Freda Bradley lent this to the Archive to copy and we believe she is talking about her Grampy owning Sundown Cottage at one time. In the 1960s it was purchased by Bernard Rose along with Sandfords where he and wife Molly lived and he demolished the old cottage.
Brian and Siobhan O'Rourke owned the Cotton Club and started it in these premises in Rosemary Lane. It acquired a wonderful reputation and I know one seamstress in South Wales who came once every two months to buy her cotton fabric here. After a few years, the shop went across the road into the right-hand side of Duttons and from there it went to the Market Square in the premises that had once been the Central Garage, then Barclays Bank and it was when the bank left the Cotton Club moved in.
The Eagle Inn in Church View, Sadly, it closed in January 1992. It was the head quarters of the Bampton Traditional Morris Men when Francis Shergold was squire of the side. It was a happy place with darts, aunt sally, a garden and a one time a piano in the bar.
This was the first garage to be run and owned by the Morris car company in Oxford. While acknowledging this is not a garage in Bampton, many local men eventually worked at the Morris Oxford car plant in Oxford so local families have an interest.
In December 2014, pupils from Bampton Primary School and the Ladybird Nursery planted trees to commemorate the 40th year of the Tree Council's National Tree Week. In the picture are Lisa Lane with three year olds Ethan Walsh and Nala Hunt. The head teacher, Carol Phillips was delighted to take part and bring to children's awareness sustainability and ecological environments.
In alternate years the Bampton Community Archive organises a open garden day called Bampton's Hidden Gardens. Toby Hopkins dressed as a scarecrow as part of the fun.
The staircase to the top floor of the Grammar School was removed in the 1960s when people stood a greater chance of getting to the ground floor by falling through the rotten floor than coming back down the stairs. The Bampton Community Archive members have worked incredibly hard to raise funds on the back of the tourism boost from visitors flocking to Bampton to see the this building which was used as the Cottage Hospital in ITV's Downton Abbey. The grant from WODC means the work to bring the whole building into good heart can begin.
The Wedding Neil O'Brien & Sarah Bisp September 27th 2003. The gathering is on Church Green on the south side of Saint Mary's. Di O'Brien is Neil's mother and was school secretary in Bampton for many years.
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.