Dr Simon Wenham is a Departmental Tutor in Oxford University’s Lifelong Learning department, where he teaches courses on the Victorian period (see below for details). His doctoral research at the University of Oxford was on the history of Salter Bros Ltd, an Oxford-based Thames boat firm. The thesis was turned into the book Pleasure Boating on the Thames: a History of Salter Bros 1858 – Present Day (published in 2014 and updated in 2017) and he is also the author of Hobbs of Henley: a History (published in 2020).
He gives illustrated talks on a variety of historical topics and has spoken at academic conferences and seminars in the UK and abroad (Pantheon Sorbonne). Simon has produced a range of academic and popular-level articles, including a number for Victorian Web, one on the history of British camping (for the journal Oxoniensia), and another on the Oxford suffragettes (for Limited Edition magazine). He is on the editorial board of the Oxfordshire Local History Association’s journal, and was previously involved with the ‘European Rivers and Towns‘ initiative.
Simon used to be a regular contributor to Radio Oxford on local history (2013-2016) and has done interviews for a number of television documentaries (shown on Channel 4, Channel 5 and TBN), as well as providing advice for books and programmes on a variety of subjects.
He continues to do research on Victorian history, and the river Thames, and his previous historical interests include child labour in the Industrial Revolution, the holocaust, slavery in antebellum America and the reformation.
Simon was born in India and was brought up in Oxford (where he still lives). His other interests include sport, travelling and reading biographies, current affairs and theology. He has an academia.edu profile and his twitter handle is @SimonWenham.
[At the Continuing Education Department he currently teaches (two terms per year) the ‘Investigating the Victorians‘ (online) course]