On 14 July, Oxford-based local historian and tour guide Mark Davies talked to a smaller than usual number of members and guests about notable events during the ceremonial circuits by Oxford’s mayors of the city’s boundaries over the past 500 years. The tradition was for the city mayor, when they first held that office, to make a tour (a ‘perambulation’) to confirm the location of the city boundary. On this tour they were accompanied by the macebearer, other city dignitaries and those freemen of Oxford who wished to attend. The boundary changed as the city of Oxford grew, but remains mainly defined by its waterways. The tour took most of the day, being enlivened by stops at various waterside pubs.

Mark presented detailed maps of the route taken along the city’s boundaries as these changed over the years and photographs taken by Oxford photographers Henry Taunt and Henry Minn of the 1892 event – the first one photographed and notable for the sinking of the punt carrying the mayor, the macebearer and worthies in the river Cherwell. The mace was retrieved from the muddy river bed, but the cross on the top of its orb was lost and had to be replaced.

Mark ended his talk by drawing attention to Stephanie Jenkins’ Oxford History website and its collection of photographs of various stone waymarkers erected when a boundary change was first ‘walked’.