 13th February 2023 at 7.30 pm
Thames Bridges between Oxford and Abingdon
Speaker: Keith Parry
After the Norman conquest, major bridges across the Thames were established at Oxford, Abingdon and Wallingford, initially as wooden structures and later as stone. Keith’s talk focuses on the older road bridges, particularly those in Oxford, Grandpont and Oseney, and Abingdon. Keith is a voluntary researcher at the Maidenhead Heritage Centre and a trustee of The Historic Towns Trust

Monday 13th March 2023 at 7.30 pm
The History of the Radley Lakes area up to 2000
Speaker: Richard Dudding
Until commercial gravel extraction began after World War II, the area known today as the Radley Lakes was farmland. Richard, Club archivist and secretary of the Radley Lakes Trust, describes the history of the area from the Iron Age to 2000. His talk offers a preview of the history chapter of a forthcoming book on the Radley Lakes story.

Monday 3rd April 2023 at 7.30 pm
The History of Oxford University
Speaker: Alastair Lack
Alastair read modern history at University College Oxford. After a career working for the BBC, he now lives in Oxford where he is a Green Badge Guide. Alastair is thus well-placed to present what might be called a ‘whistlestop stop tour’ of the history of Oxford University.

Note change of day to the first Monday of the month to avoid Easter Monday.

Monday 8th May 2023 at 7.30 pm
Growing up in a 1950s Corner Shop
Speaker: Josie Midwinter
Josie’s parents, Henry and Esther, ran Midwinter’s Grocery Shop in Didcot opposite the railway station where Josie grew up. Josie describes her memories of her childhood there and the role of corner shops at that time. Josie, a retired minister in the Church of England, has returned to her roots in Didcot for her retirement.

Monday 12th June 2023 at 7.30 pm
Six Warrior Women of the English Civil Wars, 1642-1651
Speaker: Stephen Barker
During the English Civil War, women were not meek bystanders who took no part in the conflict but actively participated in a variety of ways, challenging the orthodoxies of their day and perhaps our own preconceptions. This talk looks briefly at six women who took part in the fighting, undertook spying missions and negotiated deals with politicians. Stephen is an independent Heritage Advisor who works with museums, universities and other heritage organisations to design exhibitions and make funding applications.

Monday 10th July 2023 at 7.30 pm
50 Years in the Thames Valley Police Force
Speaker: Christine Bovingdon-Cox
Christine joined the Thames Valley Police Force in 1973 and worked in various departments including Child Abuse Investigation, Major Crime, Counter-Terrorism, Protection for the Royal Family and Members of Parliament, and Professional Standards. In recognition of her remarkable career, Christine received a British Empire Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2021.

August: No meeting

Monday 11th September 2022 at 7.30 pm
Annual General Meeting followed by:

Cemeteries of Oxford – More than a Century of History
Speaker: Trevor Jackson
Oxford today has four municipal cemeteries plus a number of parish cemeteries and churchyards. Trevor tells the story of the development and closure of cemeteries in the city over the years. Trevor was Oxford City Council’s Manager of Cemeteries for 12 years following his retirement from the RAF.

July 2022 meeting: Victorian sewers

On 11 July, in the welcome cool of the church, Tom Crook related how inadequate sewers in London led to the Great Stink of 1858.

In the 1800s, as the population grew, there were blockages in the sewers, intolerable pollution in the Thames, and outbreaks of typhoid, dysentery, and cholera.

An enlightened lawyer, Edwin Chadwick, led an Inquiry into the ‘Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain’. Their report, published in 1842, recommended better water supplies and public sewers. Unfortunately, the first attempts, for example in Croydon, failed because the new sewers were narrow pipes, which blocked.

In the hot summer of 1858, the Great Stink in the Thames became unbearable in Westminster, and the Government empowered the Metropolitan Board of Works to put into effect a plan prepared by their chief engineer Joseph Bazalgette for a huge network of local and giant main sewers, pumping London’s sewage to outfalls at Beckton and Crossness. One sewer ran under the newly created Thames Embankment. Bazalgette’s scheme worked, and still works. With hindsight, it would have been better to separate foul and rain-water drainage – as London and many other places around the country are now finding out.

Note from The History of Radley: In Radley, mains water was brought to the village in the 1940s and mains sewerage in the 1950s. Before then villagers relied on wells and cess pits.

Reports of previous meetings

June 2022 meeting: The Story of Poland

On 13 June 2022, Hubert Zawadzki spoke about The Land of the White Eagle: The Story Of Poland. The White Eagle is the symbol of Poland and Hubert recounted how its appearance on the Polish flag changed during the country’s history, reflecting its shifting boundaries and political vicissitudes.

Poland’s emergence dates from the 10th century, with the adoption of Christianity in 966. In 1385 it united with Lithuania and there followed 300 years during which their federal union thrived and religious tolerance was established. Yet it was also in this period that serfdom was consolidated, lasting until the 19th century.

In the final decades of the 18th century, Poland’s fortunes waned as its more powerful neighbours, Prussia, Russia and Austria, divided the country among themselves, with the Polish state disappearing in 1795. The 19th century was a period of failed insurrections and high emigration, especially to the USA, but also great artistic and scientific achievements (many by Poles living in exile).

Poland re-emerged after the first World War, only to be divided between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany in 1939 and occupied for most of World War Two by the latter, with devastating effects. From 1945 to 1989 Poland was a satellite of the Soviet Union.

Over the past 30 years, as an independent country, Poland has forged closer ties to the west, joining the EU in 2004 and enjoying rapid economic development. Hubert concluded that, despite these successes, recent history has left deep scars and a politically polarized society; there may be a bumpy road ahead.

Reports of previous meetings