Witney and District Museum

18/12/2024

We would like to wish all our volunteers, members, supporters and friends a very MERRY CHRISTMAS

18/12/2024

Witney Gazette December 1902

Swindlers at work!

Readers are again warned about worthless Directories, and a new swindle in which some local people sent half a guinea to the 'Trafalgar Novelty Co' for a practically worthless pen, under the promise that they could earn £1 a week by writing ten letters a day. The swindler has been arrested.

07/11/2024

I was very pleased to have helped Witney and District Museum with a request recently, that the Wychwood Brewery road sign, displayed on The Crofts, be donated to the museum. I took the request to Oxfordshire County Council who readily agreed and I had the pleasure of handing over the sign to museum staff yesterday. It will be included in a future exhibition. The museum already has a number of important items from Witney’s brewing past which finally came to an end last November when Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company closed the brewery. The Wychwood Brewery was known for its character-based label artwork, inspired by the myths and legends surrounding the ancient Wychwood Forest. I’m pleased I could help safeguard this small piece of Witney’s history for future generations thanks to our fantastic museum.

07/11/2024

A big thank you to everybody who joined us for our first Tales of Mystery and Imagination tours. A spookily good time was had by all!

21/10/2024

We are open until Saturday 2nd November!

06/10/2024

On 6 October 1835 Richard Druce, 22, paid the price for assaulting Thomas Stratton on the King's highway at Bampton (pictured) with intent to rob him. He was transported for life, one of 301 prisoners aboard the convict ship "Susan" sailing for New South Wales. He received a conditional pardon in 1849, the condition being that that he had to stay in Australia. By the 1880s he was farming at Meroo near Braidwood, probably sheep. He lived to the very great age of 90 and died in 1903. Would he have lived such a healthy life in Oxfordshire?

27/09/2024

SORRY, SOLD OUT!

13/09/2024

Fun at the Feast 1955!
A recently digitised image from our glass slide collection.

03/09/2024

Entrance to the museum is free this Saturday!
We are holding our annual Family History Day in association with Heritage Open Days

see more at https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/submission-event/witney-and-district-museum-family-history-day-2024.html

22/08/2024

28/07/2024

It was great to see the museum bustling yesterday. The children loved making the peg dolls, friendship bracelets and pom-pom sheep!

24/06/2024

Originally brewed for the World Cup in 2002.

16/06/2024

Wet Wet Wet - Typical British summertime!

Witney Gazette JUNE 1903

"The rain fell for over sixty hours and over four inches of rain fell. The lamentable sight of floods in June on all the low-lying land can be seen everywhere. The road to Ducklington just beyond Emm's Ditch bridge is flooded, as also is the road opposite the park in Ducklington."

04/06/2024

From Wednesday 5th June

Patrick Churchill was aged just 20 when he landed on Juno Beach with the Royal Marines Armoured Support Regiment......

VISIT THE MUSEUM TO DISCOVER MORE

16/05/2024

A Witney Gazette report in February 1907.

A fine display of the Aurora Borealis was witnessed in Bampton throughout Saturday night, from about 7pm to after 10pm. At first the display took the form of streamers which varied in shades, sometimes the colour was brilliant yellow then green and fiery red. The sky was frequently covered with brilliant coruscations shooting up from the horizon and converging in sheets of feathery flame high in the sky. Many of the inhabitants were much alarmed, imagining it was a fire somewhere, and others thought it was a sign that something dreadful was going to happen.

28/04/2024

We are glad you enjoyed your visit!

Witney Reach had a lovely visit to Witney and District Museum where they were given a tour and learnt about local history!