This obituary was in The Guardian newspaper January 13th 2009. Francis was born on January 31st 1919 and died on November 27th 2009. The article was written by Derek Schofield.
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."
This letter is from the chairman of Cecil Sharp House, Douglas Kennedy to Rose Wells who lived at 18 Fox Close in Bampton. It was to thank Rose for the letter she sent informing them of her grandfather's death. Nathan William 'Jingy' Wells was responsible for keeping Morris dancing alive in Bampton at one time in the early twentieth century.
Frank Purslow was not only an excellent melodeon player, he taught many local people as well. He also had a wonderful catalogue of music gathered throughout his life. It was shocking to see it all put outside the gate of his house after his death for the bin men to pick up. A little was rescued but the vast majority was thrown away. The letter from Frank shown here was a follow-on from one sent the week before and the text will explain all.
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
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.
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.
