Oxford Local History Association Newsletter Issue 131 -- Summer 2015 OXFORDSHIRE LOCAL HISTORY NEWS The Newsletter of the Oxfordshire Local History Association Issue 131 Summer 2015 ISSN 1465-4695 Chairman's Musings On the right tracks? To accommodate overhead wiring on the London to Bristol line, our low Almost two centuries have passed since the first loading gauge has passenger railway was built in the Thames Valley, yet necessitated lowering the today trains are making big news in and around railway tracks in some Oxfordshire. places, notably the famous Box Tunnel near Bath, The controversy over HS2, the proposed high-speed thus creating dips in the line from London to the West Midlands, which would line. This would have been run close to Oxfordshire’s northeast border, continues anathema to the Great unabated. Just over the county’s southern border, - Reading station has been thoroughly modernised and Western’s Victorian engin eer, Isambard Kingdom expanded. Apart from the lines already running in five Brunel, who prided himself on the exceptionally flat directions from Reading, it will soon be possible to catch a Crossrail train from there to the far side of course of his “billiard table” through the Vale of White Horse. London without the need to change trains. Direct rail services from Reading to Heathrow Airport are also More often, though, the solution to the low loading promised. gauge problem has been to maintain existing gradients and instead raise the road bridges that cross the Within Oxfordshire itself, things are also on the move. railway. This has caused immense disruption when Didcot station has recently had a revamp, with much- Oxfordshire roads such as the A417 at Challow Station improved parking and road vehicle access. And this summer sees the opening of the new Oxford Parkway (site of the Great Western Railway’s first crash, back in 1840) have been closed for weeks on end. In the case station on the northern outskirts of the city. It will offer of the A338, the main road from Wantage to Oxford, a an alternative rail route from Oxford to London. So, concerted campaign involving the local Member of just as Reading has long offered the options of Parliament was necessary to persuade Network Rail to Paddington or Waterloo as London destinations, adopt a less disruptive bridge replacement programme. Oxford will now give a choice between Paddington and Marylebone. In the late 19th century, no village in the Vale of White Horse was more than six miles from a railway station. But progress often comes at a cost. Anyone travelling Today there are no stations at all in the Vale proper, the by car or bus through the Vale of White Horse, in nearest being Oxford, Didcot and Swindon. And the south-west Oxfordshire, is likely to have experienced trains are no longer built just down the line in frustrating delays or diversions resulting from Swindon: the sleek new electrically-powered rolling electrification of the Great Western line from stock is being constructed in Japan. The Hitachi Paddington to Bristol and Oxford. These delays stem company already has its engine sheds at Old Oak from the fact that Britain pioneered railway Common on the line into Paddington. development and, in so doing, restricted itself to the lowest feasible height clearance (“loading gauge”) for Back in the 1960s, it was often said that Britain had bridges and tunnels. Other countries, many of which won the war but lost the peace. Soon, as you whizz by had railways built by British engineers, took advantage Didcot power station (owned by a German company) of a higher loading gauge. This enabled them easily to in your sleek Japanese-built train, you will be able to accommodate the overhead catenary necessary to reflect on the fact that the new railway service from support high-tension electrical cables to power electric Oxford Parkway to Marylebone is run by a subsidiary trains. It also meant they could run bigger freight of Deutsche Bahn, a company wholly owned by the wagons and double-decker passenger trains, a German government. commonplace sight on French, Belgian, Dutch and many other railways. 1 Oxford Local History Association Newsletter Issue 131 -- Summer 2015 Oxfordshire Local History Association Oxfordshire Local History News - Issue 131 Officers and Committee Contents Page Tony Hadland : Chairman Chairman’s Musings …………………..…....…..... 1 Norma Aubertin-Potter: Secretary Updates from the Shires: Recording our History Liz Woolley: Treasurer and Membership Secretary Oxfordshire History Centre Update…................. 2 Berkshire Record Office Update …….….……... 3 Chris Hall: Journal Editor Victoria County History Update………...………4 Vicky Jordan: Study Day Organiser Group Members of OLHA ......................................5 Kathryn Davies (English Heritage) Spotlight on Local History Societies & Museums: Kennington History Society ................................6 Malcolm Graham (ex Centre for Oxon Studies) Witney Museum and Historical Society ..............7 Philip Morris (Stanford in the Vale History Society) The Bishop's Palace, Witney ...............................8 East Hendred Museum at Champs Chapel ..........9 John Stewart (Littlemore Historical Society) Holton Park Archive ..........................................10 Simon Townley (Victoria County History) Resources............................................................11 Email Contact: OLHA Study Day ..................................................13 Other Stories from the Districts Chairman: [email protected] Oxford Cones Study ...........................................14 Membership: [email protected] Wychwood Manor ..............................................15 Journal: [email protected] Thames Valley Henges ......................................16 New Publications ...................................................17 Newsletter: [email protected] Recent Additions to Oxfordshire Libraries ........18 Study Day: [email protected] Notices ...................................................................20 Courses, Workshops, Walks ..................................21 Website: www.olha.org.uk Events Diary ..........................................................23 (Chairman's Musings, cont from p 1) If you are interested in the history of railways in that my copy from the excellent Pendon Museum at Long part of Oxfordshire which was formerly North Wittenham, which is always worth a visit. Berkshire, I can recommend a new and profusely illustrated 160-page book by Adrian Vaughan, entitled Railways through the Vale of White Horse. I bought Tony Hadland, Chairman ________________________________________________________________________________________________ UPDATES FROM THE SHIRES: RECORDING OUR HISTORY ________________________________________________________________________________ Oxfordshire History Centre Update and processes. We are aiming to We are writing this at the end of April, traditionally the apply in July, for month when we analyse how we have fared over the panel assessment county council year. In 2014/15 service usage of the in November. county’s archives, local studies and photographic resources remained fairly stable. Total visitor contact Preservica cloud (on-site and remote) was slightly down on 2013/14, but storage* our online presence is growing, with much more Oxfordshire information now accessible on our web pages. Website History Centre hits have increased by 4% in the past 12 months. It was signed a contract also encouraging to see that, as last year, about 20% of with Preservica st our visitors were first time users of the History Centre on 1 April to provide us with Archive Service Accreditation ‘cloud storage.’ The History Centre is busy preparing its application bid Preservica is a for Accreditation. This is a UK-wide scheme which company which specialises in not just the storage of examines in detail whether we are providing a high digital material, but also its active preservation, to level of service to our users and other stakeholders. It ensure that today’s digital formats don’t fall into also assesses if we are preserving our collections in obsolescence and become unreadable. We currently line with national standards and have robust plans and hold somewhere between 15 and 20 terabytes of digital policies to manage and develop the service. It has led material stored in a variety of places, including us to review and expand on our existing documentation network drives and portable media such as USB 2 Oxford Local History Association Newsletter Issue 131 -- Summer 2015 drives, disk and tape! Properly managed cloud storage through handling. The other main purpose is to widen should help us amend the considerable vulnerability of access to and knowledge of the resources; with this in our current situation and make it easier to provide mind, plans are in hand to make the District Valuation direct public access in the near future to certain records and parish registers available online. Hosting resources from our Searchroom computers – eg the tithe maps on the web is not likely to be feasible in digitised oral history sound recordings and video. the foreseeable future. Digitisation projects’ update Social media Three sets of our archival records which have been Following a successful few weeks’ trial, Oxfordshire scanned in the past couple of years are now available in History Centre now has its own Twitter account and digital form in our searchroom: Facebook page. Our aim is to provide a mix of news feeds and topical