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.

For what feels like years and years, WODC have been putting together a Local (housing) Plan and at long last, it was agreed by the governments planning inspectorate. All far too late to stop the speculative developments which WODC could not stop in Bampton which resulted in 160 house in New Road, a further 160 to be built at the bottom of Mt Owen Rd and the fight to stop yet another development between the Aston and Buckland Road continues (as at Sept 2019). A development on the east side of Station Road following on from the two semi detached bungalows has been granted and are being built now (Sept 2019). 7 new dwellings at Weald Manor farm have been built, Glebe Farm farther down Weald Street are building 6 as I write and a 7th will be added to them.
The surgery is at full stretch, no road improvements have been made, people are parking on pavements, some of the new houses in New Road have experienced sewerage back-flows. There are so many cars parked in Bampton now it's nearly always impossible to pass them without causing a motorist coming in the other direction from having to stop and wait

The SPAJERS - The Society for The Preservation of Ancient Junketing - organised many dances as part of their fundraising events to enable them to give fun to Bampton's senior citizens while everyone had fun.
There are 6 tickets here with dances from 1960 to 1970.

This obituary was in The Guardian newspaper January 13th 2009. Francis was born on January 31st 1919 and died on November 27th 2009. The article was written by Derek Schofield.

This is the funeral program from the church service for Constance Irene de Hamel. Constance did many things but is possibly best known for being a continuity announcer during WWII

There is a sound recording of Constance talking about her whole working life on YouTube at https://youtu.be/lnKzcJOBO8Q

This Frog Prince was made by Jo Lewington. I asked her to tell me about it and she said :-

"This dates from my sculptor phase in the ‘80s. I made 3 or 4 of these. One was sent to the head of a fashion house in California ( I remember it as Mr Gucci , but that can’t be right, but he was famous). I think the one in the picture went to another rich American. I can’t remember what happened to the rest but there is one somewhere in the Cotswolds. I made postcards and a leaflet and distributed them around Chelsea Garden Show, but at that time I was off to India for a year and my career as a sculptor ended."

The people of Bampton always pull together when push comes to shove. Residents got fed up with the litter about the paths and lanes and organised a mass clean-up. This article gives much more detail about it.

This is the family tree of Richard Edginton.

Names in the family tree.

Barrett Basson Bellinger

Bone Buckingham Bunce

Burchell Butler Cole

Edginton Elward Fowler

Griffiths Hewish Hibberd

Jones Jordan Knott

La Croix Loveridge McGregor

Merchant Merrick Mills

Newman Perchard Preston

Tanner Tinson Townsend

Whitlock Woodley Wraight

Emmie (Emily) Papworth, nee Bishop and her son Tom.