Michael Heaney – författare

Percy Manning (1870-1917) was an Oxford antiquary who amassed enormous collections about the history of Oxford and Oxfordshire, which now constitute a valuable resource in Oxford University’s libraries and museums. Manning was interested in all periods of history and prehistory, collecting Stone Age tools, Roman coins, medieval tiles, and relics of ways of life that were disappearing in his own day, such as decorated police truncheons and local pottery. He methodically documented and explored the archaeology of the county. He collected literally thousands of prints depicting Oxford and places throughout Oxfordshire as records of changes in the built environment, and moved beyond material objects to uncover and document superstitions, folklore and customs, especially where he thought they were disappearing. He sought out May songs and morris dancers, reviving the Headington Quarry Morris Dancers in 1899. There is scarcely a community in the county which is not reflected somewhere in his collections. This volume provides the first detailed biography of Manning, together with studies examining specific parts of his collections in greater detail. Other chapters demonstrate how the collections can be used as springboards for in-depth study and for fresh approaches to the history of Oxfordshire. Particular emphasis is placed on Manning’s ground-breaking research into the folklore of the county in conjunction with its material culture.Download the following papers in Open Access:The Lost Undercroft at Ducklington’s Inn and Other Medieval Oxford Tavern-undercrofts in Context – David Clark: DownloadManning’s Curiosity Projected into the 21st Century – Brian Durham: DownloadPercy Manning’s Archaeological Survey of Oxfordshire – Alison Roberts: Download

The idea that morris dancing captures the essence of ancient Englishness, inherently carefree and merry, has been present for over 400 years. The Ancient English Morris Dance traces the history of those attitudes, from the dance's introduction to England in the fifteenth century, through the contention of the Reformation and Civil War, during which morris dancing and maypoles became potent symbols of the older ways of living. Thereafter it developed and diversified, neglected and disdained, until antiquaries began to take an interest in its history, leading to its re-invention as emblematic of Victorian concepts of Merrie England in the nineteenth century. The quest for authentic understanding of what that meant led to its revival at the beginning of the twentieth century, but that was predicated on the perception of it as part of England's declining rural past, to the neglect of the one area (the industrial north-west) where it continued to flourish. The revival led in turn to its further evolution into the multitude of forms and styles in which it may be encountered today.

The transformation of the Bodleian Libraries provides an example of how major libraries can meet twenty-first century challenges: in 2008 it was facing a failed system installation, a failed plan to cope with its storage needs and the threat of losing status as a repository suitable to house important manuscripts. Three years later it had a new state-of-the-art repository already holding 7 million items under full automated control, a new advanced library system, transformed reader spaces and the reconstruction of its major building well under way; This was achieved in record-breaking time without significant interruptions in service.