March 2025
february 2025
We will be reopening the doors to the museum on Saturday 5 April. We plan to open from 11am–4pm at weekends and on bank holidays (apart from Easter Sunday). Our popular Rural Eynsham exhibition will be showing in the upstairs gallery, and the Eynsham Past and Present photographic display will be in the ground-floor room.
We are seeking more volunteers to act as stewards for our exhibitions. If you are interested, please email info@eynshammuseum.org.uk. See the January 2025 news item in the News archive for more information.
Save the dates for two museum fundraising events!
There will be a Cake and Book Sale at the museum and in the Square on Saturday 26 April from 10am to 4.00pm. Please come along and support us on the day!
On Sunday 25 May, at St Leonard’s Church Hall, the Eynsham Poetry Group will put on a repeat performance of their much-acclaimed play, ‘Under Wytham Wood’. Doors open at 4pm for 4.30pm. Tickets cost £5 and you can buy them during visiting hours at the museum, from Evenlode DIY and from the museum trustees.
January 2025
Eynsham Museum newsletter
On 31 January 2025, we sent out our first EMHC email newsletter to our subscribers. We will publish regular newsletters every two months hereafter, on the last day of the month, making it easier for people to keep up with the museum’s happenings. If you would like to subscribe to the newsletter, please email newsletter@eynshammuseum.org.uk.
Our next exhibitions
After our latest Trustee’s meeting this month, we are delighted to say that we will be reopening the Rural Eynsham exhibition on Saturday 5 April 2025, and we plan to keep it open until the end of October.
Exploring the village’s development as a rural community from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, the exhibition features photographs, maps and artefacts from across the years; a video walk taking in surviving farm buildings; a jigsaw; and a working model of Eynsham’s railway station as it was in 1958.
At the same time, in the ground-floor room of the museum, our photographic display, Eynsham Past and Present, will also open again. Here, you can compare old photos and prints of Eynsham with their modern equivalents, providing intriguing insights into the village’s development over history.
A call-out for exhibition stewards!
We depend on volunteer stewards to look after visitors to our exhibitions and to supervise the displays. Stewards sign up for up to two-hour slots during opening hours (weekends and bank holidays, 11am–4pm), and they always work in pairs.
We are looking to expand the number of stewards for the reopening of our exhibitions. Would you be interested in joining the team? You do not need to be an expert on either the exhibitions or Eynsham; a friendly face is what we need! You only need to sign up for slots that suit you, whether that is once a week or once a month. If you would like to find out more or sign up, please email info@eynshammuseum.org.uk. We would love to hear from you!
november 2024
We at the museum are delighted to have been gifted three maps featuring Eynsham.
- Brian Buckingham donated a map of the GWR Railway system. Apparently, this map used to hang in the signal box in Eynsham Station;
- Kathie Tanner donated a copy of William Hole’s 1607 map of Oxfordshire. Hole’s map was based on a 16th-century map by Christopher Saxton, which shows the village as ‘Aneshm’; and
- Paul Drew donated a copy of a Soviet map of the area, which is dated 1942 with 1970s updates (see photo above). Incredibly, Paul found this map in a shop in Latvia!
Our heartfelt thanks to all three for their generous gifts. They have inspired us, indeed, into having the idea to put on a short exhibition on Maps of Eynsham sometime next year.
October 2024
The museum is now closed for the winter. We aim to open again in spring 2025. Keep watching this space for news about future plans and exhibitions. The Object of the Month will continue to be updated on the first of each month during the winter recess.
September 2024
The Rural Eynsham exhibition is proving very popular, and more than 100 people came to visit it over the August Bank Holiday weekend. The big draw continues to be the wonderful model of Eynsham’s old railway (see the News archive for more information about this). The display of photos from Eynsham’s past and present, and the video made by Father Martin Flatman, have also attracted a lot of attention, particularly from village residents.
It is wonderful what Eynsham people are willing to do for the museum. Objects that have been loaned or donated for display include: a milk churn (John Pukaniuk); photos of Molly Harris (Sue Chapman); an ‘Eynsham’ stoneware jar (Julia and Jim Loken); a model of a village shop (Truuce Dearing); an old sign from Sawyers shop (Sue Raikes); and old coins, glass bottles and clay pipes (Luke Parrinder Rivalin). We thank them all for their engagement and generosity.
