An exhibition detailing Oxfordshire's links to the slave trade has gone on display at the Museum of Oxford.

The new exhibition, called Connections: People and Places, was organised by the African-Caribbean and African Kultural Heritage Initiative, which spent 18 months researching how people in the county were involved in the slave trade — and in the hard-fought campaign to abolish it. It has been organised by Museum of Oxford curator Anne Louise Avery. Director Junie James said: "I have visited Blenheim Palace several times over four decades and seen paintings with a hidden black servant in the corner which sparked curiosity as to how they came to be there.

"There is an untold story here.

"You read about London, Liverpool and Hull and their links to the slave trade but rarely do you every hear much about Oxford because it was not a port or a maritime city."

Detailed exhibits, including paintings, documents and artefacts have been unearthed and put on display at the Museum of Oxford in St Aldate's, with the help of curator Anne Louise Avery.

They include articles such as slave trade 'manilas', which were iron or copper bracelets used as currency for the buying and selling of slaves.

Ms James said leading lights of the anti-slavery campaign, including Sir William Dolben, who brought in an Act which sought to restrict how many enslaved Africans could legally be carried on board a slave ship. He later became the MP for Oxford University. There was also evidence of slaves being kept in locations across the county, with records of a slave being baptised in Woodstock. > Ms James said: "For 99.9 per cent of people this exhibition will be the first they know about Oxford and Oxfordshire's links to the slave trade. I think it will be quite an eye opener."

The free exhibition was opened by Oxford's Lord Mayor Susanna Pressel last week.

It runs until January 4.