Postponed due to Coronavirus – date tbc
In the mid nineteenth century changes in employment practices and rising real wages meant that ordinary working people found themselves, usually for the first time, with leisure time and with spare money to spend on recreation. All sorts of establishments arose to fulfil the new demand for entertainment, many of them aimed at keeping people out of the pub. This talk describes where and how Oxford citizens spent their free time, and how the middle classes attempted to impose ‘rational recreation’ on their working-class contemporaries.
Pleasure Boats on the Thames at Oxford ca 1890 – image copyright held by Oxfordshire County Council
Liz lives in Oxford and has an MSc in English Local History from the University’s Department for Continuing Education. She is particularly interested in Oxford’s “town” – as opposed to “gown” – history, and in the lives of ordinary working citizens in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Looking ahead:
- 27th May: Pam Manix on ‘Oxford’s Medieval Jewish Quarter’.
- 19th May, guided tour of the Fairmile Hospital site at Cholsey, led by Ian Wheeler. Meet by the Great Hall at 2 p.m., suggest car share and donation of £3 per person. More information from Sue Popham.
- 11th July: summer outing to Hughenden Manor. More information from Gail Thomas.
Visitors and new members are always very welcome to our talks and outings.
Margot Metcalfe, Chairman