At the weekend, another Eynsham resident, Margaret Pratley, donated several ceramics with ‘A present from Eynsham’ written on them. They include a pretty milk jug and a teapot (see photos below). We would love to know when and why they were made. Can anybody help? If so, please let us know (go to Contact us to see how to get in touch).
In further news, Eynsham Parish Council generously gave their noticeboard to the museum. Mark Watson, from Evenlode DIY, kindly hand crafted a sign for us (with materials supplied free of charge by the DIY) to fix over the top of the Parish Council sign (see photo below).
And finally, Mark also signed us up on Google Maps, which now makes us even easier to find. Just click on this link: Eynsham Museum and Heritage Centre.
August 2024
We have been very fortunate to have received a grant of £900 from the Doris Field Charitable Trust, based in Oxford. This has enabled us to buy a new cabinet and to display a selection of mineral water bottles from Blake & Co of Eynsham, dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The water bottles were bequeathed to us together with some Eynsham stoneware jars and a selection of old photos taken by Bryan Duffield. Bryan was a well-known and loved local character and Morris dancer, who died in November 2023. The stoneware jars were used in the 1920s and 30s by local companies Pimm’s, Goodwin’s, Blake’s, Gibbon’s, Cantell’s and Woosnam’s, all but one of which have ceased trading.
July 2024
We are delighted to be opening our new exhibition, Rural Eynsham, on Saturday 13 July 2024.
The exhibition explores Eynsham’s development as a rural community from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, and its impact on the village today. Amongst other things, it includes:
- a photographic display of Eynsham’s farming and development over the years;
- a video of some of Eynsham’s surviving farm buildings;
- artefacts of rural trades and occupations;
- maps;
- a jigsaw puzzle; and
- a working model of Eynsham Station and its environs as they were in 1958.
The exhibition will be open every weekend and Bank Holiday, 11am – 4pm, until Sunday 27 October 2024. Do come along and enjoy this fascinating insight into how life and our village have changed over the years.
May 2024
The last day of our exhibition Eynsham’s Lost Railway was on 27 May 2024. However, don’t despair if you still hadn’t got round to seeing the remarkable working model of Eynsham Station and its environs as they were in 1958. Our new exhibition, Rural Eynsham, craftily incorporates the model into the story, as the coming of the railway in 1861 significantly contributed to the decline of the village as an isolated, largely agricultural and self-contained unit, opening up new possibilities for its residents, which were given further impetus by the expansion of road transport from the 1930s onwards.
Amongst other things, the Rural Eynsham exhibition will include:
- a photographic display of Eynsham’s farming and development over the years;
- a video of some of Eynsham’s surviving farm buildings (see Father Martin Flatman’s article in Issue 68 of Eynsham News);
- artefacts of rural trades and occupations;
- maps;
- a jigsaw puzzle; and
- the model (of course!).
We will open on Saturday 13 July 2024, and continue every weekend and Bank Holiday, 11am – 4pm, until Sunday 27 October 2024.
The museum is run by volunteers and is free to visitors, but donations are very welcome to help the charity pay its bills and plan for the future (see Support).
March 2024
Eynsham’s Lost Railway exhibition returns!
From 23 March 2024, Eynsham Museum will be reopening the doors to this popular exhibition for a further two months. On display will be a working model of the station as it was in 1958, along with a video of the last passenger train, artefacts from Eynsham Station and a display illustrating the beginnings of the Witney line in 1861 to its closure by GWR in 1970. The museum is run by volunteers and entry is free, but donations are very welcome! We look forward to seeing new and returning visitors alike.
Opening times
- Saturday 23 March – 27 May 2024 on Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holiday Mondays from 11am to 4pm
- Closed on Easter Sunday
Eynsham’s Rural Past exhibition in the planning
We are planning a new exhibition for summer and autumn 2024. The topic of the exhibition will be Eynsham’s Rural Past. We would love you to help us, if you can! Do you have any items that you could loan to us for the period of the exhibition? Examples might be old tools, art, craft or trade artefacts – anything that helps to paint a picture of the rural life of Eynsham of old. Or can you share your memories of Eynsham before all the farms and barns were swept away or converted into housing? If so, please see the Contact us page for ways to get in touch to let us know.
February 2024
Given the enthusiasm generated by our temporary exhibition, Eynsham’s Lost Railway, and the fact that some residents were unable to visit last year, we have decided to reopen the doors for a further two months. The exhibition will open on Saturday 23 March 2024 and run through to 27 May. We look forward to seeing new and returning visitors alike!
