Oxford's University Church of St Mary the Virgin reopens

Oxford's 13th Century University Church of St Mary the Virgin has reopened following a £5.5m restoration.

The medieval building - which boasts Oxford's tallest spire - has undergone its biggest renovation since the late 19th Century in a two-year project.

Works included cleaning stonework, restoring the Clore Old Library, chancel and nave including 15th Century stalls, and improving access.

The church, which attracts 300,000 annual visitors, reopened earlier.

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Marmalade for the students?

Recent excavations at Harris Manchester College, Oxford, produced a number of cylindrical marmalade jars, recovered with other debris from a feature interpreted as a store-room. Three jars were kept as a sample. All bear the mark of the Keiller marmalade company of Dundee. 

The origins of Keiller’s marmalade are supposed to lie, possibly apocryphally, in a shipment of over-ripe Seville oranges bought by James Keiller and used by his wife, Janet, to make marmalade. The brand was founded in 1797, as the first commercial marmalade brand, and its defining characteristic from the beginning was the characteristic scraps of rind in the preserve. By the late 19th century it was being exported around the world.

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N.B. Students on the Oxford Experience get Cooper's Oxford Marmalade!

Why Not Learn Something New on Next Summer’s Vacation?

Oxford, England, February 26, 2013—Why not learn something new on your vacation next summer, and why not learn it at that most hallowed of learning institutions, the University of Oxford?  The Oxford Experience is a one-week summer course open to all, with no requirements, no exams and no papers.  The program  runs from  June 30 to August 10, 2013 at Christ Church, the most prestigious and beautiful of Oxford colleges.  Here participants live in rooms where English prime ministers and poets once lived, dine on High Table in the magnificent Hall featured in Harry Potter films, and learn about some 60 varied subjects. 

  
These subjects range from The Age of Churchill, Oxford Murder, The Victorian and Edwardian Home, the Gothic Novel, Enjoying the Cotswolds and The Life and Times of Richard III, to An Introduction to Particle Physics, From Rasputin to Putin, Political Philosophy, the Operas of Verdi and the Pleasures of Poetry.  Classes, with a maximum of 12 students, are made up of Anglophiles from all over the world, with the youngest in their thirties, the oldest in their nineties.

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Will the study of archaeology soon become a thing of the past?

Greyfriars car park, Leicester, where the remains of King Richard III were found. Photograph: Darren Staples/Reuters

Richard III's discovery showcased UK academia, says Michael Braddick. But as student demand for certain subjects falls, should we have grave concerns for our future knowledge base?

Finding Richard III (on the premises of Leicester social services no less) is testament to the ingenuity of archaeologists. Weaving together findings from historical analysis of texts with scientific analysis of the skeleton and the site, they have made an overwhelming case that these are the remains of the king.

As a historian, I spend a lot of time trying to listen to the dead. Every now and then a curtain seems to be pulled aside and we hear them directly, and the feeling is very powerful. The way that the wounds to the skull match with one of the historical accounts of Richard's death did that for me: I was taken to Richard's final moments, as his helmet was lost and his attackers closed in, his horse gone or stuck in the mud, the moments in other words when he knew he had lost his kingdom and his life. That human connection is precious, and rare.

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You may also be interested in this course:  

An Introduction to Archaeology
Tutor: David Beard
7-13 July 2013
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Archaeology Summer Courses at Oxford

The Oxford Experience is offering a number of archaeology courses this summer.

Each course lasts for one week and participants stay in the 16th century college of Christ Church.

The courses offered are:

Cathedrals of Britain by James Bond

An Introduction to Archaeology by David Beard

The Black Death by Trevor Rowley (course full)

Bishop Odo and the Bayeux Tapestry by Trevor Rowley

Colleges of Oxford by Julian Munby

The Architecture and Archaeology of Medieval Churches by David Beard (course full)

Cotswold Towns by Trevor Rowley

Treasures of the British Museum by Michael Duigan (course full)

Churches of England by Kate Tiller

Treasures of the Ashmolean Museum by Gail Bent

The Age of Stonehenge by Scott McCracken

The World of the Vikings by David Beard

You can find further details here...

Richard III dig: Facial reconstruction shows how king may have looked

The reconstruction was revealed earlier for the first time

A facial reconstruction based on the skull of Richard III has revealed how the English king may have looked.

A skeleton found under a car park in Leicester has been confirmed as that of the king.

The reconstructed face has a slightly arched nose and prominent chin, similar to features shown in portraits of Richard III painted after his death.

Historian and author John Ashdown-Hill said seeing it was "almost like being face to face with a real person".

The development comes after archaeologists from the University of Leicester confirmed the skeleton found last year was the 15th Century king's, with DNA from the bones having matched that of descendants of the monarch's family.

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You may also be interested in this summer school course about Richard III:

The Life and Times of Richard III

Ashmolean Museum in Oxford acquires Renaissance silverware

A stunning collection of Renaissance silverware worth tens of millions of pounds has been bequeathed to Oxford University's Ashmolean Museum.

The haul of nearly 500 items, described as the most important gift to a British museum for over a century, was donated by the late collector Michael Wellby.

The collection includes a rare lapis lazuli bowl, made by Dutch goldsmith Paulus van Vianen, valued at £3m.

A selection of the objects will go on temporary display from next month.

They will be housed in the museum's West Meets East gallery before the entire collection is showcased in a permanent gallery.

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You might also be interested in this course: Treasures of the "Ashmolean Museum" 

Further deatails...