These are just five of the adverts in the July 2012 issue of The Bampton Beam and are for

Little Westbrook self catering in Bridge Street
A personal trainer
Prestige Buildings
Bampton Garage
S J Cooper, builder

These are the young dancers in Francis Shergold's side 1980, the Bampton Traditional Morris Men. They include Keith Rouse, Jamie Wheeler and Craig Godwin.

Manley Morris from Rumworth visit Bampton 1999

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

The Beam was produced 3 and sometimes 4 times a year. This edition from April 1992 included the following topics and advertisers.

A decade of change in Bampton: An appraisal
Low Cost Homes latest
Annual Shirt Race
The Deanery: Restoration & Exploration
Lime Trees in Broad Street
Parish News
Speeding Traffic
Traffic Calming
Parish Council Minutes
McKenie Brown - Electrical Plumbing
Bampton Fax Bureau
Stephen Hailes - Plumbing
MH Thomas - Building, Landscape Gardening and Fencing Contractor
Home Made Labrador - Printing
R Boland & Sons - Fresh fruit & vegetables
J Temple - Hardware, DIY, Fancy Goods and Toys
Bampton Driving School
The Bush Club: Plans for the future
Easter Services
A New Sunday School
Wanted: Singers for Church Choir
The Gardening Column
CBL Electric Vehicles Ltd
Bampton Village Hall
Bampton Youth Centre
Bampton Environmental Watch Group
Bampton WI
The MS Society
The Bampton Bush Club
Bampton Swimming Pool Appeal
Bampton Brownies
Low Cost Housing Supplement: From Appraisal to Action
Ridge & Partners - Chartered Surveyors
Coleman Hicks Partnership - Architects
Fisher & Townsend (Contractors) Ltd - Building Contractors
New Playground
Site map of Bampton
Site plan for low-cost housing scheme
Hedge Your Bets - Environment
Appraisal Questionnaire
Oxford College of Further Education
Bampton Horticultural Society
The Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal
Bampton Pumpkin Club
Bampton Wives Club
SPAJERS
Bampton Pre-school Playgroup
Bampton Drama Group
Arts - West Oxfordshire Arts Association
Charles McCord Mussett
Junior Beam
Crossword
R Cooper - Builders
The Talbot Hotel
Curtain Choice
Andrew Bowman - Thatcher
Health Matters - Welbeing
J Godfrey & Son - Funeral Directors
Martin Drew - Chiropodist
Medical Matters
Oxfordshire Community Care Plan 1992/93
Painless Surgical Operations at Bampton
Centre for Complementary Medicine
Happy Memories - Girl Guides
A Fisket-a-Tasket - Flower Design
A Simmonds - Baker
E Taylor - Funeral Directors
Grey Gables Garage
N Woodley Building Maintenance
Witney Grass Cutting
John King - Heating Engineer
The Romany Inn
Bampton Directory

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.

These four maps were all produce in 1971 and cover

Ordinance Survey Plan SP3002-3102 Weald, Hayway Lane, Weald St, Clanfield Road
Ordinance Survey Plan SP3003-3103. Bridge St east to end of houses, north to new school, Colvile Close
Ordinance Survey Plan SP3203-3303. 1971 Mt Owen Rd east inc. Gogg Lane, Aston Rod to Aston
Ordinance Survey Plan SP3002-3102 1971. Cowleaze Corner, Weald to Aston, north to Horse Shoe PH

Fields, property and farms are all clearly marked.

Colin Harold Bathe died on May 8th 2011 at the age of seventy three. His close friend David John Titchener, widely known as Curly, preceded him by just a few months dying at the age of seventy six on January 20th 2011. Both were well known in the area around their home town of Swindon for numerous activities relating to sports and motorised vehicles, but it is their involvement with traditional music, Morris dancing and song for which they will be remembered by Bampton people.

The article gives you far more information about these two men.

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.

This is the Bampton Directory for 2006. It lists all the services, clubs, societies and organisations to be found in Bampton along with the contact details.
For the first time there are no advertisers.