Bampton Morris dancers c1924/5 outside the Elephant & Castle.
The sign over the pub door says Posting House, Horses, Carriages, Brakes. Personal attention given, Albert Townsend. The 3rd and 4th lines are hard to read which is a pity but it looks like 'For Hire All Trains Met On The Shortest Notice.
On 23rd September 1935 the Townsend family moved across the road to Castle View and made a farm of it having much more room to fatten more pigs.
This picture must have been taken some time between 1926 and 1938 because that was the period when Bertie Clark, seen here on the fiddle, played in Bampton.
They are dancing at the East end of the Market Square.
William Kimber, who played for Heading Quarry was a friend of Bampton Morris. His side danced at Mrs Birch's Sandfield Cottage in Headington and her son-in-law was staying.
This is a newspaper article from the Oxford Times June 10th 1960 which talks about the fete held at Weald Manor by kind permission of Mrs A.M. Colvile and her son Major R.A. Colvile. It was to raise funds for the renewal of part of the floor inside Saint Mary The Virgin Church, specifically the parquet flooring across the front of the aisles by the pulpit and lectern. It was Whit Monday, the day of Morris Dancing in Bampton (until the government stopped Whit Monday being a Bank Holiday and fixed it at the last Monday in May with may or not be Whit Monday) and the dancers called at the Fete.
Arnold Woodley and his musicians outside the Jubilee Inn in the Market Square in 1973. Frank Purslow on melodeon, Andrew Bathe on fiddle and Arnold on fiddle playing for the Bampton Morris Men
Arnold Woodley was squire of the Bampton Morris Men and in 1974 they danced in Cecil Sharp House in London. There was something of a falling out between the squire and his men and he wrote this same letter to each when he got home.
Arnold Woodley squire of the Bampton Morris Men on the left playing the fiddle, Brendan Cassidy on fiddle in the centre and Frank Purslow on the right.
