New research on Radcliffe Observatory

Emeritus Fellow Professor Geoffrey Walford has recently had three academic articles published about the history and architecture of the Radcliffe Observatory. All are based on new archival research and all, he hopes, ‘are more interesting than the titles might suggest’.

On visitors

Geoffrey Walford (2025) ‘Visitors to the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford, 1773-1826’ Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 28, 4, pp. 882-900.

This paper investigates the visitors to the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford, from 1773 until 1826. This timespan corresponds to the periods in office of the first two Radcliffe Observers, Thomas Hornsby (1771–1810) and Abraham Robertson (1810–1826). The paper shows that the Radcliffe Observatory was built with a variety of different visitors in mind, and that it had the differentiations and hierarchies of Georgian society built into its structure, alongside its varied functions.

On instruments

Geoffrey Walford (2026) ‘The Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford: Its collection of instruments and the architectural response’ Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 29, 1, pp. 3-30.

This paper describes the main collection of optical instruments gathered, used, and maintained by the succession of custodian Radcliffe Observers from 1773 until 1935.This paper examines the ways in which limitations in funding led to changes in the ways that instruments were housed. It also shows the dynamic nature of the collection and the architecture of the Observatory in response to changes in funding, knowledge, and engineering.

These first two articles are open access, thus easily obtained.

On Coade stone

Geoffrey Walford (2026) ‘Coade stone and the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford: a letter from the Coade Stone Manufactory.’ The Georgian Group Journal, 34, pp. 137-154.

This article explores the use of Coade stone at the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford. It examines the variety of uses of the material in the decoration of the Observatory and focuses in some detail on the signs of the Zodiac that were specially commissioned for the building. An unpublished letter held in the archive of the Royal Astronomical Society from John Sealy (at the Coade Manufactory) to Thomas Hornsby raises questions about the relationships between the artists involved, their clients, and the ways of working of the Coade Manufactory.

This article is officially only available in hard copy for the first three years, but a PDF can be obtained by emailing geoffrey.walford@gtc.ox.ac.uk.

Geoffrey guarantees that, after reading this third paper, ‘nobody will look at the Observatory’s zodiac signs in the same way as before’!