At the Christmas craft fair in December 1975, Rosalind Green is showing how spinning used to be done with a beautiful spinning wheel made by Crowdys Wood Products, then based in Clanfield. Her daughter Hannah is standing next to her. Christmas cards from the prize winning design, from the competition a week earlier were also on sale.
In December 1975 prizes were awarded in the young writers' competition organised by WOAA. In the picture, judge John Skinner is giving a prize to Liz Matthews of Eynsham who won 2nd prize in the under 14s poetry section. On the left is Catherine Hooper of Abingdon who won 1st prize.
Admiring the work on display at the Gallery in the Town Hall are Karen Taylor aged 8, Edward Forester-Walker aged 7 and Tom Woods aged 5. Six local schools took part. Works included portraits of Mum, the local librarian and nurses as well as embroidery, bird paintings and a large collage.
Gilly French and Jeremy Gray celebrated the 25th year of the Bampton Classical Opera in 2018. They are the founders and still work tirelessly to make every year a huge success. It is now known as one of the top venues and events of its type and people come from abroad to see it. This newspaper article gives lots of interesting information.
The Bampton Community Archive puts on three exhibitions each year which run for two months. In September 2018 Janet Newman put up a wonderfully researched exhibition on some of Bampton's Families. Family trees were printed out on scrolls for people to see as well as written text. In this picture, young Devon Townsend and his father David can be seen looking at one of the family trees and have found themselves on it much to young Devon's delight.
John Chipperfield usually has a page in the Witney Gazette where he recalls events in times past. This item recalls the time in 1978 when Susan Morris, pictured at the organ in Clanfield Church played for 10 hours taking turns with John White and John Goodrun. It was to accompany the Flower Festival in the church. Susan is still playing at Clanfield (2019)
In 1978 the vicar looked after both Bampton and Clanfield churches. By 1970, the vicar of the time lived in the vicarage in Bampton and was responsible for the churches not only of Clanfield and Bampton but Lew, Aston and Shifford as well.
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."
There was a very full program of events that took place throughout Bampton from Saturday June 2nd to Tuesday June 5th. This is the full list of the events.