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.
We were all sorry when Adrian Simmonds had to close his shop. It was like an Aladdin's cave inside and he aimed to have 6 new things each week. There is a letter to the Bampton Beam here from Toby Hopkins and one from Adrian himself.
Bampton celebrated the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II over 4 days at the beginning of June 2012. These are a few of the reports of some of the events which took place.
Originally called the Bampton Charity Shop, it had a name change and a legal status changed to enable it to donate monies to other charities in Bampton. Apparently a charity cannot give money to another charity and Trevor Milne-Day gave his time to deal with the legal matter of the change. In this article Fenella Gray talks about the history of the shop from its inception in 2004.
For several years, two shows a year were put on in the Village Hall and this flyer is for one of them. It was for Bowjangles who gave a wonderfully skilful and funny evening's entertainment in the Village Hall Saturday September 29th 2012.
This article was written by Fenella Gray in the summer of 2012 where she documents the history of the Community Shop up to that point. In 2008 the Archive made a film about the Community Shop up to that point. For a while, the shop had to close because the owners of the premises felt the storage facility at the back was a fire hazard but happily, the shop re-opened not too long after next door but one in Rosemary Lane with much improved facilities.
In May 2012 our papershop known as Emmies, run by Tom and Silvia Papworth closed for the last time. The letter gives a history of the shop, the people who ran it. It documents not only the passing of the papershop but records the very active part both Sylvia and Tom have played in Bampton's life, for which those of us lucky enough to have known them, their families and their shop will always be very grateful.
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.
n November 2015 eight products, including Patrick Strainge's Bampton Royal sausages were nominated for the Q Guild Smithfield Awards. Only 200 butchers in England can hold a Q guild aware at any one time so it really is a feather in the cap of our local butchers shop. The Bampton Royal sausages were also a firm favourite with many members of the cast of Downton Abbey which was partly filmed in Bampton.
