2025 at The Oxford Arms
2025 has been an exceptionally busy year at The Oxford Arms!
We opened 168 days in 2025. This included 56 events (including 11 Creative Workshops and 3 barn dances), 4 health workshops, 15 chair yoga sessions, 4 study groups, 2 courses (first aid and inner source painting), 26 Veterans’ Association meetings, 13 Knit and Natter Meetings, 48 Places of Welcome sessions (including 11 Sunflower Socials and 8 Dementia Matters), and 1 AGM.
37 volunteers contributed to running The Oxford in 2025, helping with event planning and staging, running our bar and café, keeping the yard tidy and the plants happy, making urgent repairs on the fabric of the building and barn, and much more! In total, we logged more than 4000 volunteer hours this year.
More than 3000 people came to our events
Scroll on for more detail!
January
January kicked off with the news that Open Arms Kington had received a Development Grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund!
Meanwhile, DJ Polo lit up the barn with a DJ set, and Join the Dots led the ceilidh on Burns Night.
February
In February, we launched Sunflower Social, a support group for people living with hidden disabilities. It’s still going strong on the first Wednesday of each month. We also hosted a workshop helping with healthy habits, and Fiddlebop’s gypsy jazz in the barn in association with Kington Folk Club.
March
March was bright and sunny, and we welcomed our first big crowds of the year for Let’s Dance! We hope to host Kington’s contribution to this national festival of dance again in March 2026, watch this space for more details. March also featured two sessions of mandala colouring with Wonky Mandalas, the first of our Sunday Sessions with Kington Folk Club, and a charity quiz night for the RNLI.
April
April was one of our busiest months. We hosted an art exhibition for World Autism Awareness Day, Beccy Haydon of The Border Bean was our Kington Castaway, Dementia Matters began hosting monthly support groups for people affected by dementia (on the second Wednesday of each month), and we took over the Kington Community Shop for a week. Behind the scenes, architects visited The Oxford to undertake further investigations and drone surveys. But a highlight was the now-annual Kington Marmalade Competition, held in collaboration with Festive Foods from the Border and the Kington Chamber of Trade!
May
In May, we celebrated the 80th anniversary of VE Day with jive dancing and cream teas, started Chair Yoga sessions in our courtyard and Friday night bar opening for the warmer months, and we were a venue for Herefordshire Histories Festival. We also teamed up with Ledbury Poetry to host our first poetry evening, with wonderful special guest Jonny Fluffypunk. Watch this space for more poetry events in the new year!
June
June saw The Oxford become the venue for Kington Veterans’ Assocation’s weekly meetings. We hosted another antiques valuation session in the barn in association with Hall’s Auctioneers (the highlight being a bucket from HMS Victory), and a fundraiser for Herefordshire MIND (in association with our friends from KLEEN). June is also the occasion of the celebrated Kington Wheelbarrow Race, where fancy dress is obligatory!
July
In July, we hosted 2Faced Dance Company for their spectacular Towns Alive dance festival, as well as music and comedy from the wonderful Kate Green. We also became the venue for the Kington Knit and Natter group.
August
August was our busiest month ever! Singer-songwriter Lake performed an acoustic set to a packed barn, before we had local legend Rita Langford BEM as our Kington Castaway. Then we hosted our first wedding, welcomed the traction engines of Kington Vintage Show, and closed the month with Project Smok (organised by the wonderful people of Kington Folk Club)!
September
The beautiful sunshine left us in September, but the rain didn't dampen spirits at our Heritage Open Day showing the heritage (and in some cases, critically endangered) skills of local artisans and makers. We also welcomed KLEEN for community apple pressing, and provided refreshment to walkers for Kington Walking Festival.
October
In October, we hosted several craft activities (in addition to our regular Creative Workshop) to mark the Big Draw Festival. We had more community apple pressing with KLEEN alongside our Pomona Panorama craft event, before bunting workshops in the barn to celebrate Diwali. Josie Bridges and Julian Woodman from Natural Resources Wales gave very well-attended talks on the Radnor Lily, and we hosted our first Halloween party!
November
November saw us host a yard sale and a quiz night Expect more quiz events in 2026! Meanwhile, we also launched Café Mortel, a “death café”, and hosted Glasgow-based artist Maya Rose Edwards as artist-in-residence (organised with Meadow Arts). Maya, who is taking part in Meadow Arts’s Borderlands project, led a drawing and mapping workshop around Kington and in the barn.
December
In December, The Oxford was open for Festive Foods from the Borders with carol singing from Whitton Voices (sadly, a fallen tree prevented our booked food truck from attending). We also hosted a well-attended Community Q & A session, and opened our bar during the Festive Tractor Run as well as for New Year’s Eve.
And that’s a wrap for 2025! Thanks to everyone who came to The Oxford this year. We have exciting plans for 2026, keep an eye on our website, social media, and posters for the latest news and updates.