Mrs Rogers lived in Brook House on Bridge Street where she sold sweets and newspapers. Bampton is 18 miles from Oxford and 18 from Swindon and somehow, Mrs Brooks managed to get a sugar allowance during WWII from both Swindon and Oxford which enabled her to make and sell lots of sweets.
Brook House is the one on the left of the picture, across the road.
She is on the left in this picture with Mr and Mrs Albert Townsend from across the road at Castle View Farm. They are standing just inside the wall of the farm.
In the spring of 2011 Nik Stanbridge put on an exhibition for the Bampton Community Archive of Pill Boxes in this area during WWII. Simon Rae wrote a play about life revolving around one pill box and it was given its first airing in the Village Hall to coincide with the exhibition. It was a delightful play and the scenery was excellent. The play called The Pill Box got its first showing in Bampton Village Hall on Wednesday May 25th 2011 and it coincided with an Exhibition put on by Mark MacArthur-Christie on pillboxes in Oxfordshire. It was an excellent play with wonderful staging produced by Mike Wareham. The picture is of an admission ticket for the play and the program.
This map was produced in 1922 and shows the field system as well as the parliamentary boundaries as at 1918. There are many interesting notes written on in pencil. The water tower and gas works along the Aston Road were in existence. The allotment gardens NW of Beam Cottage are labelled as is the gravel pit to the SW of Beam Cottage. There are no houses to the north of New Road and none to the south of it going east from Bushey Row. Rushy Weir is shown clearly as is the tow path to the south side of the river Thames.
