This picture was copied from an original photograph belonging to Jim Evans of Beacon View, Swinford. We are grateful to him for lending it to us.
We cannot say for certain when it was taken. But the mugs in the hands of the children would tend to indicate it was a royal occasion. The first mention in the Oxford Times of Eynsham's children being presented with mugs is on the occasion of King George V's Coronation in 1911. But the photograph could date from Edward VII's Coronation in 1902 or Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. At the time of the 1997 celebrations Miss Philcox, one of Eynsham's oldest inhabitants, was quite sure it belonged to 1897.
The numerous tricolors and few Union Jacks is quite common in similar photographs of the period and probably indicates that they were cheaper and easier to make than the British flag, not a lack of national loyalty. Despite the array of umbrellas it was not raining. They were frequently - and sensibly - used by our predecessors as parasols.
The photographer was probably shooting from an upstairs room in one of the cottages adjoining the church. If you still haven't got your bearings you are looking across the Square. The Red Lion is on the right and the Bartholomew Boom is the building you can just see the south-east corner of on the extreme left.