Finstock Local History Society

Finstock Club Day c.1900

2008-11-25T04:30:00.001-08:00

FYNSTOKE TO FINSTOCK: A Short History

2008-11-23T09:14:00.000-08:00

Finstock, together with its neighbours Charlbury, Fawler and Leafield, used to lie in a clearing in Wychwood Forest that stretched from Woodstock to Burford.

In 1135 the village of Finstock is referred to as Fynstoke. At this time the village formed part of the manor and parish of Charlbury. Roman coins and Romano-British potsherds have been found in the village and it is thought that there was certainly a settlement of some kind here at the time of the Domesday survey of 1086 when it formed part of the 'Hundred of Banbury' belonging to the Bishop of Lincoln.

Later much of the forest was cleared for growing arable crops, and, during the Middle Ages, barley was the main crop in Finstock. Other land was used for sheep grazing, and many of the Finsock people were involved in the woollen industry — the carding being done by men and boys and the spinning by women.

In the early 1500s the manor of Charlbury and its land, including Finstock, was owned by Sir Thomas White, a London tailor who founded St John's College in Oxford in 1555. The manor was included in the college's endowment. As the college lands were owned by an absentee landlord, the land was leased to many people including the Lee family of Ditchley Park (from 1592-1776). The college then resumed direct control until 1857 when the lordship of the manor passed to Francis Spencer, 2nd Lord Churchill of Wychwood, the owner of Cornbury Park. It still remains in the possession of Cornbury Park today although most of the manorial rights have lapsed and much of the village of Finstock is now freehold.

During the early part of the twentieth century the principal occupations in Finstock were glove-making at the village hall site, carried out by women, while the men and boys worked as agricultural labourers on the land. Today most inhabitants of the village commute by car and bus to Witney, Chipping Norton and Oxford.

Finstock is now a separate civil and ecclesiastical parish, its population mostly living on the sides of th large triangle formed by the main Witney-Charlbury road, School road and the High Street. In recent decades there has benn much in-filling with new buildings to complete the triangle. Four new estates were built during the last century. The farming now is mainly arable: barley, wheat and oilseed rape being the main crops, although some mixed farming is still found.

T.S Eliot came to Finstock to be received into the Church of England. William Force Stead, who was a fellow American, came to England as an American consul, but was later ordained and became chaplain of Worcester College, Oxford. After Stead met Eliot in 1923 (they shared a love of cats!), Eliot became drawn to Anglicanism and Stead agreed to baptise him. Stead was then living in Finstock Manor, which he described as a "fine seventeenth-century gabled house". He invited Eliot to stay at the Manor before his baptism, which took place in Finstock Church on June 29th, 1927.

SPANISH LIQUOR DAY

2008-03-17T09:26:00.000-07:00

By Roy Townsend

Spanish Liquor Day is coming - a chance to walk in the Forest from Leafield Five Ash Bottom down to the Kennel Lake or just walk down Patch Riding.

Spanish Liquor is made up with some pieces of hard liquorice with two to three black gobstopper type sweets and white peppermints which were crushed, made up on Saturday night and shaken well on Sunday Morning.

You take your bottle with the mixture in down to the well behind the kennels called the Iron Well. If it's still there behind the fencing. We were forbidden to drink much of it on the way home.

Some years ago I was with the late Bill Campbell who knew the forest very well and all about the Spanish Liquor custom. He told me that the well which was originally used was called Ussell, but was flooded when the lakes were formed. John Kibble believed that the custom was a remnant of well worship which was forbidden in 963 (some custom). He also thought it would never die out, but I think he will be proved wrong. But, there was a man from Leafield, who used to take his bottle of mixture to the well up until a few years ago.

Finstock people would go to Lady Well at Wilcote, but because we lived at the end of Patch Riding, we always went into the Forest.

MEMORIES OF MY BROTHER-IN-LAW'S MOTHER

An Annual Palm Sundy walk from Finstock to Ladywell in Wilcote was an event which was very much looked forward to, especially by the Children of the Village. The making and drinking of "Spanish" Water or Liquor as it was called was an important part of this event.

Mrs. Ivy Pratley, describes the making of the Spanish Water.

"On the Saturday evening before Palm Sunday, we children would crush humbug sweets and white peppermints together and to this we would add some pieces of chopped liquorice stick, the mixture was then added to a bottle of water and we would sit around the room shaking the bottles until it had dissolved".

This bottle of liquid was drunk the following day while walking to Ladywell. They also carried with them, in a paper bag, some of the dry mixture, which was mixed with water from the well to drink on the way home.

