Oxford News
Special royal visit marks museum’s 50th anniversary
HRH The Duke of Gloucester toured the Chiltern Open Air Museum in Buckinghamshire, joined by the Lord-Lieutenant and the High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire, as part of the museum’s ongoing 50th anniversary celebrations.
During the visit, the Duke met pupils from Alder Grove Church of England Primary School taking part in an Anglo-Saxon learning day.
The Duke observed the children, who were engaged in an archaeological dig, learning to analyse and date artefacts.
HRH also explored the museum’s Victorian lambing fold and spoke with farm manager Rachael Maytum about the museum’s Oxford Down sheep and their role in the Chilterns’ farming history.
The Duke continued his tour on the Village Green, viewing a selection of historic buildings, including a 1940s prefab home, wartime Nissen huts and the newly reconstructed 1950s bandstand from Finsbury Circus.
Founded in September 1976 by members of the Historic Buildings Group of the Chiltern Society, the museum preserves threatened buildings that reflect ordinary life in the Chilterns.
Each structure is dismantled, transported and rebuilt at the site in Chalfont St Giles.
It first opened to the public in May 1981 with just four-and-a-half buildings and 95 visitors.
Since then, the museum has grown to welcome more than 50,000 visitors each year.
To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the museum is inviting visitors and volunteers to share their photos and memories via its website.
Brown’s Original Banbury Cakes Limited was run by Philip Brown for nearly 30 years, since 1998, but he inherited a much longer tradition of making a selling the iconic cakes.
Banbury Cakes are small puff pastries with a rum-flavoured dried fruit filling, similar to Eccles Cakes, and Brown’s Original Banbury Cakes was famous for making them.
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The family-owned company had been doing so for nearly 400 years, working from the famous bakery at 12 Parsons Street from the early 1600s.
The once-beloved shop was demolished by a property developer in 1968, and rebuilt into the shops which now house a Japanese restaurant in its place.
However, the Banbury Cake business continued.
From the early 1900s, the shop had been run by two sisters named Lizzie and Lottie Brown, and Mr Philip Brown, who until recently had been the company’s baker, is the great-nephew of those sisters.
Mr Brown ran Brown’s Original Banbury Cakes as an order-only company, selling the heritage cakes through online orders and at shops like the Banbury Museum shop and Wykham Park Farm Shop.
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But the storied business was dissolved on April 7, 2026, according to documents on Companies House, and was voluntarily struck from the register and dissolved.
Mr Brown could not be reached for comment.
Wykham Park Farm Shop confirmed that the company had stopped supplying Banbury Cakes earlier this year when the baker retired and the company closed.
Oxford PV, the Yarnton-based innovator and manufacturer of perovskite photovoltaic technology, has joined the SUITE (Smart Use of Integrated Technology for EV) project.
The project is designing cutting‑edge solar panels for vehicles to improve electric vehicle (EV) efficiency and range.
Oxford PV joins a the project led by Nissan Technical Centre UK, including specialist engineering companies, and leading UK universities to accelerate solar innovation for EVs.
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Oxford PV will contribute its expertise, building on more than a decade of pioneering research and industrialisation of perovskite-on-silicon tandem solar technology.
“We are excited to be working with such a strong consortium of automotive and technology partners on the SUITE project,” said David Ward, chief executive at Oxford PV.
“Perovskite photovoltaics offer a step change in solar performance and open up new possibilities for vehicle integrated solutions.
“This collaboration allows us to bring our technology leadership to a new class of applications that can deliver real world benefits for electric mobility.”
He added: “By combining cutting edge PV technology with automotive grade design and manufacturing expertise, SUITE represents an important step towards commercially viable solar assisted electric vehicles.
“We’re proud to contribute to a project that supports the UK’s net zero ambitions while advancing the performance and sustainability of future transport.”
The incident occurred in Oatlands Park in Botley, west Oxford, on Wednesday, April 8 at about 3.30pm.
Police say a man, who was topless, wearing only shorts and flip flops, approached a teenage girl in the park and ‘attempted to grab her’.
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Fortunately, she was not injured and ran away.
Thames Valley Police are now appealing for anyone who witnessed the assault to come forward as part of a ‘thorough’ investigation into the incident.
The man is described as a black, in his late 20s or early 30s, of average build with short afro style hair boxed in shape, and dark brown eyes.
A spokesperson for Thames Valley Police said: “Officers have been conducting a thorough investigation following this incident and ask anyone with information contact the force on 101 or by making a report via our website, quoting reference number 43260170326.”
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