Lunchtime Talk: 'How Enclosure Shaped Oxfordshire's Landscape'

‘How Enclosure Shaped Oxfordshire's Landscape: From common right to private property’

We live in a very ancient landscape, but it has not always looked the way it looks today.

In most of Oxfordshire the pattern of fields, hedges and roads was re-drawn afresh during the period when Parliamentary enclosure was wiping out the medieval pattern of open fields with their groups of strips in ridge and furrow. Some parishes had been enclosed and became largely deserted after the Black Death and through the 15th and 16th centuries, and in some places the farmers agreed between themselves to enclose some or all of their open-field land.

Join deborah Hayter to discover how the long-drawn out processes of enclosure gave us the hedged landscape of fields that we see today.

Complimentary tea and coffee will be available to enjoy during the talk. We recommend arriving before the start of the talk if you would like to grab a refreshment.

Tickets cost £5 and are available online via Eventbrite (booking fee applies) or at the Museum shop.

Sales from tickets help support our work to deliver fun and accessible family activities, community engagement projects, schools workshops, exhibitions and special events for Oxford’s people in our Museum spaces.

Deborah Hayter’s first degree was in English, but in later life she became a historian, having done a diploma course in English Local History followed by an MA at the Centre for English Local History at Leicester. Since then she has taught many courses at OUDCE and is often asked to speak to local history societies. She has lived most of her life in North Oxfordshire, but now lives just across the Cherwell in south Northamptonshire. She is first and foremost a landscape historian, looking to answer the question ‘Why do places look like they do?’, but she has also taught courses on village history and on the history of poor relief, which is a particular interest.

Access:

There is step-free, level entry access to the Town Hall via the entrance closest to Carfax Tower (to the left of the main steps as you face the Town Hall). Inside the Museum, Museum Makers is accessible via a platform lift to the Galleries and then a lift to the basement.

Accessible toilets are available in the Museum (close to Museum Makers) and in the Town Hall on the ground floor, before entering the Museum. Please if you’d like to talk to a member of staff about your access requirements. Further access information can be found on our page dedicated to .

Photo consent:

Please be aware that photographs will be taken at this event for use in marketing. If you (or a member of your group) would prefer not to be photographed, please let a member of staff know during the event.

Header image: Anders Sandberg from Oxford, UK, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Museum of Oxford, St Aldate's, Oxford, United Kingdom