The Bampton Beam used to be produce three times a year and distributed to every household. This issue is from August 2001. The topics covered and the advertisers are :-

ARTICLES AND NOTICES
The Shillbrook Wood by Colin Allport
Bampton Village Hall
Remembrance Sunday
Bampton ‘250’ Club
Bampton Parish Council News by David Hawkins, Chairman
Market Square Improvement
Loss of Bampton Facilities
New Seats Around Bampton
Renting the Pavilion
Improvements to the Recreation Ground
Vandalism – Pembroke Place Playground
More Low Cost Houses for Bampton
H.M. The Queen’s Golden Jubilee 2002
Award for Bampton Primary School – DFEE Achievement Award for Excellence
An Unsolicited Opinion - toilets in Town Hall are in a pleasingly clean condition
Bampton Website
West Oxfordshire District Council News – proof of age cards for 16 – 18 year olds
Start Up and Expansion Rate Relief Grants – West Oxfordshire District Council
Responsible Waste Collection Services That Do Not Cost The Earth by Jonathan Phillips, District Councillor
Volunteer Link-Up
Letters and Emails to the Editor
Wychwood Forest Fair by Ken Betteridge, Chairman of the Friends of Wychwood
Bampton Environmental Watch Group by Margaret Bruce-Mitford
Stress-Free for Bampton Based Company – CUS Busting Ltd nominated for for the Oxfordshire Business of the Year Awards 2001
News from Bampton Primary School by Jenny McCardle
May Garlands by Mrs Ruth Wheeler
Notice Board
Guide Dogs for the Blind
Bampton Welfare Trust
Foxbury Farm Shop
The British Red Cross ‘Open Gardens at Cote’
Bampton Bridge Club
The Bush Centre
Bampton Exhibition Foundation
Bampton Badminton Club
Bampton Ladies Group
Cancer Research Campaign
Activities Held in the Recreation Ground this Summer
Out And About This Spring
Pumpkin Club Street Fair
The May Queen and her attendants
The Morris Dancers
Visitors from Belgium
The Morris Clown hosts the Morris Men
The May Garlands
The Great Shirt Race
Enjoying an evening out at the Shirt Race – our new MP David Cameron and his wife Samantha
Madcap Comedy Comes to Town from the Arts Development Team
Job vacancy for part-time Youth Worker
Letters to Auntie Beam
The Gardening Page by Edie Bindweed
A Guide to getting started with composting
The Gardening Club News
The Annual Garden Club Show
Coffee Mornings and Forthcoming Trips
Society for the Protection of Bampton
Minor Injuries Unit, Witney Community Hospital
P C Steve Patrick 22 Years’ Service with Thames Valley Police
Did anyone see it? Elderly People Crossing (spoof) sign - photograph
Spajers News by Don Rouse
Chain Reaction Bampton Bike Path News
Out of Work Farmer – Turned Agricultural Correspondent by Don Rouse
In and Around the Local Ales Houses in Bampton – Taken from Bampton Website
The Talbot, Market Square
The Bell, Market Square
Fleur de Lis, High Street
New Inn, High Street -formerly The George, renamed The Morris Clown in 1976
The Swan, Fisher’s Bridge
George and Dragon, Cheapside
The Lamb, Cheapside
Masons’ Arms, Church View – name changed to The Eagle
The Horseshoe, Bridge Street
The Fish, Bridge Street, later renamed The Wheatsheaf
Elephant and Castle, Bridge Street
The Malt Shovel
The Plough
The Jubilee
The Alan Clarke Challenge – photo competition
Photographs of pubs and landlords
West Ox Arts – In the Gallery
WOA Trip Spring 2002
Robert Vesey Room
WOA Highlights April – June 2001 by Margaret Bruce-Mitford
Spliterati -01 – International Ply-Split Braiding Competition
Workshops
The Cookery Corner by Gilly French
Community Lunches
Crossword
Town Hall Bookings
Friends of St Mary’s Magpie Lane Concert
St Mary’s Services
Methodist Chapel Services
The Drop-In
Calendar of Events
Bampton Websites
Bampton Gardening Club Annual Show
SPAJERS Donkey Derby

