History Lower Sixth Field Day Trip to Oxford

As part of Field Day, on Friday 8th March 2019, seventeen students studying History in the Sixth Form travelled with Mr Clark, Mr Simm, Dr St John, Mr Llewellyn and Miss Kerkhof to Oxford. They received a guided tour of perhaps the most famous Oxford college, Christ Church, including the famous Tudor Hall and Oxford Cathedral. Students studying Early Modern History observed the legacy of Cardinal Wolsey as well as the site of Charles I headquarters during the English Civil War. Those boys studying Late Modern British History observed the portrait of William Ewart Gladstone and the famous protest against Sir Robert Peel recorded on the door below Christ Church hall. While touring Tom Quad, the group met up with Dominic Mastrangelo (Russells 2017), currently studying French and Italian at Oxford.

Later in the morning, the group toured the city including a visit to Oxford Town Hall, Carfax Tower, Radcliffe Square, Broad Street and the Oxford University Bookshop. “Future Politics” by Jamie Susskind (Joblings 2007) was the most prominent book on display in the front window of OUP bookshop. We met up with Dylan Kaposi (Strouts 2018) who kindly talked about his experiences as a First Year History undergraduate at Oxford. No visit led by the History Department would be complete without a visit to a coffee shop! In the Queen’s Lane Coffee Shop they were able to visit the oldest known coffee shop in Europe.

Finally, the day concluded with a visit to Magdalen College School to attend the inaugural Blackwell’s A Level History Conference. The theme of the day was an appraisal of Elizabeth I. The boys heard talks from Professor Peter Marshall (University of Warwick) on religious policy during Elizabeth I, Dr Lucy Wooding (University of Oxford) on Elizabethan Politics and Professor Steven Gunn (University of Oxford) on Foreign Policy. We are extremely grateful to the History Department and Master at MCS for letting us attend this event.