Home>Oxfordshire>Oxfordshire Museums
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Oxfordshire Museums
Ashmolean Museum
Said to be the oldest museum in Britain. It originated in 1683. The present building in neo-gothic style was designed by Charles Robert Cockerell in 1845. The lower galleries of the museum contain archaeological exhibitions. One of the most important collections is known as the Tradescant’s Ark - a range of curiosities collected by the traveling Tradescant family in the 17th century. In this collection is a lantern purporting to have belonged to Guy Fawkes and the death mask of Oliver Cromwell. Other exhibits include King Alfred’s Jewel. This dates from the 9th century and used to follow the text in medieval manuscripts. There are also artifacts from outside Britain including findings by the Egyptologist Sir F. Petrie and the discoverer of Knossos, Sir Arthur Evans. On the upper floors are the art galleries. These include collections of Western Art by painters of the Renaissance, Impressionist and Pre-Raphaelite Schools. There are also some more exotic exhibits including silk painting, sculptures and lacquer work from the Far East.
Collections include examples of costume and textiles and natural history specimens. A
waterways discovery gallery offers an exciting ’hands-on’ space enabling visitors to find out in a fun
way, about the scientific principles that govern both waterborne transport and the canal infrastructure.
There is access to an historic working boatyard where the visitor will be able to see traditional and
modern skills and machinery in use.
Spiceball Park Rd, Banbury, OX16 2PQ. Tel: 01295 259855
A collection of historical woodwind, brass and percussion instruments; over a dozen historical keyboard instruments; a complete bow-maker’s (William Retford) workshop and a collection of bows; and the Javanese gamelan Kyai Madu Laras.
Not one library but many, housed in buildings spread all over Oxford. The historic core is
around Radcliffe Square, with the oldest parts being the Duke Humphrey’s Library and the Divinity School.
The Bodleian has received a copy of every new book printed in Britain since 1610, so that the library
contains an unrivalled 400-year record of British literature.
Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3BG Tel: 01865 277180 Email Displays of North Oxfordshire Rural life and Bygones. Contents of many old Banbury Shops.
Museum displays illustrating the traditional crafts and industries of Charlbury, with maps
and photographs.
Prehistoric and Roman artefacts, From Saxon Manor to Market Town in pictures, A display of
Farming , Equipment, Local Industries Chippy at War - The Home Front "Granny’s Kitchen", Chipping Norton
Baseball Club - "All England Champions" Law and Order in Chipping Norton.
Discover what life was like for the Victorians of rural Oxfordshire. There is a farmstead
with its original Cotswold buildings,. There is a Victorian walled garden with agricultural displays. You
can talk to the Victorian maids in the Manor House and watch as they cook on the old range and sample some
of their fresh baking. You can explore the history of the house and enjoy the children’s activities
including trying on Victorian clothes and playing with the Victorian toys. The story of the famous Witney
blankets is told in the Barley Barn, where you can also see the impressive 18th century hand loom.
Church Lane Witney OX28 3LA Tel: 01993 772 602
See a fully working beam engine and three other smaller steam engines, driven by possibly
the oldest working boiler in the country. There is a host of working and static nostalgia, much of which
can be touched and handled and blacksmiths busy at the forge. Three Tower Clocks, two of which are from
local churches, are on view.
Combe, Long Hanborough, Witney OX29 7ET Tel: 01795 886112
Didcot Railway Centre
Home of the Great Western Society and its unique collection of Great Western Railway steam engines, coaches, wagons, buildings and small relics. Join us in our rural setting based around the original engine shed. Didcot OX11 7NJ Tel: 01235-817200 Email Housed in a former granary and cowshed, the displays show 19th and early 20th Century material from the homes, farms, offices and craftsmen’s workshops of North Oxfordshire.
Also shown are a 1912 Aveling and Porter Steam Roller, diesel rollers, tractors and other
stationary steam engines.
Butlin Farm, Claydon, Banbury OX17 1EP Telephone: 0129 589 258 <pre>Museum of OxfordTells the unique history of the city and its people, from prehistoric times to the present day. Exhibits range from a mammoth’s tooth to a ‘Morris Motor’ car engine. Treasures from archaeological excavations include a preserved Roman pottery kiln, a wealth of Medieval artefacts and a whole pavement of cattle bones.
The displays include scientific instruments dating back to antiquity, fine Islamic and
European astrolabes, a comprehensive collection of early chemical apparatus, watches and clocks, medical
instruments, the original penicillin apparatus and Einstein’s blackboard.
Broad St Oxford, OX1 3AZ Tel: 01865 277280 Email Oxford Museum of Natural History
houses the University’s scientific collections of zoological, entomological, geological,
palaeontological and mineralogical specimens, accumulated in the course of the last three centuries.
Parks Road Oxford, OX1 3PW Tel: 01865 272950 Email Oxford Bus Museum
The museum houses over 30 vehicles, from the Oxford horse trams to the buses of the 1960’s,
some roadworthy, others in course of restoration.
BR Station Yard, Main road, Long Harbour, Witney OX8 8LA Tel: 01865 240125
Oxford Museum of Modern Art
Founded in 1965, the museum is the South East‘s leading centre for modern and contemporary art with a national and international reputation. The Oxfordshire Museum
Fletchers House, Park Street, Woodstock, OX20 1SN Tel: 01993 811456 Email
Pendon Museum of Landscape and Transport in Miniature Detailed and colourful miniature scenes showing the beauty of the English countryside as it used to be in the years around 1930. Realistically modelled cottages like the one pictured above, farms, fields and lanes recall the peaceful country ways of that period. Long Wittenham Abingdon OX14 4QD Tel: 01865 407365. Pitt Rivers World famous for its unusual Victorian atmosphere and impressive displays of strange and beautiful objects collected all over the world by travellers, scholars, colonial officers and university students, right up to the present day. Masks, mummies, textiles and toys crowd the cases and the totem pole is three floor highs. An audio guide features Sir David Attenborough. South Parks Road Oxford, OX1 3PP Tel: 01865 270927 Email The River and Rowing Museum The Museum has three main galleries devoted to the River Thames, the international sport of rowing and the town of Henley. There are also three special exhibition galleries, the Riverside Café, shop, Education Centre, library and function rooms. Mill Meadows Henley on Thames RG9 1BF Tel: 01491 415600 Email Tolsey Museum A wide-ranging collection illustrating Burford’s social and industrial past, including the town maces, seals and charters, exhibits recalling the trades that flourished here - quarrying, bell-founding, rope-making, brewing and others - and an unusual doll’s house. 126 High Street Burford OX18 4QU Tel: 01993 – 823238 Tom Brown’s School Museum
Houses displays of local history, archaeology, and archives of the surrounding villages, as
well as mementoes of Thomas Hughes and the poet laureate, Sir John Betjeman, who spent many happy years
living in Uffington.
Vale and Downland Museum Centre
Galleries interpreting the cultural heritage Vale of the White Horse region. Church Street, Wantage, OX12 8BL Tel: 01235 771447 Email
Wallingford Museum
The museum covers the history and archaeology of Wallingford since the town charter of 1155 AD.
Tells the story of Witney’s history with special emphasis on the Blanket Industry, school
life and ecclesiastical diversity.
Gloucester Court Mews, High Street, Witney, OX28 6LJ Tel: 01993 775915
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