Wheatley Village Archive

What's on this website

This website contains information, photographs, maps and artefacts relating to the history of the village, its schools and churches, Wheatley people, their family trees, trades and occupations, and Wheatley events. It also contains information on our two heritage trails, a list of publications and links to other organisations. Together these provide a valuable resource for people wanting to know more about life in the village in the past. These resources are available to anyone living in the village, or people living further away, who want to find out about the village, their relatives and where they lived.

Since 2022, and because of potential privacy issues, some of the 'living history' records of village events may be restricted on the archive website as to either their photographic content and/or accompanying names of people. Instead, these will be held only in the hard copy archive. Videos of village events may, instead, be held only an external memory held in the archive rather than as a Youtube output.

Stop Press

The Archive moved in August 2022 to the Library, where it is much more accessible in line with the Library opening hours when all of the Archive records are available for inspection, please ask the Library staff.  From September 2023, if you would like a member of the Archive team to be present, please contact, with details of your enquiry, Michael Heaton at info@wheatleyarchive.org.uk or by telephone on 01865 492116. The same contact details can be used if you would like to purchase any of our publications, calendars, or tea towels as listed on this page.

Wheatley Archive is now also more visible to the community with an illuminated display of local artefacts in a window of the CES, the language school, 67 High Street, OX33 1XT.

Links to our Facebook page and Youtube channel have been added. Their active logos are on the extreme right of the banner above.

Our latest book, Wheatley 1890-1910: Reminiscences of the Turn of the Century and a Snapshot of the Village in 1910, is available at £7

This period in Wheatley’s history follows the influence of the Temperance movement which sought to bring more meaning into people’s lives rather than an over-reliance on alcohol. In Wheatley, this resulted in the development of the Merry Bells by Dorothy Miller of Shotover; along with other encouragement to help people to lead ‘better’ lives. The era of cruel sports was long-since over, and Wheatley had benefited from the progressive initiatives of Rev Edward Elton. The economy was improving after a long downturn, and agricultural over-manning resulting in riots was history. Thanks to a new push in the 1950s, steps were taken to capture living memories from the late 1880s onwards. These memories, gathered in this book, describe Wheatley in considerable detail in this benign and progressive period. The Great War was not yet a threat.

WikiTree

Helen Flight, part of the Archive team, has started a 'One Place Study' on Wikitree, which is a world-wide family tree contributed, like Wikipedia, by individuals, see WIKITREE. Additional contributors (there are already some) are welcome but it is very important that any family tree additions are robust and well supported by sources so as to maintain the integrity of these trees.

Donations

If you would like to make a donation to our work, our bank details are Wheatley Village Archive, Lloyds Sort Code 309626, Account 34848368. Thank you.



How to use this website

There are three tabs for searching this website:

SEARCH ARCHIVE, SEARCH WW1 MEN, and GENEALOGY

1) Search Archive by Map or by Word

  • SEARCH BY MAP – each tear drop represents an address or group of addresses. (Dropdown choice of 3 maps – archive only, WW1 men only or combined.)

Many archive items of General Information (G), Societies (S), Events (E) and People (P) do not have links to a particular address, so these categories are shown with G, S, E, P teardrops adjacent to 'Wheatley' and/or teardrop adjacent ‘Dismantled Railway’.

  • SEARCH BY WORD – use a single word or multiple words (in double inverted commas). Search refinement can be made using Keyword (from dropdown list) and/or Decades (Centuries pre-1900)

2) Search WW1 men by Map or by Word

  • SEARCH BY MAP - each tear drop represents an address or group of addresses. (Dropdown choice of 3 maps – archive only, WW1 men only or combined.)
  • SEARCH BY WORD - choose surname or address from given lists

Each search will, in addition to the content, also have a map address, any related items, any WW1 men connections and any genealogical records.

3) GENEALOGY – use family name on TNG database (where further instructions can be found).

There are also tabs for the HERITAGE TRAILS, related PUBLICATIONS and useful LINKS to other sites.

Some archive items were of too poor quality for digitisation and can only be inspected in the Wheatley Village Archive in the Library as can originals of all items.

Please report any failings to Michael Heaton at info@wheatleyarchive.org.uk