Early on Sunday afternoon the walkers would set off, one group using the footpath by the Plough Inn and another group near the top of High Street using the path to the left of the road about 50 yards east of Gadding Well.

The groups then merged to follow the path through Wilcote Field Longcut or the Longcut as it was known locally.

Most of the girls were given a new straw hat for the occasion and these were filled with primroses and voilets on the way through Sumteths Copse. They then crossed the field to the front of Wilcote Manor and followed a route past St. Peter's Church to the Ash Avenue which leads directly to Ladywell.

This tradition which is believed to have had its origins in Pagan Celtic Well Worship, continued until the outbreak of war in 1939.

In recent years one or two people from Finstock and Leafield have taken "Spanish Water" to the Iron Well in Cornbury Park using the entrance to the Forest at Five Ash Bottom in Leafield.

Shops and public houses in Finstock ... and a Murder ...

2007-05-17T03:42:00.000-07:00

By ROY TOWNSEND

Finstock used to have three shops. One was in School Road and at one time was a Fish and Chip shop, run by Tommy Franklin who I believe came from Birmingham. The second was in The Bottom and was run, with the Post Office, by Mrs. Dore and her two daughters Nellie and Meeme. There was a third shop at the Crown Public House which sold sweets, sugar and tea, but was mostly run as an off-licence.

There were two other Cottage Shops which I can remember. One was run by Mrs. Harris who lived where David Pratley lives now, up the High Street, and was, I believe, his grandmother; they also sold fruit. My first banana came from there. The other shop was run by Harry Woolford, who was my uncle, my mother's elder brother. He sold cigarettes, tobacco, tea, sweets and chocolate. (See photo above which shows the licence to sell tobacco and cigarettes.)

The coming of the war saw the end of these little shops, except for The Crown which continued as an off-licence.

The Waterloo Arms, which was at the crossroads at the top of the High Street, had a licence to sell beer and spirits, and is now turned into houses. Mr. Howse, who used to have the Waterloo Arms, also had a blacksmiths shop. I have very happy memories of spending time, as a boy, pumping the bellows on his forge, making his fire burn away. I used to take our cart horse there for him to shoe. The horse would kick at Mr. Howse, but it didn't seem to worry him, but how I hated that horse. Mr. Howse had a pocket watch that he bought from a soldier in the First World War which worked by a chain which ran around the outside of the case. He had a great deal of patience to put up with me running around his forge and burning his fire away.

In the fifties, the forge went and in its place Cyril, Mr. Howse's son, had a petrol station and shop. It is said the Waterloo Arms lost its licence to sell beer and spirits on the premises because Finstock and Leafield men used to meet there and fight -- and a Leafield man died in a fight in Pound Bottom on Leafield Road. But no one seems to have ever been held responsible, but it could have been murder. One for Shaun to look into perhaps!

Finstock’s most generous resident?

2007-05-10T12:12:00.000-07:00

A short history of the most generous Finstock resident ever.

John Kibble, wrote in 1927 in “Charlbury and its nine hamlets”,

“Many years ago a Finstock girl went away to London and married well, and they came to Finstock at the place where her grandfather had his smithy”. House enlarged, stabling for 10 horses, rode to hounds, whilst house being done, they rented Lee Place, Charlbury. Before Xmas, she gave a pound of meat for each adult, half for child, bread, beer, tea; flannel and shawls, buried in Finstock churchyard.

What was the story? Who was she? Why was she so generous? What does it tell us about village life at the time? Why was such a generous donation to villagers required? What has been found?

The person in questions was Elizabeth Hunt; her grandfather was Thomas Hunt who lived in Patch Riding and was a blacksmith in the early 19th century. Elizabeth was baptised 26th December 1827, daughter of Charlotte Hunt. She was born out of wedlock and the father is not named in the parish register. The Hunts had been in village since at least early 16th C.

1851 census – Finstock – Elizabeth Edwards Hunt is described as an unmarried visitor, aged 22 and was staying with Hannah Hunt, head of the household. Hannah’s occupation was given as a Blacksmith. She was Elizabeth’s grandmother and her husband Thomas had clearly died by this time. Charlotte Hunt aged 40 (her mother) was an unmarried grocer.

Elizabeth Edwards Hunt (aged 27) married Joseph Aldridge Oliver in Oxford in late 1855.

