This article was written for the September 19th issue of the Witney Gazette. It reports that the O2 telecommunications mast near Bampton has been faulty since it was first reported on August 2nd 2018. There is huge frustration with it being faulty for well over a month and the lack of communication from O2. Much fore information in the article.

Bampton has had a long history of playing cricket and Anna Pitt put on a wonderful, well researched exhibition on the subject in January/February 2019. The catalogue of the exhibition is still on sale. This is a double spread newspaper article about it that was in the Witney Gazette January 23rd 2019.

This picture was taken in the late 1950s or very early 1960s. The names of the people are all printed on the photograph and include
Tony Allam
John Marston
Vernon Cannons
Ted Harding
Geoff Wilson
Jim Sweetingham
Jim Barton
George Dafter
Chris Timms
Fred Mildenhall
Pete Allam
Harry Green
Cyril Smith
Micky Brooks, George Dafter’s nephew

This Frog Prince was made by Jo Lewington. I asked her to tell me about it and she said :-

"This dates from my sculptor phase in the ‘80s. I made 3 or 4 of these. One was sent to the head of a fashion house in California ( I remember it as Mr Gucci , but that can’t be right, but he was famous). I think the one in the picture went to another rich American. I can’t remember what happened to the rest but there is one somewhere in the Cotswolds. I made postcards and a leaflet and distributed them around Chelsea Garden Show, but at that time I was off to India for a year and my career as a sculptor ended."

The people of Bampton always pull together when push comes to shove. Residents got fed up with the litter about the paths and lanes and organised a mass clean-up. This article gives much more detail about it.

Emmie (Emily) Papworth, nee Bishop and her son Tom.

W Payne & Son, Great Western Railway Co Agents, Bampton and Lechlade. Cab & Omnibus Proprietors, horses, brakes, carriages etc for hire. Cartage contractors and furniture removers. Chief office The Hill, Witney Oxon. Railway depots Bampton, Chipping Norton and Lechlade. The remains of one of their ads in black lettering can be seen on the side of their house which was Castle View in Bridge Street.

This advert is in the 1911 Kelly's Trade Directory

This threshing machine was used to thresh the grain from the stooks of corn and was the normal way to do this in the first half of the twentieth century, before the combine harvester did the job as the corn was cut in the field.

It was a labour intensive job with people taking stooks from the pile, others lobbed them on to the top where yet more people fed them into the machine. Two ladies and a man can be seen on top of the threshing machine doing this part of the job.

At least one person hooked sacks on to the back to catch the grain while others gathered up the straw and chaff. The straw would have been used for bedding animals under cover in winter and some used as feed.

The whole machine was belt driven - no protection - with power from a steam engine which had men keeping it going in good order. With a live fire in the steam engine, it's no wonder there were fires in the ricks from time to time.

There are 13 people working in this picture. Some have bailing string tied round their calves, probably to stop rats running up as the rick was slowly dismantled.

A threshing machine is nearly always seen working at the Fairford, Faringdon, Filkins & Burford ploughing match held the last Saturday in September on a farm within 16 miles of Lechlade.

For what feels like years and years, WODC have been putting together a Local (housing) Plan and at long last, it was agreed by the governments planning inspectorate. All far too late to stop the speculative developments which WODC could not stop in Bampton which resulted in 160 house in New Road, a further 160 to be built at the bottom of Mt Owen Rd and the fight to stop yet another development between the Aston and Buckland Road continues (as at Sept 2019). A development on the east side of Station Road following on from the two semi detached bungalows has been granted and are being built now (Sept 2019). 7 new dwellings at Weald Manor farm have been built, Glebe Farm farther down Weald Street are building 6 as I write and a 7th will be added to them.
The surgery is at full stretch, no road improvements have been made, people are parking on pavements, some of the new houses in New Road have experienced sewerage back-flows. There are so many cars parked in Bampton now it's nearly always impossible to pass them without causing a motorist coming in the other direction from having to stop and wait

The SPAJERS - The Society for The Preservation of Ancient Junketing - organised many dances as part of their fundraising events to enable them to give fun to Bampton's senior citizens while everyone had fun.
There are 6 tickets here with dances from 1960 to 1970.