LIST OF ADVERTIZERS
Abbey Properties – Estate Agents
Cotswold Electronics, TV, Video, Audio and Microwave Repairs
Bampton Fax Bureau at Emmie’s Newsagents
Electric Vehicles Ltd
Domino Menswear, Witney
The Standlake Garage
R Cooper, Builders, Painters, Decorators, Carpentry, Joinery, Dry Stone Walling
Angie Bell, Ceramics, Picture and Frame Restoration
Patrick Strainge, Butchers
Don Rouse Cars
Danetree, Veterinary Surgeons
Curtain Choice
Andrew Bowman, Master Thatcher
The Gingerbread Kitchen
George Williams, Carpenter and Home Improver
Grey Gables Garage
Londis, Community Shop
Pellmans, Solicitors
Community Care
Oxford Double Glazing
The Appliance Doctor
E Taylor & Son, Funeral Directors
The Pitstop and Oxford Carb Services
Robert and Doris Watts Residential and Nursing Home
Temples, DIY, Ironmongery, Paint, Wood, Cement, Sand, Gravel, Toys, Gifts, Candles, Gardening Equipment
Profiles Hairdressers
Philippa Rayne, osteopath, Fiona Farmer, physiotherapist, Lesley Mellin, reflexologist and acupuncture
Foxbury Farm Shop
Body Talk remedial and sports massage
Body Talk Beauty Salon
Tony Hughes – scissors sharpening service
Wychwood Design, furniture
N J Woodley, building maintenance
A Simmonds, the old-fashioned village store
Argosy Blinds

These 9 newspaper cuttings are all from 1968. The topics covered include

Deputy county surveyor faces a barrage of complaints including roadworks in the Market Square, Village green areas being used as dumping grounds, badly sighted new road signs, 19 council houses had been built in Bampton.

Michael Pickard, younger son of Mr & Mrs Pickard of Knapps Farm, is off to Russia with his bride Elizabeth Hart after their honeymoon in Malta with his work for ICI with regard to a new fibre plant.

Theft of a Jaguar in Bampton and the collection box in the Jubilee Inn with money for Bampton's OAPs and £65 from Albert Coles of St Mary's Trailer Court.

Bampton Town football club reached the final of the Fred Ford Memorial Cup

Basic reports from St Mary's, the Bingo club, Darby & Joan club, British Legion, Baptist church and the NSPCC

Work has started on building Lavender Place Flats on the site of the farmyard of Home Farm, the farmhouse being on High Street and recently (2018) renamed Leat House which is a great shame as it's history has been lost with the name change.

Bampton Youth Club re-opens with new leader Mr Michael Yeo

Wedding of Daphne Jackson to Allan Pullin.

George Dafter awarded Imperial Service Medal from the Post Office, he retired and he celebrated his 65th birthday.

These three photographs are of one of the visiting sides to Bampton in 1985 dancing in the Market Square outside the Village Hall in two pictures and at the West end of the Square in the third picture.

Originally called the Bampton Charity Shop, it had a name change and a legal status changed to enable it to donate monies to other charities in Bampton. Apparently a charity cannot give money to another charity and Trevor Milne-Day gave his time to deal with the legal matter of the change. In this article Fenella Gray talks about the history of the shop from its inception in 2004.

A house and field called Long Paddock in Weald Street for sale, offers in excess of £750,000 wanted

The staircase to the top floor of the Grammar School was removed in the 1960s when people stood a greater chance of getting to the ground floor by falling through the rotten floor than coming back down the stairs. The Bampton Community Archive members have worked incredibly hard to raise funds on the back of the tourism boost from visitors flocking to Bampton to see the this building which was used as the Cottage Hospital in ITV's Downton Abbey. The grant from WODC means the work to bring the whole building into good heart can begin.

Freda Bradley lent this to the Archive to copy and we believe she is talking about her Grampy owning Sundown Cottage at one time.
In the 1960s it was purchased by Bernard Rose along with Sandfords where he and wife Molly lived and he demolished the old cottage.

Doug Read OBE (he gained the OBE for services to ploughing) was a huge fan of classic cars and owned several over the years. These are four of them and show

1. Trojan Tourer 1924 model owned by Doug Read. Douglas Read driving, passengers David Hunt, Bill Bullock and Geoff Hunt
2. Photograph of a Riley Monaco in 1933
3. Photograph of MG Model J.2. 1932 in 1948.
4. Photograph of MG Model T.A. 1937 driven by his wife Sally (nee Raymond) in 1953 (Sally was buried in Nov 2020)

L to R. Lucy Slatter, Terry Argles, Terry Crowley, all living in Church Street. May, 1997. Lucy Slatter died 2008.

n November 2015 eight products, including Patrick Strainge's Bampton Royal sausages were nominated for the Q Guild Smithfield Awards. Only 200 butchers in England can hold a Q guild aware at any one time so it really is a feather in the cap of our local butchers shop.
The Bampton Royal sausages were also a firm favourite with many members of the cast of Downton Abbey which was partly filmed in Bampton.