Education > Community Engagement
Oxford: a sense of belonging
Bringing Oxford’s history to life: 100 pupils from the Pegasus School in Blackbird Leys perform The Diary of Anthony á Wood – a play based on their own research on the 17th-century Oxford diarist. © G Smolonski / Photovibe
Think about Oxford and the most likely picture is one of the dreaming spires; zoom in and it reveals iconic buildings like the domed Radcliffe Camera or Magdalen College Tower. Look a little closer still and there is an industrial and social history to discover – Oxford Marmalade, a car factory from Morris to the present day with the BMW Mini, and the recent success of the Oxford Castle and Prison redevelopment. Add to this the diverse nature of Oxford’s community, which crosses continents, social divides and educational attainment, and Oxford has its own local distinctiveness in bucket loads.
The importance of community engagement in bringing local people together, building that sense of belonging and encouraging a sense of pride in their city, whichever view of it they get, is a vital tool in the success of our place.
Oxford Preservation Trust (OPT, www.oxfordpreservation. org.uk) is one of the country’s oldest amenity societies. It was founded in 1926, and one of its key objectives was to ‘promote and encourage public interest in and knowledge of the history of the City of Oxford and its surroundings’. During the past 10 years we have been one of the key partners in the award-winning redevelopment of Oxford Castle, a 2-hectare site in the centre of the city, with a Saxon tower, a castle mound and a range of 19th-century prison buildings hidden behind high walls and inaccessible to the public prior to its (re)opening in 2006. In a partnership between Oxfordshire County Council, the private sector and Oxford Preservation Trust, and backed by English Heritage,SEEDA and the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), the castle has been transformed into a public place with squares and outdoor spaces around a Malmaison Hotel, restaurants, art gallery and visitor attraction – conservation at its coolest and a civic heart for the city.
For OPT, education was at the heart of the castle project, unlocking Oxford’s story, creating the Key Learning Centre and an education programme for all, and making a place for local people to use and enjoy.There could be little doubt of the importance of this community work for those who joined the audience of friends and family when 100 pupils from Pegasus School, Blackbird Leys, performed their Christmas play in the Castleyard: The Diary of Anthony á Wood – an Oxford Man, based on their own research on the 17th-century Oxford diarist. The words of Jill Hudson, headteacher, sum this up: ‘Oxford belongs to its people, past and present, and the children of Blackbird Leys are very much part of this rich past.Their knowledge of their city is enormous and their interest is very strong.We are proud that our children are leading the way in rediscovering the 17th-century city of Anthony á Wood.’
The castle has become a civic place, a venue for folk, jazz and literary festivals, and for regular outdoor theatre and music concerts. It is the home of the annual Archaeology Festival and Mediaeval Fayre and the final stop for the city’s Christmas parade, with community singing around the giant Christmas tree and the city’s first German Christmas Fair. In 2010 5,000 scouts and guides will raise the St George’s Day flag on St George’s Tower.
Unlocking Oxford’s story: the Key Learning Centre is not just an educational resource but a place for local people to use and enjoy. Photo courtesy of Oxford Preservation Trust
Our involvement in education and the castle led to our contribution to Oxfordshire 2007, the county’s millennium celebrations. Opening Doors Opening Minds was organised in partnership with Oxford University and backed by the HLF. Our aim was to let local people learn more about their city, seeing areas that they might not previously have been able to visit, and gaining new experiences. A week of events involving young people saw Oxfordshire’s Youth Orchestra performing in the amphitheatre at the university’s Said Business School, secondary-school teams speaking in Convocation House, where Charles I’s Parliament met in the Civil War, and students making Cooper’s jam and marmalade with a good line in sales to friends and family. In 2008, OPT worked with the Pegasus Youth Theatre and Oxfordshire Youth Activities Partnership on the UK-wide Portrait of a Nation project, in which young people explored their roots and shared their views on their cities. Oxford’s Car to Spire explored how the car industry shaped the city and the story of those who worked there, and was performed in the BMW car plant, with not a dry eye in the place.The students were delighted when they had the chance to travel to Liverpool as part of the European City of Culture Programme.
During the past three years OPT has organised Oxford Open Doors to coincide with the Heritage Open Days (HODs) weekend, an event which had never gained much support. Making this a local celebration of all that makes Oxford special – old or new, magnificent or quirky, urban, suburban or green – has seen the weekend become established as a regular date in the city’s calendar and it is now the third-largest HODs event in the country. Through a partnership with Oxford University, the Design-a-Gargoyle competition took place across the three years, culminating with the unveiling of nine gargoyles, designed by local schoolchildren, on the Bodleian Library at the launch of the 2009 event – a tangible example of history in the making, and of the university’s commitment to Oxford’s wider community.
Oxford Open Doors is a partnership between the university and key stakeholders including county and city Councils and local businesses. In 2009 there were nearly 40,000 visits to around 130 venues/activities, across a diverse range of space and places – and the majority of visitors were local.
Plans to expand the Oxford Open Doors programme during the next three years include participation in the Discovering Places project, which will be at the heart of the national celebrations leading up to the Olympic Games. Oxford Castle’s learning programme continues to develop and flourish; the potential for the city’s heritage to add to our communities through ‘outreach’, as part of the regeneration of our urban villages and housing estates, is gaining momentum. We will be continuing our strong partnerships with the university, whose commitment is set out in its recently published document A Vital Partnership: The University and Public and Community Engagement, and are grateful to St John’s College and others for their continued support. As for challenges, those we face in Oxford are similar to those elsewhere – a question of sustainability, finding the resources to continue to make our contribution to Oxford’s community and building on what we have achieved so far.
D J Dance, Director, April 2010
Reproduced from an article in Conservation Bulletin No 63, with thanks. Conservation Bulletin is an English Heritage publication.