TALKS & EVENTS
Evening Talk Reviews
Explore reports and reflections from the Society’s programme of evening talks, covering local history, archaeology, people, places and the wider history of Oxfordshire and the Cotswolds.
2025/26 Season
The most recent completed season of Society evening talks.
- May 2026AGM and ‘From Our Archive’
- April 2026Who Do You Think They Were? Family History Research
- March 2026A Profile of Thomas Fairfax
- February 2026Witney New Mill
- January 2026The Mitford Sisters
- December 2025Christmas in the Cotswolds
- November 2025Fairford Church
- October 2025A History of What the English Have Eaten
- September 2025Trench Humour in the First World War
2024/25 Season
- May 2025AGM and Evening Talk: ‘From Our Archive’
- April 2025The Chipping Norton Branch Line
- March 2025Archaeology in the Chipping Norton Area
- February 2025Child Labour in Oxfordshire
- January 2025Cotswold Quarries 2
- December 2024A Victorian Christmas
- November 2024Cospatrick Tragedy Reflections
- October 2024Our Boys 1914–1918
- September 2024Portable Antiquities Scheme
2023/24 Season
- May 2024AGM and Evening Talk: ‘From Our Archive’
- April 2024‘Down in the Dumps’ – How Oxford Helped Win World War Two
- March 2024Known Unto God – A Great War Detective Story
- February 2024The Effect of Enclosures on Common Right
- January 2024Cemeteries of Oxford: More Than a Century of History
- November 2023Romans of Oxfordshire
- October 2023Drovers’ Roads in Oxfordshire and Beyond
- September 2023‘Morris’ Motopolis
2022/23 Season
- May 2023History of the Windrush Stone Quarries
- April 2023English Civil War in the Cotswolds
- March 2023Bellfounding at Burford 1630–1940
- February 2023Conscientious Objection, Religion and the Public in Oxford in 1916
- January 2023RAF Brize Norton – 80 Years of Flying Operations
- November 2022English Almshouses: Ancient and Modern
- October 2022On This Day in Oxfordshire
- September 2022The Medway Queen
From the Archive: 2021/22
The 2021/22 season included the Society’s 40th anniversary celebrations and a special presentation on the historic development of Milton-under-Wychwood.
The Building of Milton-under-Wychwood, c.1700–c.1900
The evening’s principal presentation was given by WLHS secretary John Bennett, who explored the development of Milton over two centuries.
The talk considered housing for the gentry and working population, the chapels and Parish Church, and the important role of the Groves family of builders and masons. Contemporary and historic photographs from the Society’s archive illustrated how the village developed within its wider architectural and social context.
Other talks from the 2021/22 season
- April 2022Lewis Carroll and the River Thames
- March 2022The History of FWP Matthews Mill
- February 2022Oxfordshire During the Second World War
- January 2022Roman Tackley
- November 2021William Morris and the Cotswolds
- October 2021The Development of Primitive Methodism
2020/21 Season
- May 2021Glove Making in West Oxfordshire
- April 2021Hero of the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry
- March 2021The Journey from Afghanistan
- February 2021The Wilts & Berks Canal
- January 2021Ellen Hinde and the Prebendal
- November 2020The Battle of Edgehill
- October 2020The Remarkable Life of Olive Gibbs
What’s coming next?
See the Society’s current programme of evening talks and forthcoming events.