Village museum explores Olympic connections (From Oxford Mail)

Village museum explores Olympic connections

5:00pm Monday 16th April 2012 in Wantage

A MUSEUM exhibition is telling visitors the story of Uffington’s links to the Olympic Games.

The Sporting Connections display at the Tom Brown’s School Museum runs until October and explains how an author born in the village helped inspire the modern competition.

Thomas Hughes wrote Tom Brown’s Schooldays in 1857 and Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin loved it so much he came to England to see public school sporting competitions in 1883.

He founded the International Olympic Committee in 1894 and the first games of the modern era were held in Greece two years later.

Sharon Smith, pictured, an Uffington Parish Council member and curator of the museum, said: “It was after reading the book and visiting Rugby School and other public schools that de Coubertin formed the inspiration for the modern Olympic games. It’s a nice claim for the village.”

The exhibition also explores the village’s connections with champion racehorses and athletes.

The museum, in Broad Street, is open at weekends and bank holiday afternoons between 2pm and 5pm. Admission is free. Picture: OX51142 Damian Halliwell

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