Census 1861
26 Regency Square, Brighton (appears to be a hotel)
Joseph Oliver boarder, m, 35, Timber Merchant, b. Clerkenwell, Middx
Elizabeth Oliver, boarder, m, 25, wife of above, b. Finstock

In 1867 Kelly’s directory of Brighton, this address is shown as a Boarding House of Mrs Phippin, and is now part of The Price Regent Hotel.

Census 1871
1 Sutherland Villa, Hanbury Road, St Mary’s, Islington
Joseph Aldridge Oliver, 44, m, Head, timber Merchant, b. Clerkenwell, Middx
Elizabeth Oliver, 37, wife,. Married, b. Finstock
(no children resident)

Oxford Times 1872
“Finstock’s lady bountiful:
The hearts and homes of the inhabitants of this village have again been gladdened at this festive season by the presence and liberality of Mrs Oliver, of London, a lady whose love of her native place, and large heartedness in ministering to the comfort and enjoyment of those around her, has so often won golden opinions from all sorts of people. In addition to four fat sheep, equally distributed, Mrs Oliver presented warm shawls, blankets, flannels, tea, bread and beer to every household”.

Oxford Times 4th January 1879
“Bountiful benefactors at Finstock: the poor of Finstock parish have been most kindly remembered this Christmas. Handsome donations for the more elderly people have been received from Charles Sartoris Esq. And Mrs Sartoris, of Wilcote; and we have also to acknowledge the continued liberality of those now well-known benefactors, Jospeh Oliver Esq, and Mrs Oliver, whose very munificent list of provisions etc for distribution will speak for itself i.e.: five fat sheep, 125 loaves of bread, 16 lbs of tea, 90 yards of flannel, 50 blankets, 12 pairs of sheets, nine shawls, etc.”

Finstock churchyard
Elizabeth Edwards Oliver, died 18th Jan 1880, of 19 Kensington Palace Gardens, and of Finstock, dearly beloved wife of Joseph.
Buried at Finstock, 23rd January aged 52 of Finstock.

Joseph Oliver remarried, and in the 1881 census was shown at the Grand Hotel in London.

After the death of Elizabeth Oliver, her husband continued the charitable tradition.

Chipping Norton Deanery Magazine in September 1881 – A letter from JA Oliver Esq. He had let his house in Finstock to GA Pain from London, and though absent will continue to take an interest in the welfare of the village

January 1882 – Chipping Norton Deanery Magazine - Thanks to Oliver

October 1886 – Chipping Norton Deanery Magazine – presentation to Oliver for his good deeds.

November 1886 – Chipping Norton Deanery Magazine – a letter of thanks from Oliver

Oxford Times 28/3/1891
“Mr J Oliver, who formerly resided in the village, with his usual generosity, caused to be distributed on Christmas Eve the sum of £41 13s 6d among 119 families thus providing the means for a good Christmas dinner. Mr Oliver has distributed this or other generous gifts for over 20 years, and we can assure him that his noble present is greatly appreciated. As Mr Oliver does so much to make others happy at this festive season we sincerely hope that he derives true happiness himself from doing so”.

Joseph Aldridge Oliver died in early 1899 near Folkestone. His first wife Elizabeth (nee Hunt) remembered her roots when she ‘married well’ and her generous donations were continued by her husband after her death to the poor of Finstock.
Was she Finstock’s most generous ever resident?

Threat to Oxfordshire Studies

2007-04-17T06:33:00.000-07:00

From Chris Hall, convenor, Oxfordshire Local History Liaison Group (OHLG)

Oxfordshire Studies (formerly Centre for Oxfordshire Studies) at risk

This message is addressed to all local history societies (for which I have e-mail addresses and various other persons) likely to be interested.

As you will know, if you have read page 3 of last week's Oxford Times or pp 4 and 5 of Oxfordshire Local History News, a serious threat to the integrity and efficacy of Oxfordshire Studies (the service we perhaps know better by its old name as the Centre for Oxfordshire Studies) now exists.

OHLG was set up in March to counter this threat. It is an informal ad hoc group consisting of the Oxford Civic Society, Oxford Preservation Trust, Oxfordshire Architectural & Historical Society, Oxfordshire Family History Society, Oxfordshire Local History Association and Oxfordshire Record Society.

On Tuesday 17 April the so-called cabinet of Oxfordshire County Council meets and will (among much else) receive a paper from the officers which will in effect set in train the downgrading of Oxfordshire Studies (OxS). We are asking you to take immediate action to prevent this.

