Robert Evans pursued a career at the University of Oxford whose primary focus was the history of Central Europe, particularly the Habsburg Monarchy and its successor states, with side interests in the social and political history of language, and in the history of Wales. In an active retirement he has been able to build on a long-standing fascination for (hi)stories closer to home. He chairs the Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board and has presided over the Oxfordshire Record Society and the Abingdon Area Archaeology and History Society, as well as being a co-founder of the Cumnor and District History Society. He has been a trustee of the Victoria County History of Oxfordshire for twenty years. Samples of his work in this field (as Bob Evans) are Tales from God’s Acre. Fifty Sunningwell Lives (2016), and ‘George Claridge Druce (1850-1932), Botanist, Businessman, Burgher, and Benefactor’, Fritillary 8 (2020), 68-89, at < https://anhso.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Fritillary/frit8-druce.pdf >.
The Wytham project began to take shape a few years ago at the interface of history and ecology, as a small team of part-time researchers saw the scope for an integrated study of the long-term evolution of Wytham Woods and the associated estate and village. Now it has been brought under the wing of the Community History initiative, we hope for mutual benefits in co-operating with other parallel projects and developing our multiple links between the University and localities in and around Oxford.