Oxford Visit

Members of the Society, along with their families and friends, enjoyed a visit to the historic university city of Oxford on Saturday, July 24, 2010.

The itinerary for the day included a visit to the Radcliffe Observatory, the Museum of the History of Science, and Wadham College.

The coach departed Swinton at 07:30 and we arrived in Oxford by 11:30 at our first place of interest, the Radcliffe Observatory. We were given a guided tour of the grounds and building by the Observatory's head gardener, Michael Pirie. The observatory was operational from 1773 to 1934 when it relocated to Pretoria, South Africa. The Observatory was bought by Lord Nuffield, who presented it to the hospital authorities and in 1936 established the Nuffield Institute for Medical Research. In 1979 the Institute moved to new premises in the grounds of the John Radcliffe Hospital, thus freeing the Observatory site for its new owner, Green College.

The Observatory was built at the suggestion of Dr Thomas Hornsby, the Savilian Professor of Astronomy, after he had used a room in the nearby Radcliffe Infirmary to observe the transit of Venus in 1769. The transit was a notable event which helped to produce greatly improved measurements for nautical navigation.

The Observatory was built with funds from the trustees of Dr John Radcliffe (1652-1714), whose considerable estate had already financed a new quadrangle for University College, as well as the Radcliffe Library (now the Radcliffe Camera, completed in 1749) and the Radcliffe Infirmary.

Building began in 1772 to plans by the architect Henry Keene, but only the Observer's House is his design. Upon Keene's death in 1776, the Observatory was completed to a different design by James Wyatt (1746-1813). Wyatt based his design on a small Tower of the Winds in Athens, an illustration of which had appeared in Stuart & Revett's Antiquities of Athens published in 1762.

Our second calling point, after a short lunch stop, was the Museum for the History of Science. Our tour guide was none other than respected historian of the history of science and Honorory President and Patron of our Society, Dr Allan Chapman.

The Museum of the History of Science houses an unrivalled collection of historic scientific instruments in the world's oldest surviving purpose-built museum building, the Old Ashmolean on Broad Street, Oxford. Among the collection were several instruments from the Radcliffe Observatory, Allan was able (of course!) to give a detailed account of their history and use as well as talking about the archaeological finds at the museum itself.

The final visit of the day, still in the company of Allan Chapman, was to Wadham College. The college was founded by Nicholas and Dorothy Wadham in 1610 during the reign of King James I. Among its alumni is Christopher Wren, Wren attended the meetings of scientifically-inclined scholars which were held by Warden John Wilkins (Cromwell's brother-in-law) in the college in the 1650s. Those attending formed the nucleus of the Royal Society at its foundation in 1662.