Background

The background is that the Westgate shopping centre is being reconstructed by a property development company, to which OCC is in process of selling the north end of its building in Westgate. This section of the building contains part of Oxfordshire Studies and various other services. In return for the north end of the building, which will become retail, the developer will bear most of the cost of 'refurbishing' the central library and Oxfordshire Studies. Users have not been consulted about this, despite our repeated requests, but we learn that the library will lose about a tenth of its present space, while Oxfordshire Studies will lose about half.

The county's Sites & Monuments Record (SMR) currently and conveniently housed adjacent to Oxfordshire Studies will be shifted to Speedwell House, several streets away.

The spatial implications for OxS are bad. The plans we have been able to glean mean that OxS will have far less behind-the-scenes working space. This is the part we users don't see. But OxS staff, when not at the enquiry/reception desk, have cataloguing, digitising, accessioning and conservation work to get through. Because of decades of understaffing, much of this work is badly behind, yet OCC appear to have taken no thought for how and where it is to be done in future.

The security of the OxS material and collections will also suffer. The new library, into which OxS is to be integrated will be without internal barriers or checkpoints, and it will also be without the lockers in which users spending an hour or two at a desk can safely stow personal gear.

An end to independence

But the worst feature of the scheme is the end of OxS as an independent specialist service staffed by specialists with the appropriate knowledge to help and guide local and family historians in their research. I have worked in OxS since 1994 on various projects. I vividly recall how readily. when I was new to it, the staff there answered what I would now think were foolish questions. (I dedicated my dissertation to them.) I imagine that many local historians and genealogists in the county must have had similar experiences.

In future, if the OCC's plans go ahead, there will be no information desk staffed solely by local-history specialists. The job will be shared with non-specialist librarians. At the same time the work of this desk will be made to include answering queries about and issuing non-fiction books brought upstairs from the shrunken main library. Moreover OxS will be open six days a week for the same hours as the central library. Excellent news you may think, but the staff of OxS is not be increased to cope with the new hours so there will effectively be a dilution of the service they can give. The responsible OCC officer, Richard Munro, Head of Cultural and Adult Learning services, expects that 'many more members of the public will be attracted to find out about the history of their county and families as a result of the service being more visible'. (See his letter on p 4 of Oxfordshire History Local News Spring 2007). This is an extraordinary statement. First, because there is nothing invisible about OxS now. (There is a large sign on the front of the building and potetnial users are directed from the ground to the second floor.) Second, because if there are to be more visitors, the service will need more staff and there are not to be.

This process of integration is driven, we believe, by a modish conception of the library service, namely that the role of specialists is downplayed (or even abolished), because it is seen as elitist. This can only be harmful for OxS.

The tremendous work Malcolm Graham and his colleagues have done in the last decade and a half is to be wasted. The assurance given by county officials that 'there will be no diminution in the quality of service' is frankly unbelievable.

Action by you

There are two things you and your society can do immediately in order to help fight these very damaging proposals.

1. Please try to have someone from your society attend the OCC cabinet meeting tomorrow when Paul Bettridge will briefly address the cabinet, on behalf of the liaison group, before it considers the paper referred to above. This will be shortly after 3.30 pm. I apologise for the short notice but we have only been given the time when the item will be discussed this afternoon (Mon). Paul will do the best he can with the three minutes allotted to him, but a show of public interest greatly helps. You don't have to stay after the cabinet discussion of the item is finished (app 4 pm).
The cabinet meeting is in County Hall. (Park & Ride bus routes nos 300 and 400 stop close by.)

2. Within the next few days write to your county councillor (listed with addresses and e-mails on OCC website), express your concern and urge him or her to look critically into what is proposed what is proposed.

Thank you very much.

Chris Hall
Chairman Oxfordshire Local History ASssociation and convener Oxfordshire History Liaison Group.

The Plough story

2007-04-04T14:50:00.000-07:00

by Shaun

The Plough Inn, situated in The Bottom is a Grade II listed building. It bears the date 1772 inscribed in the keystone of the voussoirs lintel above the entrance door. The building was originally a house of modest proportions with a two-room plan and central through passage, probably built for a husbandman (small farmer). The left hand room has an inglenook fireplace and the building was extended substantially in the late 18th or early 19th century and again in the 20th century. If the date-stone is correct, within five years of being built it was being used an alehouse. Jackson’s Oxford Journal reports that on 27th September 1777 there was a sale by auction at the Plough of Home Farm. William Harris was the proprietor.

