Mark Davies has lived on a narrowboat in central Oxford since 1992, giving him a unique insight into the evolution of the ‘living waterways’ we see today. His talks adhere largely to the OXFORD WATERWAYS theme, but with OXFORD CASTLE, LITERARY WORKS, TOWN & GOWN and HISTORICAL CRIME as related and entertaining diversions. As Oxford’s waterways have been so fundamental to the town’s growth and prosperity, these topics show that there is a great deal more to Oxford than its University! Also, THE JONESES OF JESUS: THE WELSH IN OXFORD. Scroll down for a full list:
“Thank you for a wonderful second talk this year. Once again you will have gathered from our response how much we enjoyed seeing you again and how interested we were in what you had to tell us.”
“Our heartfelt thanks for coming to our rescue. Our members found the history of the canal fascinating, and particularly enjoyed the wonderful illustrations.”
“Many of the pictures had not been seen before your talk, and aroused quite an interest. I am sure this will stimulate members to seek out some of the viewpoints of the old buildings and locations. I think that we were really privileged to get you to talk to our meeting. You can be sure that your effort was greatly appreciated.”
“Thank you for your talk on various inmates of Oxford Castle and prison. I am sure the snippets you gave us will have whetted appetites to read your books, and to include a guided walk when we are planning our next programme.”
“Our members found the talk fascinating, and we now have a much better understanding of the history of the area.”
2010 Talks Topics
1. Oxford’s Historic Waterways – from legend to leisure
The River Thames and Oxford Canal meet at Oxford, and provide two contrasting social histories. The river is the very reason for Oxford’s existence and name, with a defensive, religious, and commercial role of integral importance to the early growth of the city. The Canal was one of Britain’s first four 18th-century trunk canals, connecting the country’s interior coalmines and new industries with London via the Thames. But it brought controversy as well as material improvement, as a city accustomed to centuries of academic isolation adjusted to a changing world.
2. Alice in Waterland
The River Thames played an all-important role in the creation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. From Godstow (where the story had its beginnings on a boat trip on 4 July 1862) downstream to Nuneham (at the southerly extent of the river outings the real Alice was taken on), the river reveals much about the background to one of the most famous children’s stories ever told, and about contemporary Oxford events.
3. Women of Oxford’s Waterways – from legend to leisure
The feminine touch – legendary, historical, and fictional – is particularly evident in the ancient history of the River Thames, including Frideswide, Oxford’s 7/8th-century patron saint; the city’s revered 12th-century femme fatale, Rosamund the Fair; “Alice”, and many others. Women also feature large in the realities of more recent times, notably within the typical family unit of the working canalboats.
4. A Literary Tour of Oxford’s Waterways
From the historical writings of novelists, poets, diarists, and visitors can be told an alternative, sometimes whimsical, occasionally tragic, history of Oxford. From Chaucer’s pilgrims to Tom Brown’s higher education, via the children’s classics of Alice and Wind in the Willows, and the more recent ‘gyptians’ of Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights (the 2008 film Golden Compass), the canal and river at Oxford feature in innumerable works of classic and lesser-known literature.
5. 800 years of Oxford ‘Town & Gown’ – “to lick a Lord … or thrash a cad”
Oxford was never quite the same after the death of some students at a tavern brawl on St Scholastica’s Day 1355. The ‘Town’ was required to pay penance for centuries after, and its resentment – apparent from the very earliest days of the religious halls which evolved into the University – became manifest in regular confrontations between local men and students. Bargemen were always prominent in these bloody battles, which feature, often humorously, in many novels of undergraduate life. Yet the Oxford Canal inspired unprecedented collaboration, as all factions of Oxford society united in a common desire for a precious commodity: coal.
6. Living Waterways – “liquid ‘istory” in the making
The timeless nature of waterways is well demonstrated in an essentially timeless city like Oxford. The locks, the boats, the traditional artwork, leisure and sporting activities, boats as homes, the transport of freight – all these elements are picturesque, but they are also largely unchanged, revealing colourful and evocative examples of the historical continuity which has resulted in the waterscape we see today. Mark Davies, as a long-term canalboat resident, is perfectly placed to provide an unusual insight into the unusual history of an unusual city!
7. Stories of Oxford Castle – of dungeons and dunghills
The history of Oxford’s Castle is interwoven with that of its waterways. That history, when told through the exploits of some of the more colourful characters to have spent time inside the Castle prison’s walls, comes to life – and death! But these stories of imprisonment, escape, hard labour, transportation, and execution are more than just historical adventures; they expose too the social and political conditions of the time, and reveal how Oxford, at the forefront of late-18th-century prison reform, gained particular benefit through a uniquely fortuitous combination of circumstances.
8. Death on the Thames – the ‘Abingdon Waterturnpike Murder’
An 1787 murder by the Thames reveals a surprisingly widespread criminal underworld, and ends with the likelihood of a fatal miscarriage of justice. The river is a recurring theme within a factual murder mystery which sheds light on many extraordinary, shocking, and emotive aspects of 18th-century life in Oxfordshire and Berkshire. These include the perilous lives of river boatmen, the close-knit river communities, the all-pervading influence of alcohol and brewing, the gruesome allure of public executions, and the ‘wooden world’ of the Georgian Navy.
9. Daniel Harris (c1760-1840) – gaoler, builder, engineer, architect, artist
A man of great dynamism and multiple talents, the nonetheless enigmatic prison governor Daniel Harris had an influence on Oxford at the end of the 18th century which was enormous and lasting. He applied his skills as a builder and engineer to the completion of the Oxford Canal, to radical improvements on the River Thames, and to the wholesale reconstruction of Oxford Castle Gaol, using convict labour for all. Yet his achievements extended far beyond even these challenging projects, making his a story through which some fundamental and far-reaching changes of the time – international as well as local – can be entertainingly explained.
10. The Joneses of Jesus, & other Oxford-Welsh Connections
The Welsh influence on Oxford is intriguing, as the fabled home of dragons and the true home of the Mabinogion, as the backdrop for Welsh students’ “rough and adventurous relaxations”, for nurturing the myth of the Welsh saint, Aldate, and as the home of Jesus College, founded specifically for scholars of Cambrian origin. An overview of fact, fiction and fable – ideal for late-February or early-March meetings (i.e. near St David’s Day).
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