Bridge St. Horses walking free

Running a horse past Sherborne House to show its soundness. Many people looked forward to the Horse Fair because they met friends from neighbouring villages who walked over, plus, the men who brought the horses travelled the country and they brought something of the wider outside into Bampton.

Photograph of the Horse Fair looking west down Bridge Street. Percy Hughes was the licensee and he also had the butcher's shop next to the Horse Shoe inn. There was a devastating fire at the inn in 1925 and the building was gutted and rebuilt in its present position. Note the window protection of hurdles to stop the horses putting their heads through the glass. White discs on the horses' rumps show they have been sold. There is a large group of horses tethered outside the high wall that faces Church View. Note the car outside the butchers shop.

Horses in Bridge Street outside the Horse Shoe

Scene of the horse fair in Bridge Street outside the Horse Shoe Inn and Percy Hughes' butchers shop. It must have been taken before 1925 because the Horse Shoe was gutted by fire that year. Hurdles placed over the ground floor windows were to stop the horses from sticking their heads through the windows. Horses with a white spot on their rumps have been sold.

Harry Pocock with his thrashing machine and tractor in 1958 driving out of Church Street into Broad Street. Edwin, Ruth and Joe Buckingham are on the tractor with him.

An invoice from Harry Pocock & Son, Agricultural and Thrashing Contractor to Alex Townsend of Ashtree Farm (in Weald Street) for threshing and baling @ £47 5s (£47.25p) but with a contra account of 2ctw of tater (potatoes), 2 men combing and 5 gallons of paraffin £8.11s.6d (£8.55½p) giving a bill of £38.13s.6d (£38.65½p) sent April 1959.

An invoice from Harry Pocock & Son, Agricultural and Thrashing Contractor to Alex Townsend of Ashtree Farm (Weald Street) for threshing and baling sent December 1959.

Seen in the spring of 1963, talking with Marjorie Pollard in Cheapside, when we had huge drifts of snow.

May Bank Holiday 1986 the two visiting sides with Bampton Traditional Morris Men under squire Francis Shergold were Rumworth also called Manley Morris and South Downs. Most of these pictures are of Rumworth, the last two are South Downs.

Over the Bank Holiday weekend at Whitsun 1985. Ian Baker and Ivan Lomas won the fancy dress competition held prior to the Shirt Race. Reg Hall enjoyed a pint between playing on the Monday. Terry Rouse danced in as the fool outside the Horse Shoe.

When Lloyd Hughes Owens created a series of albums in the late 1970s and early 1980s there were people alive who could remember seeing Fred Able in Bampton with his little cart, two donkeys and his dog.

In May 2012 our papershop known as Emmies, run by Tom and Silvia Papworth closed for the last time. The letter gives a history of the shop, the people who ran it. It documents not only the passing of the papershop but records the very active part both Sylvia and Tom have played in Bampton's life, for which those of us lucky enough to have known them, their families and their shop will always be very grateful.