Leisure and entertainment in Victorian and Edwardian Oxford – Oxfordshire FHS Talk – 27 January 2020

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On Monday, 27 January, Liz Woolley will talk to Oxfordshire FHS on:

Leisure and entertainment in Victorian and Edwardian Oxford

In the mid nineteenth century changes in employment practices and rising real wages meant that ordinary working people found themselves, usually for the first time, with leisure time and with spare money to spend on recreation. All sorts of establishments arose to fulfill the new demand for entertainment, many of them aimed at keeping people out of the pub. This talk describes where and how Oxford citizens spent their free time, and how the middle classes attempted to impose ‘rational recreation’ on their working-class contemporaries.

Liz lives in Oxford and has an MSc in English Local History from the University’s Department for Continuing Education. She is particularly interested in the history of Oxford’s “town” – as opposed to “gown” – and in the lives of ordinary working citizens in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

We meet at the Exeter Hall, Oxford Road, Kidlington, OX5 1AB, with the talk starting at 8:00pm. Doors open at 7:15pm, when there will be advisors offering computer and genealogy help. Tea and coffee will be available. Non-members are very welcome, though we have a charge of £2 as an entrance fee for them to contribute towards the hire of the hall and the costs of speakers.

A summary of most talks will appear after an interval in the Members’ Only Area of the OFHS website. Summaries of previous talks are also available in the same place.