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.

Dr Alan Cole was in the practice in Bampton for many years. In this picture you can see his on-call alarm in his top pocket.

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.

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 delightful drawing of Francis Shergold by Alan Beers is dated 1990. Francis was squire of the Bampton Traditional Morris Men

This lovely photograph of Bill Daniels was taken by Eric Stott in 1980

A photograph of Reg Hall playing the fiddle in 1970

William Nathan 'Jingy' Wells danced, fooled and played the fiddle for Bampton Morris from the late nineteenth century and well into the twentieth.
In this picture he is seen with his fiddle.
The hat, waistcoat, trousers and socks (odd socks) are still cared for by the Bampton Traditional Morris Men.

This lovely photograph shows James and Elizabeth (nee Fox) Green with their children Lizzie, Harry, Jack, Jim, Rose, Fred and Percy taken about 1902.
Harry, really Henry Arthur Green died in the WWI

Although the caption talks about a 'Street Fayer' the picture is actually of Jim Smith and Martin Barber in fancy dress for the Shirt Race organised annually by the SPAJERS ie the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Junketing. The society organises fun things to raise money for the senior citizens of Bampton and Lew.