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Above: Mayday celebrations 1977 © Sue Chapman. More contributions are welcome - do get in touch. See also plans for 2012; Diamond Jubilee Album
Jubilee Chairman Don Chapman recounts a year that lasted almost five - read more >>
Celebration planning started here and the photo album is still open.
held in Lower Monkswood (Kindly lent by J Druce Esq), Tuesday July 12, 1887. All Children over 8 years of age to assemble at the Board School at 2 o'clock. Children under that age to meet at the Infants' School at the same time. The Freeland Band will attend and preceed (sic) the Children to the Field. Children's Tea at 3 o'clock. Meat Tea for Men and Women at 4.30. Children provide their own Cups. Men and Women to provide a Plate, Knife and Fork, and Cup for tea. Swings and Roundabouts on the Ground. Children will be charged half the usual price.
This picture was copied from an original photograph belonging to Jim Evans of Beacon View, Swinford. We are grateful to him for lending it to us.
We cannot say for certain when it was taken. But the mugs in the hands of the children would tend to indicate it was a royal occasion. The first mention in the Oxford Times of Eynsham's children being presented with mugs is on the occasion of King George V's Coronation in 1911. But the photograph could date from Edward VII's Coronation in 1902 or Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. At the time of the 1997 celebrations Miss Philcox, one of Eynsham's oldest inhabitants, was quite sure it belonged to 1897.
The numerous tricolors and few Union Jacks is quite common in similar photographs of the period and probably indicates that they were cheaper and easier to make than the British flag, not a lack of national loyalty. Despite the array of umbrellas it was not raining. They were frequently - and sensibly - used by our predecessors as parasols.
The photographer was probably shooting from an upstairs room in one of the cottages adjoining the church. If you still haven't got your bearings you are looking across the Square. The Red Lion is on the right and the Bartholomew Boom is the building you can just see the south-east corner of on the extreme left.
Eynsham Primary School published its very first school magazine in honour of the occasion; you can download a copy on this page. Headteacher George Baines introduces:
“Jubilee Year seems a good time for looking back over the past twenty-five years of the Elizabethan age, and further back to the Jubilees of 1935 and Victoria's reign. And also over the past ten years since in 1967 Eynsham Primary School (Mark I) was built. So we have concocted this gallimaufry of reminiscences: earlier jubilees as celebrated in Eynsham, the Coronation recalled by Eynsham inhabitants, and early memories of the school recounted by those who taught and learnt in it ten years ago. We also include some recent children's work ...”
The issue was put together by Sara Bannister, Susan Chapman, Elizabeth Crawford, Anna Hill, Ruth Hodges and Christopher Schenk - several of whom are still among us.
Jubilee Queen Debbie Seeney with attendants Nicola White and Wendy Smith and the Jubilee crown
Centre front (L) Sam Timms; (R) Don Chapman.
Worshippers of all denominations were invited to attend a special thanksgiving service in St Leonard's Church. The vicar of Eynsham, the Reverend Peter Ridley, the parish priest of St Peter's Church (RC) Father Dinan, and the minister of Eynsham Baptist Church, the Reverend Christopher Morgan, shared in leading the service and a collection was taken for Jubilee funds.
Serving tea at the Jubilee sports event. Lindsey Mills, secretary to the Jubilee Committee, is on the far left.
The building was bought for the people of Eynsham with money raised to mark the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in June 1977.
The Vice-Chair and Chair of the Jubilee Committee watching the plaque go up on the Bartholomew Room wall. The tablet carved by Bill Brown was unveiled on the east facade in October 1984.
Eynsham Market Square was renovated in 2002. A plaque to the left of the door to the Bartholomew Room marks the occasion.
installed as part of the Market Square renovation in 2002
