Talks take place on Thursday afternoons, starting at 2pm, and usually take place in the Lecture Hall, Rewley House, 1 Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2JA. These are free for Oxford u3a members but you are welcome to attend as a guest for a donation of £5 (£2 for members of all other U3As).
Most talks are recorded on Zoom for the benefit of those Oxford u3a members who are unable to attend Rewley House.
In the event of adverse weather conditions, please telephone Rewley House (01865 270360), to enquire whether the talk has been cancelled.
Wood Farm: the Oxford Suburb where City and Countryside Meet
October 1 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Liz Wooley is a freelance local historian: she is a writer, speaker, broadcaster, tutor, tour guide and project co-ordinator. She also manages community history projects, researches and writes articles and reports (including house histories and company histories), gives talks and guided walks for Oxfordshire local history societies and other groups, and teaches local history courses.
Wood Farm is a mid-20th-century council housing estate, but the history of this area goes back to the Roman period. In the 1450s the land passed to Magdalen College. It contained valuable woodland and pasture, and disputes over the use of these resources between the college, its tenant farmers, and the villagers of Headington, went on for centuries. In 1934 Wood Farm was bought by the car manufacturer William Morris, and during the war part of it was requisitioned for a prisoner of war camp. After the war the PoW huts were converted into housing for otherwise homeless families. The council’s Wood Farm estate – carefully planned, with community resources including a large area of woodland – developed over the subsequent two decades. This talk explores this rich and varied history.