The Polstead Road History Project.
Local history gives people and places meaning and purpose. Cities and towns are built of micro-communities centred on work, leisure, religion, and, above all, locality: organising street parties, supporting neighbours, talking in the local shop or pub, and sharing joys and sadness are the glue holding small groups together. History records what happens on national and regional levels, and in large towns; the history of small communities within towns is less commonly investigated. This project’s goal is to document who has lived here and events and changes that have occurred, and to place them in the context of Oxford City, national, and international events as far as these have impacted pn the residents. Residents, past and present, will, we hope, contribute.
Table of Contents
First steps.
Our residents have discussed the history of the street at parties, meetings at the St Margaret’s Institute, in the Anchor pub, and during further changes. An email circulation has existed for some years, but intra-street communication took off after a Polstead Road WhatsApp group started in March 2025. In August, posts mention a possible group project.
Finally, on 30 September 2025, the first Polstead Road History Project meeting was held at 28 Polstead Road, and the notes are available here. There was sufficient interest to warrant starting the project, and we set up a project WhatsApp group. We did not immediately constitute a committee or other formal organisation. We will keep in touch with anyone interested, including new people. (Use this contact form if interested.)
Potential outputs
We devoted a significant part of the meeting to our goals; what were our goals? The discussion ranged widely, and we focused on some concrete goals for the first year. Our first two goals were to produce a book and set up and develop a website.
A book.
Books survive. Books require rigour and thought. Books are available anywhere, at any time. We feel that aiming to produce a book by December 2026 will focus our efforts. Members have experience in writing and publishing local history books, such as:
- A Corner of North Oxford about the junction between Kingston Road, Hayfield Road, Aristotle Lane, and Polstead Road. (Catherine Robinson and Liz Wade)
- 47 Men, about the men commemorated on the War Memorial outside St Margaret’s Church. (Liz Wade)
We have looked at similar books about other parts of Oxford for ideas. We are still considering the exact size, structure and content.
A continuing website.
We have started this website. It is still in a development phase and will evolve. The tentative structure is to include sections on the houses, the people, the events, and the businesses.
We are also considering a repository of documents and records. We might also develop an archive, with most being stored by Oxford County Council for the future, but some material could remain accessible on the website.
The larger archive would be a potential resource for future historians, as a repository of the life and concerns of a middle-class suburb. This might include recordings, documents, photographs and ephemera.
Further steps.
Since our first meeting, we have set up this website, had a second meeting, and have started researching.
Second meeting: 4-Nov-2025
The second meeting was at 28 Polstead Road. We discussed the extensive work already undertaken by Kay Symonds, who has been searching digitised newspaper archives. We also considered how to structure the website, the book, and the materials in more detail. The notes from that meeting are available here.
Further work: 5-Nov-25 to 31-Dec-25
Liz Wade, Philip Lafeber, and Graham Harding have had two sessions with the archivist at St John’s College, exploring the development of Polstead Road in the 1880s-1890s. In Victorian times, the land belonged to St John’s College; it may have been an orchard, and a few apple trees from this period still survive.
On 25 November 2025, Graham Harding and Liz Wade met with Professor Barry Cunliffe and discussed historical and archaeological matters arising from Graham Harding’s research into Port Meadow. Notes are available here.
On 21 and 28 November, Kay Symons and Liz Wade attended a local history workshop at the Museum of Oxford.
Your contribution.
Whether you are a past or present resident of Polstead Road, we hope you can contribute something, especially any memories, photographs, memorabilia, or interesting documents. You could pursue something that interests you; if you want ideas on topics to research, we will gladly share the work we have done so far with you. This project is entirely collaborative, and everyone is welcome to be involved. The only requirement is enthusiasm.
If you want to learn more, please get in touch with us using this contact form.
