Parish Archive

The Parish Archive consists of books, photographs, documents and other paper-based items donated by local parishioners. It does not contain any artifacts. It is run by a group of interested volunteers. If you have an enquiry email us HERE.  More contact details can also be found in the DIRECTORY 

The Register

The contents of the Archive, now amounting to hundreds of items, are listed in an online searchable REGISTER which can be viewed on laptops and tablets but is not formatted to view on mobile phones. If a digital image exists there will be a live link to it.

Donating items

If you wish to donate any item(s) then please contact a member of the Parish Archive Group Rob Forsyth, Mary Robinson, Richard Broadbent, John Plumbe or David French

Whilst we do not have the physical space to store Museum type objects, we can record them if provided with colour photographs which should have some form of scale (ruler is ideal) in the photograph.

Deddington News (DN)

DN June 1977Previous editions of the Deddington News are a valuable archive in themselves, tracking the social history of the parish since it was first published in September 1976. The Library contains printed and bound copies of all past editions up to the present day.

They are also available online.

Among them there have been many articles about the history of Deddington Parish. Some have been incorporated into this website and, if you know the subject matter, can be found using the site's search facility or click on this link - Index to DN Historical Articles to 2007 - to find an index (xls) ordered by name of author up until 2007. It can be further sorted/searched in your browser.

Reverend Cotton Risley's Diaries from 1835 to 1869

These diaries are another valuable part of the parish history but are archived in the Bodleian Library. Other than becoming a 'Reader' they can be accessed in two ways:

  • The DN has contained an article titled Deddington 150 years ago every month from 1988 until 2018 with extracts researched by Buffy Heywood at the Bodleian.

George Coggins Scrapbooks

These three scrapbooks are held in the Bodlean Library in Oxford. They are full of cuttings from newspapers, hand bills and other paper based records of Deddington between 1836 and 1914. They have been researched and fully indexed by David French, with some transcriptions, to provide another very valuable source of information about Deddington Parish in the late 19th Century up to WWI.

Oxfordshire History Centre (OFH)

Formerly known as the Oxford Records Office (ORO), it is located at St Lukes Church, Cowley. It contains a wealth of valuable archival information about our parish. Links to many of its items exist throughout the History website.

Deddington Museum - a concept only

Plan

 

The idea of a museum in the upper room of the Town Hall was clearly a topic of discussion in October 1991 because it was picked up by the two local newspapers - see reports below. However they were a bit premature. Although a Feasability Study was carried out in 1992, plans were prepared (click on image left.pdf) and Norman & Angela Stone (editors of Deddington News) made some practical suggestions about administration the Museum never formally opened.

  click on images for full size

DeddingtonMuseum01 DeddingtonMuseum02

The best laid plans... Deddington Charity Estates, who owned the Town Hall and were behind the scheme for a museum, asked the Parish Council for financial help. But the PC baulked at being asked to pay £135,000 for changes to a building they didn’t own, and the plan was quietly dropped.

When the Parish Archive was established (2016), none of the original Trustees was still alive to ask them what happened to the 25 objects mentioned in the newspaper articles. Mary Robinson has trawled through articles written by Bill Hunt (then Secretary to the Charity Estates), in back numbers of Deddington News and researched the Parish Council Minutes to tell the story of the Museum that never was.