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The hidden history of Oxford's favourite street

CowleyRoad.org is an open, DIY community history project.

What is it?

It's like a Wikipedia for the Cowley Road.

Every public or commercial building from the Plain to Magdalen Road has its own page. We are building an open archive of facts and photos celebrating Cowley Road's social and architectural life, with all content freely available for community use.

The project will be officially launched during Cowley Road Carnival 2017, followed by a series of public workshops. The workshops will collect memories and images, and show people how to add these to the website.

Who made it?

This is a project from artist Eleanor Greenhalgh and programmer Charlie Harvey.

It uses software from MediaWiki, and features some images from other open archives such as Geograph. We are working in partnership with Cowley Road Carnival and have benefited from the advice and support of Liz Woolley and the Oxfordshire Local History Association.

How does it work?

We will be running a series of workshops to get local people set up with accounts on the website. All contributions are released under an open license, so all content on the site is genuinely available for free community use. See the Copyright page for more details.

How do I get involved?

• Come along to our launch event on Sunday 23rd July 2017. This is a free public event including a lecture on East Oxford history by historian Liz Woolley. 3-5pm at East Oxford Community Centre.
• Sign up to our newsletter using the box at the bottom right to get updates about the project, and to hear about upcoming events.
• Become a wiki editor — click the "request account" button at the top right of the page.