type written document by Lloyd Hughes Owen (Historian and Headmaster of Bampton School in 1950's), obviously transcribed from a vellum book written by Thomas Horde Esquire, Lord of the Manor of Aston and Cote in the parish of Bampton for the benefit of his tenants and landlords of Aston setting out the ancient farming system.

The map is pre Inclosure and covers Clanfield, Bampton, Aston and Yelford. The note with the Yelford map says it was from a map of 1624/5. A note at the right side of the page suggests all these details were pulled together from various sources in 1833 which is post Inclosure, which for the Bampton area was 1821. I can't work out what maps were used for the non-Yelford map but it says HHH is Aston 1771.

This ticket for a tea was found in a pile of bits and pieces when clearing out a garage. Teas were sold to raise funds for the Bampton Horticultural Society. The cost was 6 pence in old money - 6d - so pre decimalisation of February 1971.

This peaceful scene is of an Ayrshire cow enjoying standing in the stream behind The Grange. It must have been taken fairly early in the twentieth century; by 1945 these cows were not often seen where they had once been bred

Views of Backhouse Farm from No.3 Saint Mary's Trailer Court

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.