Oxfordshire History Centre

Oxfordshire History Centre

Oxfordshire History Centre is located in St Luke’s Church, Cowley, Oxford. It aims to collect, preserve and make available the records of the historic county of Oxfordshire. It holds original records and printed material from the 12th to 21st century, which are available for all to see free of charge. It is owned and run by Oxfordshire County Council. It is recognised as a place of deposit by The National Archives.

Contents

History

An Office was established by Oxfordshire County Council in 1935 and was located in County Hall in Oxford. It had the remit to collect historic documents relating to the history of Oxfordshire as well as the records of Oxfordshire County Council itself. These collections were significantly enlarged when the Bodleian Library transferred responsibility for the Diocesan, Archdeaconry and Parish collections of Oxfordshire to the History Centre in 1984.

As the collections grew, the storage space in County Hall was augmented by a series of remote stores. However, by the 1990s increasing visitor numbers as well as a desperate need for more storage space meant that a new building was essential. The Diocese of Oxford offered the County Council the redundant church of St. Luke in Cowley and this building, first built by Lord Nuffield as a place of worship for the workers in his Cowley plant was converted with the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund, Paul Getty and other donors.

The new Office opened to the public in November 2000. [1]

In 2011 The former Oxfordshire Record Office and Oxfordshire Studies services were merged into one comprehensive history service and renamed Oxforshire History Centre.

Visitor Information

Oxfordshire History Centre is open Tuesday from 10am-5pm and Wednesday-Saturday from 9am-5pm. Please note it is closed the Saturday before a bank holiday. The Centre is part of the County Archive Network Research, so those readers’ tickets are valid. For further information and contact details please see the visitors page.

Holdings

Oxfordshire History Centre holds a wide range of records which may be of use in family history, local history or other types of research:

  • Local administrative records of the county, including the Quarter Sessions, County Council, District Councils, Parish Councils, Poor Law Union and Borough records.
  • Oxford City Archives
  • Records of the Church of England including diocesan and archdeaconry records, registers of baptism, marriages and burials. Probate, Church Court and school records and poor law papers.
  • Business and organisation records
  • Nonconformist records
  • Solicitors’ records
  • Estate and family records
  • Local newspapers
  • Historic and Ordnance survey mapping
  • Open access reference library
  • Oxfordshire Photographic Archive
  • Oral history resources

Any organisation or private individual is welcome to deposit relevant records concerning Oxfordshire.

Catalogues can be accessed on Heritage Search, A2A or in the searchroom.

Information about other records

On site the records are cared for by are professionally qualified Archivists a Conservator and Local Studies Librarian. However, relevant records are located elsewhere:

  • Modern Oxfordshire County Council records. These are held by the Records Management Unit based in County Hall, Oxford.
  • Local history reference library 'The county's most extensive online and print reference collection, including local and family history, newspapers and magazines' This is also run by Oxfordshire County Council and based at the Westgate Library in Oxford.
  • Vale of White Horse Records. This area was originally part of the historic county of Berkshire before the 1974 local government reorganisation. As a result the historic records are kept at Berkshire Record Office.

Dark Archivist

In May 2007 Oxfordshire History Centre launched the Dark Archivist website. [2]

This site was designed to allow people to access some of Oxfordshire’s interesting history without necessarily visiting the Oxfordshire History Centre.

It features the Dark Archivist, who takes the visitor around Oxfordshire through the ages, searching for sinister crimes which took place hundreds of years ago, looking for old remedies and reading up on crimes as they might have been written up by journalists today.

External links

References

  1. ^ ‘’Oooooh! What’s all this?’’ ‘’The Oxford Times’’ (Mar 2001).
  2. ^ Koenig, Chris ‘’Dare you delve into his dark archives?’’ ‘’The Oxford Times’’ (May 2007).

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