This talk by Mark Lewis celebrates the life and work of William Morris, poet, artist and social reformer, who pioneered a movement against the soulless machine production of the Industrial Revolution and sought to promote joyful labour, fine craftsmanship and simplicity of expression. Mark is a designer-maker specialising in silversmithing, jewellery and product design. He […]

This lecture takes place at Magdalen College Auditorium, 11am, preceded by EGM for members of the Oxford Centre at 10.45am. Speaker Julie Ann Godson tells the story of the marriage of Viscount Ashbrook to Betty Ridge, daughter of a humble Thames fisherman. Betty’s granddaughter became Duchess of Marlborough and chatelaine of Blenheim Palace. Secret marriage, aristocratic […]

Fleeing from Nazi persecution and in search of wealthy English clients, Ernӧ Goldfinger settled in London in 1934 and married the artist Ursula Blackwell. This talk addresses the design, construction and collections of 2 Willow Road, the couple’s former home in Hampstead, a major landmark of modernist architecture in England. The lecture is given by […]

Taking place at Magdalen College Auditorium, 11am. Non-members welcome! Local historian, guide and author Mark Davies has researched the varied history of Oxford Castle, founded in 1071, which played an immediate role in the struggle for the throne between the Empress Matilda and King Stephen. It is not until the 17th and 18th centuries that […]

Our speaker is Jenny Mailin, who has researched 5 generations of ancestors who lived in British Raj India. Her talk covers the early introduction of the railways in India, and demonstrates how nowhere other than India has the railway been so indelibly connected with a nation. Jenny is an experienced and engaging speaker, who has […]

Ashdown House has been called “a house built for the love of a woman who never lived to see it”. That woman was Elizabeth of Bohemia, the Winter Queen, sister of King Charles I. In this talk historian Nicola Cornick explores the influences this remarkable woman had over this equally remarkable building and its history. […]

Local historian Liz Wooley is interested in the everyday lives of rural people across Oxfordshire during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Her illustrated talk tells the story of our county’s child workers, many of whom started work part-time at the age of six or seven and, until the compulsory school legislation of the 1870s, left […]

Annual General Meeting at 10.45am. Lecture at 11am. Author and ecologist Hugh Warwick has spent much of his life working on hedgehogs, but he also has a fascination for wider wildlife issues, in particular the fragmentation of our landscape and how that impacts on the ability of wildlife to thrive.  Hedgerows, drystone walls, railways and […]

Taking place at Magdalen College Auditorium, 11am. Non-members welcome! This introduction to paintings conservation at the National Trust will be given by Rebecca Hellen, Specialist Advisor for Paintings at the National Trust, who will describe the Trust’s new in-house studio... (click title for more)

In a world-wide poll conducted to find Britain’s greatest figure, Sir Isaac Newton came top of the list. This illustrated lecture, given by OCNT Member and Mathematician Professor Robin Wilson, covers his life and his mathematical and scientific labours… (click title for more)

Taking place at Magdalen College Auditorium, 11am. Non-members welcome! Hilary Jarvis, Assistant National Conservator at the National Trust leading on Integrated Pest Management for Collections, describes how they monitor pests in National Trust houses... (click title for more)

A rare gem of a Jacobean country house, Chastleton was built between 1607 and 1612 by the prosperous wool merchant, Walter Jones. It was owned by the same increasingly impoverished family until 1991... (click title for more)

Our Lecturer is Simon Hiscock, Director of Oxford Botanic Garden and Harcourt Arboretum, Professor of Botany in the Dept of Plant Sciences at Oxford University. He writes: “Oxford Botanic Garden is the oldest botanic garden in Britain and one of the oldest in the world... (click title for more)

Coffee/tea served from 10.20am. Annual General Meeting at 10.45am. Lecture at 11am. Non-members welcome. Rebekah Hodgkinson is a PhD student in Archaeology at the University of Oxford in collaboration with the National Trust... (click title for more)

Tea and coffee will be served in the Auditorium Foyer from 10.30am, a chance to chat with friends!  All welcome! Members £5, non-members £6...
We are delighted to welcome Patrick Begg, Outdoors and Natural Resources Director for the National Trust... (click title for more)

The whole Nuneham estate, including the planned village and house and park, represents an important demonstration of 18th and 19th century aristocratic taste and power.  It also illustrates... (click title for more)

Tea and coffee will be served in the Auditorium Foyer from 10.30am, a chance to chat with friends!  All welcome! Members £5, non-members £6 
National Trust photography collections are widespread; they reflect the development of photography... (Click title for more)

Our speaker, NT Volunteer David Simmonds, describes his talk:  Great oak trees grow from tiny acorns, and this is certainly true of the National Trust.  From its humble beginnings... (click title for more)

Tea and coffee will be served in the Auditorium Foyer from 10.30am, a chance to chat with friends!  All welcome!  Members £5, non-members £6 
Archaeologist Dr Stephen Wass has been engaged by the National Trust... (click title for more)

Refreshments and raffle from 10.20am;  AGM at 10.45am;  Lecture at 11.10am.  All welcome! Members £5, non-members £6
Benjamin Disraeli was the most unlikely prime minister of the nineteenth century... (click title for more)