Newman’s Oxford: The Exhibition

Over the weekend of 14th-15th August we shall be exhibiting many things connected with John Henry Newman our Cardinal, in the Guild Room and the Parish Centre. The exhibition will be open on the Saturday from 10:30 to 5:50, on the Sunday 12:30 to 5:15; there will be a catalogue available at £1.00, but no admission charge (though if you really insist...)


On show will be the portrait by A.R. Venables, and the bust by Richard Westmacott, very rarely seen, some autographs including “Lead, kindly light”, many prints and engravings, including all those used for the new edition of Newman’s Oxford, and some real oddities. There will probably be tea available as well.

Planning Application press conference

The last stage before submitting our planning application was to hold a Press Conference at the Oratory. We invited the local and national Catholic press, as well as all the local amenity socities, who were well represented. They seemed to like what they saw! The Oxford Times gave us an advance publicity spread, summarised in the Oxford Mail (both 20 July). We showed them the models, and photomontages of how the new building will look in context. Such as the ones we put on the "plans" section of the campaign website. The library attracted interest, particularly the plan to house the Chesterton collection. So here is an aerial view of the library with the roof taken off.


On the same day, rain on the back-filled archaeological trench washed up two fragments of late mediaeval pottery which only goes to prove that somewhere near us there was late-mediaeval occupation. There is nothing now to delay submission of the application, but then it will be a couple of months before we hear anything. In the meantime, the money keeps rollin in...

Digging holes and filling them in again...

One of the pre-conditions for applying for planning permission was an archaeological investigation of the building site. We did in fact know exactly what was there, but had to get professionals in to show us: the foundations of the early Victorian slums; a metre of garden soil, natural subsoil, and the top of the Gravel Terrace which forms the foundation of all Oxford. It was useful for the structurtal engineer to be certain of the exact depth of the Gravel Terrace, because that is a good solid well-drained foundation for our buildings.

Oh, and there was a circular pit cut into the gravel, below the subsoil. Not investigated to the bottom, 'cos it is deeper than we shall want to go, no dating material in the fill, but given that we are in a known Bronze Age ceremonial area with lots of barrows around the Henge Monument, the chances are it's a Bronze Age ritual pit. Possibly a burial. Anyway, it's all filled in now.

The next stage is the press conference before the actual Application.

Plans for New Buildings nearly finished

We have reached a significant stage in our plans, being ready to announce them to the world before submitting the formal Planning Application. There will be a Press Conference on 22 July, and assuming all the drawings and comments are in their final state by then, should be submitting the application very soon after that. Then we wait for two months to hear anything...

The City Fathers are concerned that we should not detract from the view of the church from the Woodstock Road. Here is the architect's photomontage of the view.  What do you think?

There is more about this on the "Plans" section of the Campaign website.

Events Still to Come

The Perch is safely reeled in, Fr Joel has been securely despatched back to Americas, the organ prodigy played out, tours walked around successfully... but there is still more to come. On Wednesday 7th at 8:00 there is still a chance to hear Walter Hooper telling us about his time with C.S. Lewis, and maybe also about Blessed Lucy of Narnia. Another tour on Thursday at 2:00. And on Friday the Dinner - getting very close so you really need to book up very quickly indeed. But there is no reduction for latecomers! still £75, to the Lodge immediately.

We still haven't found a suitable photograph of the event at the Perch to show you, so here's a warthog to be getting on with.

The rebels have landed

The amazing week of extraordinary events to celebrate throwing the American colonies out of the Empire has begun. This afternoon there was a garden festival at the Perch, well attended, and lots of passers-by and casual droppers in as well as those who had come thousands of miles just to be there and perform... There will be a photograph eventually, just waiting for the film to come out of the developing tank.
And it continues tomorrow, with a collection of transatlantic composers at the 11:00 Mass, and even a transatlantic preacher being none other than our very own Fr Joel returned to us. And on it goes, barock concert on MOnday, tours of Oxford,talk of CS Lewis... and the festival fish dinner on Friday. A few tickets still available, if you're not here in person you can get them via the Parish side of this webbe-sight.