Credit: Mike Peckett
Our beautiful Victorian roof is a masterpiece of wrought and cast iron topped with 8,500 glass tiles. It’s one of the first things our visitors notice when they enter the Museum, and its leaks are the reason we’re closed this year. But what many people don’t notice is that the glass is supported by decorated wooden struts, painted with bright geometric patterns, and contrasting surprisingly with the organic Gothic detail of the rest of the building.
Whilst the construction team from Beard were up in amongst the rafters last week, they spotted a surprising addition to the paint work. Hidden high up, and out of sight of even the most observant of visitors, was a message from the past. The roof decorators had left their names and the date of their work painted onto the woodwork for future generations to discover.
The message reads “This roof was painted by G. Thicke and J Randall, April 1864”. In general, we don’t approve of graffiti inside the Museum, but this discovery felt pretty special. Well done Randall and Thicke, you did a great job!
Rachel Parle, Education Officer
More Than A Dodo 
A brilliant find it doesn’t get any better than this, a great story for the blog
cheers
mike P
Fantastic!
In the 90s when my parents had their house redecorated they used the original decorator of the house when it was built in the 60s. He was still going strong and added another date to to the ‘graffiti’ he had left over thirty years earlier under our stairs.
That’s great. I wondered if we could find out a bit more about these two characters too, although they’re a bit long in the tooth to give us another lick of paint…
from the census it could be George Thicke – decorator, he was 54 in 1864 and lived in Alma Place with a large family, I have just had a quick look but it looks as if he lodged away from his family in later years although his widow Margaret was the beneficially of his will in 1887
I’m doing my family history and I think (George) Thicke, born 1809 may be one of the culprits! He is my husbands great, great, great grandfather & is listed in censuses as being a painter. He lived in St Clements.
Good work both, thanks a lot. So are these two George Thickes one and the same?
Hi I am Jill and I am working on the protocol needed for a traveling collection could you please help me to find anything on this topic. Thank you, Jill Czerwonky
Yes – I think so – not sure why he was living apart from his family in 1871 and 1881 though. His wife was still in Oxford running a lodging house. Great to find he is a relative Debbie. Do you have access to the census records/probate etc. let me know if you need any look ups.
Thanks Jan, that’s really good. How did you find this information? And does anyone know anything about a Mr J Randall (I assume it’s a Mr, but who knows…).
I have trawled through the census records for oxford for 1861 onwards, J randall not so easy but I will have another look
If you find anything more, do let us know. It’s an exciting addition to this story.
Aha! I have access to censuses etc & think I have traced J. Randall? 1861 & 1871 censuses list ‘John James Randall’ born 1840, residing in St Ebbes, and his occupation as a “Painter”!!
Wow!!! This is all so exciting. Thanks so much everyone for making this little story into something really special. I’d like to do another post on the blog about how the story has spiralled. Does anyone have a nice image I could use? A snap-shot from the census for example?
In some cases the houses they lived in are still there. J Randall still around in the 1911 census
This is fascinating stuff,
If this is the right J Randall born 1840 then at the time of the graffiti(1864)he would have been a mere youngster at 24. A J Randall still around in 1911 makes him about 71 years of age .
There was a bit of age difference between the two 24 and 54 maybe the younger was an apprentice to the other older one.
What a great image; these 2 men of such different ages up in the rafters painting their names together!
[…] while back we featured a great little story about some graffiti, which was discovered high up on the Museum roof. You may remember that it was painted by two of […]
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