The Victoria County History of Oxfordshire states “the Plough … was probably one of the two premises licensed in Finstock in 1780”. Until the enclosure of land, which came very late to Finstock in 1861, substantial parts of the village were held by the Manor of Charlbury, which in turn was owned by St John’s College, Oxford. In the 1786 Land Tax assessment William Harris was assessed at £1, being shown as an occupier. He is also appears in the 1799 Terrier of the Vicarage of Charlbury (a record of manorial land holding).

A series of records from the Court Baron of Charlbury Manor reveal a series of tenants held the Plough and adjacent land by Copyhold, or customary tenure in the early 19th century. Copies of these can be seen displayed on the walls of the Plough.

On 23rd April 1821 St John’s College sold the Plough to William Hall, esquire of the City of Oxford. He had purchased the Swan’s nest Brewery, later the Swan Brewery and The Plough was acquired as a tied house. Henry Hall succeeded William as proprietor of the Swan Brewery in 1837 and it was not until 1896 that the brewery became a company, known as Halls Oxford Brewery Ltd. Halls was taken over by Allsopps in1926, and further consolidation through Ind Coope and Allied Breweries took place. Although the Halls name survived for many years, brewing moved from Oxford to Burton-upon-Trent. In the 1970’s the Plough was sold into private hands where it remains today.

The 19th century history was dominated by two publicans. Alfred Eeles, born in Leafield in 1817, became landlord in c. 1840 aged just 23 and remained the innkeeper at the Plough until 1874. He also ran a grocer shop in High Street to where he moved. Ann Archer, at 34 years old was publican the Plough on his behalf in 1871 and after her marriage just three years later her husband Jason Bowerman took over. However, both Alfred Eeles and Jason Bowerman died just a few years later leaving Ann to take on the role of licensed victualler again. She remarried in 1883 to Lewis Pratley, a retired Police Constable but her death in 1897 ended a 26-year association with the Plough.

In 1863 the Finstock Independent Benefit Friendly Society was formed with the registered office at The Plough Inn. It initially had 41 members rising to 72 in 1874. Membership fell back to around 42 when a Methodist based society was formed in the village in 1883 and membership remained constant until it was dissolved in 1911. Monthly meetings were held at The Plough representing the clubhouse where members were required to pay their dues and purchase a set amount of beer from the landlord. An annual club day and feast was held on Ascension Day with festivities commencing with a church service and march round the village for all members, led by a Brass Band. A dinner was then held in a barn next to The Plough, since demolished. The afternoon saw festivities that included various stalls and entertainment. Copious amounts of alcohol was drunk by all throughout the day, often marred by unseemly behaviour.

The 20th century saw Walter Benfield in charge for the first two decades, with the Langford family through Albert, Harold and Sidney for four decades.

Dates Victualler, Innkeeper or publican
1777 - 1799 William Harris
Margaret Bowerman
Before April 1804 Richard Cooper
April 1804 John Stayt of Bledington, Glos.
April 1805 George Watson
July 1808 Thomas Davis of Milton-under-Wychwood, a maltster
March 1812 Isaac Newton Lawrence of Witney, a brewer
23rd April 1821 Owned by William Hall
9th May 1824 Thomas Johnson, owned by Esquire Hall
1839 John Hawkins, owned by Esquire Hall
1841 - 1874 Alfred Eeles
1871 Ann Archer
1874 -1880 Jason Bowerman, and Ann (nee Archer)
1880 - 1883 Ann Bowerman (widow)
1883 - 1897 Lewis Pratley, and Ann (nee Bowerman)
1899 - 1920 Walter Benfield Victualler

1931 - 1939 Albert Langford
1939 - 1953 Harold Langford and others
1953 – 1975? Sidney Langford

1967 - 1982 Philip Cooper
1982 Dave Keetch
1983 Mike Clarges
1984 John Lambert
1985 ? Moffatt
1986 - 1996 John and Val Baxter
1996 to Nov. 2004 Keith and Nigel Ewers
Nov. 2004 to Nov. 2005 Darrell Lord and Louis Burridge
Nov. 2005 to present Joe McCorry and Martin Range

The Bowerman Boys

2007-02-17T14:11:00.000-08:00

Notes for the brief talk on 16th February
on the Bowerman Boys.
By Shaun Morley

Jonathan and Martha Bowerman baptised eleven children at Charlbury parish church between 1766 and 1791, eight boys and three girls. Three died in infancy but the pressure of bringing up a large family was immense. At the burial of one child, David in 1786 Jonathan the father is described as a pauper indicating he and his family were receiving relief from the parish overseers for the poor.

Three sons, James, George and Solomon would not see the end of their days in England. The Bowerman's were a Finstock family.

