History Society

The History Group was delighted by the excellent attendance at the talk on February 18th by Chris Day on Writing the History of Oxfordshire Places. We would like to thank you all for turning out on a dreary February evening to make the evening such a success. It is anticipated that similar evenings will be held in the future if suitable speakers can be found. Should anybody have any suggestions they would be most welcome.

Following the evening, it was decided that capturing the present of Wroxton for future generations would be the next task for the history group. How this should be done was discussed at some length. What had been most appealing about Chris Day’s talk was being able to hear voices from the past from documents written by ordinary people: such documents being unfortunately far too few. So it was decided that Wroxton’s present history could best be written by each and every one of us in our own words. What we are asking people to do is to write a piece for the history project as long or as short as they like. It can be about any aspect of village life of the writer’s choosing. Ideally within the piece we would like the writer to say who they are, where they live, how they came to Wroxton and from where. Also some information about their immediate family would be useful. However this is not obligatory and it is up to each individual to write what they choose. Some people will be able to immediately think of things to say that future generations would like to hear others may find it very daunting. If you fall into the latter category but would like to contribute do contact one of the people named below who will endeavour to give you some help on getting started. The pieces can be hand written or typed, delivered electronically or by hand, all we ask is that we could have contributions by the beginning of October.

We are aware that people could potentially be handing over a good deal of information about themselves and that we need to be careful of this. As a consequence the written pieces will not be put on the village website unless people state that they have no objections to this. Collating the pieces and publishing them for distribution within the community has been discussed but again this would very much be with the consensus of those involved. What we have decided is that the work submitted will be stored and kept safe for future Wroxtonians to read and enjoy and that we will periodically update it. None of this means that research into the past through documents and visits to Trinity is shelved and we welcome any efforts on this front too.

For help or more information please contact Jenny Leach 738451, John Woodward 730543,Hilary Thompson 738838, Maureen Woollacott 730368, Erica Imison 738183 or John Reader 730344

Wroxton Churchyard

Recording of the churchyard monuments is almost complete but not quite ready for publication. It will eventually be lodged with the Oxfordshire Family History Society, who will arrange distribution to

libraries.

For an index of the monuments Click Here

In the meantime, Mrs E. Young (Email lizmbyoung@googlemail.com) will try to answer any enquiries. Copies of the transcripts of Wroxton church registers can be found at the Centre for Oxfordshire Studies in Westgate Library, Oxford, and also at the Centre for Banburyshire Studies at Banbury Library, Marlborough Road, Banbury.