The Group held its AGM for 2025 on 3rd March at the Chantry House.
The Chair, Michael Redley, summarised the events of the last year and plans for 2026. The Secretary of the Group has departed the Committee and the remainder of the Committee were re-elected
Besides the regular monthly programme of meetings, the Group undertook outings to Broughton Castle in the Spring and to the Oxfordshire Museum Resource Centre at Standlake in the Autumn. Helen Carr was the Autumn lecturer in 2025; she spoke to a packed house on fourteenth century Britain, based on her book Sceptred Isle. In 2026, we plan to invite the historian Jonathan Healey to talk about his new book on 1642 at the start of the English Civil War.
The high point of last year was the seminar held on ‘Life in Henley in the Second World War’, opened by the Mayor of Henley. This was the culmination of a project to collect oral histories, newspaper stories and official records of the period. This year, we plan to host the Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society’s Oxpast conference on 20th June. A report was provided on progress towards the replacement for the ‘Henley Gallery’ in the now-closed River and Rowing Museum with a new history museum for the town. Members expressed unanimous support for this to be done.
Cirencester with cemetery upper left
After the formal AGM, one of our committee members, Susanna Venn, gave an overview of the subject of bioarchaeology entitled “Bones that talk to you”!
Susanna is researching the skeletons found in the excavation of a Roman cemetery in Cirencester, or Corinium (pictured). Examination of the bones revealed information about the age and sex of individuals, as well as their state of health and lifestyle and sometimes of their death.
A detailed study, using advanced techniques and analysis of isotopes and DNA, provides information on diet, origin and genetic relatedness.