We are lucky that Reading is so well served with transport links. It is particularly easy to get to today’s destination, Oxford, by train within 20 minutes.
The train today was surprisingly busy and, unfortunately, I had got on the carriage with the bloke with the very loud voice. He was telling everyone, whether they wanted to hear or not, about the time his parents took him to the red light district in Amsterdam when he was 13. He then went on to bemoan getting older and saying that he wished he could go back to the simplicity of being five again or even just before he took his common entrance exams. Turned out her was 17…
The reason this oik and others of the same age group were on the train turned out to be because today was Oxford University open day. Therefore, I was glad to turn off the main road into Oxford from the station onto the Oxford canal towpath. You immediately feel the peace decend and it becomes very tranquil.
It is a lovely walk which took me to the pretty streets of Jericho. I have a strong suspicion that this is where the left leaning accademics from the University must live judging by the political posters in the windows. Even the bins seemed to be a call to arms with the legend “Recycle for Oxford” emblazened on them.
After a pleasant walk with weather that felt like the first day of autumn was here, I arrived at my first destination.
Museum of Natural History
Housed in a grand building the Museum of Natural History is one of a series of museums that are owned and run by the University including all that I visited today. The inside is bright and airy thanks to the magnificant roof that was restored back in 2014. Unfortunately today not only was the museum housing the collection of skeletons and stuffed animals it was also home to the Universities biology department and we humming with prospective students. This made progress around the hall of cabinets slow and difficult so in the end I gave up and moved on.
Pitt Rivers Museum
Housed at the back of the Museum of Natural History is the Pitt Rivers Museum which is quite simply the most fantastic museum anywhere in the world.
Where the Natural History museum is light and airy Pitt Rivers is dark, almost oppresive, and the cabinets are black and the gaps between them narrow. The collection brings together artifacts from all over the world grouped together into themes. There are ones on Lamps and Lighting, Bells, Rattles and Xylophones, Weapons, Bowls and so much more. Each one a fascinating glimpse on to other cultures.
One of the many things I like about the place is that some labels look as old as the objects themselves. Neatly hand written on paper that has faded over the years just adds to the magic.
A grizzily must for me on previous visits was a look at the cabinet containing the shrunken heads. This time I was out of luck as there was a prominant board titled “Have you come to see the ‘shrunken heads’?”. This was followed by a couple of paragraphs on why they have been removed from display making me feel like a very bad individual for missing them!
The human remains that used to be on display in this case have been removed. Indigenous peoples have long argued against the public display of their ancestors’ remains.
After a spending an happy hour there I went off for some lunch.
History of Science Museum
After lunch and now with my Dad in tow we went off to the History of Science Museum. This is tucked away in a building next to the Bodleian Library and I am surprised that anyone ever finds it. That said (fun fact coming!) it’s world’s oldest surviving purpose-built museum built in 1683 so plenty of people must have found it in that time.
Over three floors are cabinets of scientific instruments collected together many of which were donated by one Lewis Evans who’s wife must have been pleased to have them out of the house! Given the age of these instruments it is incredible the craftmanship and detail that had gone into each one. They really were things of beauty.
The basement, however, is probably the most interesting as it includes small exhibitions which today included one on Marconi and another on typhoid and the development of a vaccine. I spent ages watching a video on two people that had voluntarily taken part in a trial of a new typhoid vaccine.
Ashmolean Museum
Last stop was to the biggest of them all, the Ashmolean Museum and compared to the other three it is massive. By this point it was mid-afternoon and I was, quite frankly, knackered so I restricted my visit to the two places that I have been before and knew I would enjoy. These were the the money exhibition downstairs and the Egyptian collection on the ground floor.
I have to admit that I am a bit conflicted about some of the things that were on display in the Egyptian collection such as East wall of the Shrine of King Taharga for which you could clearly make an argument that it would be better of in, well, Egypt. That, of course, is a thorny subject *cough* Elgin Marbles *cough*. Let’s just leave that there.
I will have to return to the Ashmolean and do it first next time in order to get the best out of it rather than trying to squeeze it in at the end but that’s a job for another day.
