Speaker: Liz Wooley

“…those rampageous, dragonnading fire-devils…”

The railway arrived relatively late in Oxford, partly due to the objections of the university, which feared for the morals of its students. When it did come, however, it had profound effects on the city physically, economically and socially. This talk includes the story of how a house made of paper almost delayed the building of Oxford’s first line; of the station erected by the engineers of Crystal Palace; and of how the railway affected the coaching, river and canal trades, industries like brewing and marmalade-making, and the development of Oxford’s “base and brickish skirt”.