Evening Talks on the Theme of Collectors and Collections
The next meeting will be on 17th December 2019 when Michael Heaney will talk to us about “Percy Manning – The Antiquarian Who Collected Oxfordshire.” It will be held in Iffley Church Hall. Doors open at 7.10pm with the lecture starting at 7.30pm. The evening will end with the Society’s Christmas drinks.
Mike finished a distinguished career at the Bodleian in 2012 as its Executive Secretary – a role much grander than it sounds. In 2006 he had captained the Bodleian Library team on the series University Challenge: The Professionals. (Triumphantly – the librarians saw off the Royal Statistical Society in the final 230-125.)
One of Mike’s interests has long been social and local history. In 2017 he was a lead figure in the centenary celebrations of Percy Manning. He had already contributed the article on Percy Manning to the Oxford DNB, and, in 2017 he was both editor and contributor to the volume Percy Manning : The Man who Collected Oxfordshire. One can safely say Mike is the authority on tonight’s topic. 
Percy Manning was not an Oxfordshire man born – but came to New College as a student. Although not successful there, the city and county gained a lifelong historian, folklorist and archaeologist. When he died in 1917 his extensive collections were divided between the Bodleian Library, the Ashmolean Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum. A bachelor, he used his income to collect everything: books, medieval manorial records, paintings, and archaeological finds.The Bodleian Library has a special online catalogue to the Manning collection so everyone can see whether Percy’s manuscript archive can help with their local history research.
Iffley History Society 