AN EXHIBITION has opened at the Museum of Oxford to celebrate the venue’s 40th anniversary.

The 40 Years, 40 Objects selection is made up of items chosen by Oxford residents, each telling a story about a different aspect of the city’s history over the past four decades.

The museum, in Oxford Town Hall, St Aldate’s, was founded in 1975 and underwent a major overhaul in 2011.

The new exhibition includes a trophy handed to employees of Oxford University Press to mark 500 years of printing, a model of the old Cadena Café, a La Gigantona doll from Oxford’s twinning with Leon in Nicaragua and a rack of spikes placed on top of the infamous two-metre high Cutteslowe Walls.

The wall was built in 1934 to separate private housing built by Clive Saxton of the Urban Housing Company from Oxford City Council’s estate.

It survived numerous attempts by the city council to demolish it, but eventually the local authority bought the land using compulsory purchase orders and, in 1959, it came down.

At the exhibition’s official opening on Saturday, Lord Mayor and city councillor Rae Humberstone told the Oxford Mail: “It is a fantastic exhibition.

“And speaking to people about the Cutteslowe Walls, as if it were just yesterday, is a real reminder of how things have changed in the city.

“People always want to put up barriers, but there are always others, too, who want to take them down. I think that resonates a lot today with the refugee crisis we have.”

Museum volunteer and Oxford Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) member Prue Drew, of Kingston Road, has contributed a “Pink Peace Scarf”.

It was created as part of an awareness-raising campaign to knit lengths of pink wool together to create an item so big it could stretch between the two nuclear bomb factories at Aldermaston and Burghfield, near Reading.

Groups of knitters used to meet in Bonn Square, Oxford, for the project and on August 9 this year they joined with other knitters across Britain to create a seven-mile length of fabric, in protest against the Government’s proposed renewal of the Trident nuclear submarine system.

Mother-of-two Mrs Drew, 69, said: “It is a nice keepsake of the day. We believe the money spent on Trident will be better spent on people, on health and on jobs.

“The scarf won’t go to waste either, because like others we will be refurbishing it and sending it to Syria – where it can do more good – or Calais, to help people fleeing civil war.”

The opening of the 40 Years, 40 Objects exhibition coincided with the installation of an 800-year-old statue of the Hindu god Ganesha at the museum, on loan from the British Museum.

The statue, which originates from Odisha in eastern India, will sit alongside others donated by Oxford’s 5,000-strong Hindu community.

A traditional Hindu dance was performed on Saturday and a representative from the Oxford Hindu Project said: “It pleases us to join the welcoming of Ganesha to the city of Oxford and while he is here we hope he will help people in the city to solve their problems.”

Antonia Harland-Lang, the community engagement officer who led the 40 Years, 40 Objects project, told the first visitors to the exhibition: “We are celebrating our 40th anniversary and this was about bringing together 40 objects, selected not by museum staff but by local people.

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  • Carnival fever: Joan Bellinger admires a costume from the Cowley Road Carnival as part of the Museum of Oxford’s 40 Years, 40 Objects exhibition 

“Not all the objects are 40 years old, but all have been found in the past 40 years.

“We have also spanned different parts of Oxford, from Blackbird Leys with our fabulous digital storytelling project, a real celebration of what it means to live in the Leys today and what it meant in the past.

“It is also wonderful to have the Ganesha statue here.”

City council leader Bob Price paid tribute to those who helped save the museum when it faced the threat of closure in 2009.

He said: “I do think it is quite extraordinary that we are celebrating 40 years of the Museum of Oxford, given that Oxford has a history of 1,000 years, and we have some councillors to thank for that, such as Peter Spokes.

“The original museum was very much a product of the people of Oxford and there was a lot of interest to provide objects, which of course are part of the celebration now, so there is a very nice continuity there .”

The council leader also revealed there were plans for expansion, with the council seeking a significant sum for the build.

“ The 80,000 or so people who visit now is phenomenal, so we look forward to the next 40 years,” he said.