Bampton Morris dancers c1924/5 outside the Elephant & Castle.
The sign over the pub door says Posting House, Horses, Carriages, Brakes. Personal attention given, Albert Townsend. The 3rd and 4th lines are hard to read which is a pity but it looks like 'For Hire All Trains Met On The Shortest Notice.
On 23rd September 1935 the Townsend family moved across the road to Castle View and made a farm of it having much more room to fatten more pigs.
Mrs Rogers lived in Brook House on Bridge Street where she sold sweets and newspapers. Bampton is 18 miles from Oxford and 18 from Swindon and somehow, Mrs Brooks managed to get a sugar allowance during WWII from both Swindon and Oxford which enabled her to make and sell lots of sweets.
Brook House is the one on the left of the picture, across the road.
She is on the left in this picture with Mr and Mrs Albert Townsend from across the road at Castle View Farm. They are standing just inside the wall of the farm.
Marion and Ted Lay lived in Bampton all their married life and as Jamie Wheeler says
"They were the loveliest people you could ever meet. I claim a slight family association as their daughter Marjorie married Jim Brooks. It was a second marriage for them both and Jim had previously been married to my Auntie Joyce. I always regarded him as my uncle. Ted was a Morris dancer years ago and we always did one dance outside his house on Whit Monday and for Mrs. Lay after Ted died. Mrs. Lay was sister of Harry Pocock whose name crops up on this site quite often. He died the day I was born (or so Mrs. Pocock used to tell me)"
Edith Susan Quick nee Sheppard died on September 10th 2020. Edie came from a Bampton family of several generations. Her husband John was the principal founder member of the SPAJERS, our charity which creates fun events to raise funds for local senior citizens. They include the Shirt Race, Donkey Derby, Josie's Grand Draw and in conjunction with Bampton's fire brigade a wonderful bonfire and firework night. In the past there have been balls in Weald Manor.
This is Elsie Hughes with three boys and a girl. Elsie had 2 daughters, Mary and Sylvia and one son Jim, so I'm not sure who the 4 children are. She was married to Len Hughes and the last place they lived and worked was the garage and shop next to Cromwell House in Cheapside. The property is now a private dwelling called Exeter House.
Tom Smith was the son of a gypsy Queen and for 1969, the number of people and cars who came to his funeral was a very memorable affair. To this day, locals call the bend just outside Bampton on the Bampton to Brize Norton Road 'Hoppy's Corner.' It's on the right leaving Bampton just after passing the allotments.
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