James Bowerman b. 1770
Aged 21, he was committed to Oxford prison with William Souch of Ramsden for killing a fallow deer in Wychwood forest. The outcome of that charge is unknown but 25 years later on 29th July 1816 he was transported to Australia on the ship ‘Atlas’ under the name James Alder (mothers maiden name).

Solomon Bowerman, b. 1784.
In 1816 Solomon (30) was acquitted at court for horse stealing in Finstock and Fawler, together with James Evans and John Townsend.However, later that year he was tried for horse stealing at the Old Bailey. [Proceedings of Old Bailey] http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/
Found Guilty but commuted to Transportation for life.

[Report in The Times, 29th October 1816] Escape
Quite how he was caught we do not know, but he was subsequently transported to Australia.

George Bowerman, b. 1791
Brought from Reading on 27th February 1809 (17) for the burglary of two dwelling houses in Caversham and Shiplake. Not guilty, but sentenced to death on 18th March for another charge. Commuted to transportation.

18/12/1810 – arrived in Australia on the vessel ‘India’ with Samuel Franklin.

A nephew, David son of their sister Mary was also tried at the Old Bailey for theft of a bridle, transported and arrived 1820 aboard ‘Mangles’.

Another Jonathan Bowerman (relationship not confirmed) was committed to Oxford Gaol on 20th February 1809 for stealing lead off the church roof at Cogges with John Launchbury and John Townsend. (Transportation 7 years? 8/3/1809).

John Kibble, “In a village on the forest border I know an old cottage where had lived a party who possessed a cart that would travel quietly. The wheels were of wood, without iron tyres. One night it was used to fetch lead from the roof of Cogges church, it is said.”

[e-mail from Raymond Andrews]

James, Solomon and George Bowerman were hanged for highway robbery on 23rd December 1820.

The story did not quite finish there.

8 months later a convict William Geary stated it was not George but was in fact he, with James and Solomon who had committed the robbery. George was pardoned but Geary was found to be insane, much taller than George and with much of the booty found at George’s house it is likely that it was George after all. George’s wife was Mary and they had two sons, Solomon and George junior.

§ George jun. tried in 1832 for stealing fruit
§ Solomon in 1836 for maliciously destroying his mothers dog

Click on the envelope icon below to email Shaun's post to a friend

DOWN MEMORY LANE with Roy Townsend

2007-02-10T11:18:00.000-08:00

EARLY MEMORIES

My very first memory is coming home from the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford after having appendicitis with peritonitis. I remember riding in a car with a very long bonnet. I can't remember who was driving, but I have always thought it was Mr Harris.

Then there was the row of elm trees which ran from the allotment gate, opposite Patch Riding, down to the top of the new play area by the School, which at that time was the school garden. I loved playing under the elm trees and climbing them, much to the concern of a Great Aunty who lived at the end of Patch Riding. The house is now long gone. One rather amusing tale was that when the war started there were aeroplanes very high up and Aunty made us get under the trees in case they dropped bombs on us. So for just a while the elms were friendly, no longer a danger to us — as the old proverb says: "Elm Hateth Man and Waiteth"— because it drops branches without warning. Every November we used to have a bonfire which was supervised by Nurse Trinder, who lived in Patch Riding, next door to my Great Aunty and Uncle, and Nurse Trinder made very sure we did not get too close to the fire. Of course from 1939 there were no more bonfires, so I suppose the last fire was in 1938.

I was born in one of the Waterloo Cottages in the High Street, next door to the Miss Hutt’s, who always remembered my birthday. My parents later moved from High Street into an old thatched cottage, just below Patch Riding, with very wide walls and a big walk in larder. The apple tree in the garden is still there and grew some of the sweetest apples I ever tasted. Just over the garden wall was a long narrow field which went with Finstock House. Mr Trinder and Mr. Davidson used to have an allotment there, but the rest was kept for Mr and Mrs Fellows, who lived in Finstock House. I remember Sid Pratley ploughing this field and he would sing as he ploughed. He sang, "Oh, I wonder, yes I wonder, will the Angels way up yonder, will the Angels play their harps for me, 10,000 miles I've travelled and a million sights I’ve seen, and now I’m ready for the field". Mike Breakell is the only other person I have met who knows this song. After Sid had finished ploughing he would take me with him to stable the horses. He would put me up on Bonnie and if they turned the horses out on Finstock Heath, he would let me ride all the way up, but he always led the mare. But if Sid's brother Fred took the horses up to the Heath, he would let me ride without leading and I would think I was really grown up!