RADIO listeners across the nation will gain an insight into Oxford life in 1926 next week – thanks to The Oxford Times.

Presenter James Naughtie and several historians leafed through a copy of the newspaper from May 7, 1926, for the next episode of BBC Radio 4 show Classified Britain, which airs on Tuesday.

The series takes a look at classified advertisements on the front pages of regional papers in the 19th and 20th centuries, to help explore the stories of the time.

Mr Naughtie visited Oxford landmarks and spoke to experts including Malcolm Graham, who has studied local newspapers since the 1960s.

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The pair discussed the heartbreak expressed in advertisements from the families of First World War casualties.

Mr Graham said: "I've always found local newspapers absolutely riveting. This was in the pre-digital era when you only search mechanism was turning the pages.

"In a way, this programme was rather appropriate for me.

"In some ways it still reflected an ancient city, as well as hints of what was going on elsewhere and what was to come.

"But many advertisements in that edition could have appeared in the 1890s or earlier."

Oxford Mail:

The show aims to explore the wider connotations of world war, agricultural revolutions and social unrest from the 'bottom up', to see how the major issues of the time affected individual regions.

For much of the 20th century, many newspaper front pages only featured classified advertisements and the May 1926 copy of The Oxford Times was no different.

Among a range of notices were two Mr Naughtie likens to 'the synopsis of a Morse-style whodunnit': one from a reader seeking a baptismal certificate for a birth in 1720, and another offering a 'kind country home' to a 'healthy baby girl'.

The presenter starts his journey at the war memorial in St Giles, constructed five years prior to the featured copy of the paper.

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As well as speaking to Mr Graham, he chats to Liz Wooley, an Oxford historian, tutor and writer interested in the city's 'town' - rather than 'gown' - history.

Oxford Mail:

They talk about the unusual employment trends in Oxford during the inter-war years, when big houses challenged the dominance of the university colleges.

The programme also hears from Oxford-based historian, Ciaran Walsh, who explains the significance of the Mineworkers' General Strike and how Oxford's students broke the strike to volunteer to drive buses.

Classified Britain is on BBC Radio 4 at 9.30am on Tuesday, August 27.