Oxford Open Doors 2019

Oxford University’s Gardens, Libraries and Museums will be staging a range of free events on 14 and 15 September as part of this year’s Oxford Open Doors weekend.

Detail of the Sheldon Tapestry Map

The annual event, which is coordinated by Oxford Preservation Trust, opens up free access to over 130 venues across the city, including colleges, churches, University departments and cultural attractions.

At the Weston Library on Broad Street, visitors can explore the intriguing maps of Oxfordshire from Tudor times to the 20th century, with a day of free drop-in activities on Saturday 14th.

Alongside short tours of the Talking Maps exhibition, the Bodleian’s Map Librarian Nick Millea will be talking about three intriguing maps: the Cutteslowe Walls map, Sheldon Tapestry Map and Sharp’s planning maps of Oxford. And join children’s author Jackie Holderness at 12pm and 3pm as she tells the story of Oxford’s Anglo-Saxon Princess Frideswide, who hid in a tree.

Visitors during a History of Science Museum tour

Just across the road from the Weston Library, visitors can enjoy ‘Made in Oxford’ tours at the History of Science Museum. These tours of the museum's collections, which take place at 2.30pm and 3.15pm on Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th, will feature intricate objects and unusual stories from Oxford.

Free tours are also on offer at the Ashmolean Museum on Saturday 14th. Discover treasures of the Ashmolean at 11am, and the Cast Gallery study collection featuring the sculpture of ancient Greece and Rome at 2pm.

And go behind the scenes at the Pitt Rivers Museum on Sunday 15th. Join Community Curators from the Beyond the Binary project and hear about the fascinating work they are undertaking to uncover LGBTQIA+ histories buried within the collections.