When Lloyd Hughes Owens created a series of albums in the late 1970s and early 1980s there were people alive who could remember seeing Fred Able in Bampton with his little cart, two donkeys and his dog.
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.
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.
A bird was found to have made its nest inside the letterbox at Bampton and Brize Norton Railway station by Mrs Emmie Papworth who along with Mr F G Cannons was a post lady in Bampton about 1960. It was thought to be a member of the tit family and was disturbed only once while the eggs were being hatched.
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.
This view along Church View looking north towards St Mary's shows interesting feature. The pram belonged to Suzy Lamb who used it to carry the bits and pieces she sold around Bampton.
W Payne & Son, Great Western Railway Co Agents, Bampton and Lechlade. Cab & Omnibus Proprietors, horses, brakes, carriages etc for hire. Cartage contractors and furniture removers. Chief office The Hill, Witney Oxon. Railway depots Bampton, Chipping Norton and Lechlade. The remains of one of their ads in black lettering can be seen on the side of their house which was Castle View in Bridge Street.
This advert is in the 1911 Kelly's Trade Directory
The garage in the Market Square was in existence at the start of the C20th when Oliver Onesipherous Collett owned and ran it. Around the middle of the twentieth century it was bought by Len Hughes.
Hughes' Garage was behind Cromwell House with access to it between Cromwell House and the house now called Exeter House