December 2023
On Friday 08 December 2023, a group of Year 5 Eynsham Primary School children, accompanied by their teacher and the Head of School, were given a special tour around the Railway exhibition. The model maker, David Thomas, was also there to run the different trains and to answer questions.
The children were enthusiastic, interested and very well behaved. They were asked to fill in an evaluation form of the different aspects of the displays, and the feedback was universally positive. The model, the video and the artefacts attracted most praise, and all but one felt that they had learned something new about Eynsham. The most fulsome comments were: ‘Everyone there was so kind and nice! I LOVED IT!’ ‘It was amazing and I learned lots of things and I had so much fun;’ ‘It was the best afternoon ever;’ ‘It was great;’ and ‘That was super fun.’ One suggestion to improve the experience was to have ‘something interactive’, which we will certainly take on board. Altogether, the afternoon was very enjoyable and something that we would like to repeat.
November 2023
Our hugely successful temporary exhibition, Eynsham’s Lost Railway, is now closed. But watch this space, as we may be able to open the doors to the exhibition again in Spring 2024! For now, we thank all of you who visited, and who gave your wonderful and helpful feedback. Thanks, too, to the EMHC volunteers who made it possible to open the Museum doors and, of course, to everyone involved with putting together the exhibition itself.
In November, Eynsham Day Centre invited Steve Parrinder of EMHC to give a talk to senior citizens during one of their regular Monday Clubs. The event was held at the Village Hall and the subject was Eynsham’s Lost Railway.
OCTOBER 2023
We are delighted to say that, due to the popularity of our temporary exhibition, Eynsham’s Lost Railway, we are going to keep the exhibition open for longer. So do come along at weekends, between 11am and 4pm, throughout the rest of October and to the end of November 2023 to read about the history of the railway and to see the detailed working model of the station and its surroundings. We look forward to welcoming you.
SEPTEMBER 2023
Our temporary exhibition, Eynsham’s Lost Railway, is proving to be a great success. In the first four weekends of opening, we had 780 visitors!
Comments left in the Visitor Book indicate that people were very impressed, particularly with the model railway. Local residents were especially interested and grateful, but we also had people come from far and wide, from Havant to Manchester — and even a couple from San Antonio, Texas! The exhibition seems to appeal to all ages, too, from teenagers to retirees, to families with young children. For those who might find the stairs challenging, we have put together a video of the display, which can be viewed downstairs.
We have learned a lot from people who can remember the railway and its station, and some railway buffs have been able to correct some of our labelling. We have also had offers of artefacts for the Museum, and a number of people have signed up to become Friends of Eynsham Museum and Heritage Centre, providing us with some financial security.
If the model railway maker is agreeable to the idea, we may extend the exhibition.
AUGUST 2023
Eynsham Museum’s first temporary exhibition, Eynsham’s Lost Railway, is now open! We look forward to welcoming you at weekends until the end of October, and also on the August Bank Holiday.
Four different postcards of the model railway are available to purchase at the Museum. You can see them by clicking on Visit.
JULY 2023
We are delighted to announce a temporary exhibition, Eynsham’s Lost Railway, which will be open for visitors at weekends and on the August bank holiday, during August to October 2023. Come and see an accurate working model of Eynsham’s railway, which was closed down in the 1960s.
MAY 2023
The Eynsham Museum project has been a long time in the planning, but it is at last coming to fruition!
For some time, we have been fundraising and searching for a suitable home. We have had enthusiastic support from Eynsham History Group and the Eynsham Society, as well as donations from individuals and members of the public. The Oxfordshire Museum Resources Centre have helped enormously, too – not least the fantastic Heritage Day in March 2022, for which we jointly won an award.
All we lacked was a home for the museum. The perfect location – the Bartholomew Room in the Square – became available last year. There have been a few unexpected hitches, but we now have the keys!
We are greatly indebted to Eynsham Parish Council for all their support and encouragement, and for granting us the lease. Having a building for Eynsham Museum and Heritage Centre will mean that we can start to apply for the grant funding we need to design, plan and fit it out. We can then properly celebrate and enjoy our local heritage!
We will be looking to involve the community soon in the creation of the Museum. Watch this space!
SEPTEMBER 2022
In September 2022, Eynsham’s Heritage Day won a National Award for an ‘Engagement and/or Collaboration Project’ from the Society for Museum Archaeology. It was received by Steve Parrinder at Nottingham University.