St Mary's School Calne

History of Art Trip

The UVI Form History of Art Group, recently visited Blenheim Palace and Oxford as part of their A Level English Baroque Architecture studies.  They arrived at Blenheim at 10.30 am and were privileged to have been able to entice the very humorous and knowledgeable ex-education officer – John Forster - out of retirement for the day.  He gave an extremely interesting tour and talk, aimed specifically at the architecture of the Palace, and its significance as a monument to the victory of the English army at Blenheim in 1704.  For once the group was looked on kindly by the weather, and they managed to see the grandeur of the Palace in full sunshine, even if a cold wind was blasting across the grounds!

At lunch time the group moved on to the City of Oxford to view the architecture of Wren, Hawksmoor and Gibbs.  Needless to say it was raining by this time and the delights of standing outside discussing the intricacies of these wonderful buildings were somewhat dampened.  It was with relief, therefore, that they were able to go into the interior of the Sheldonian Theatre, to look at the splendid painted ceiling, which they found had been removed for restoration!  However, the building has a lantern at the top from which there are some magnificent views of the city, which the students recorded in photographs.