Brian and Siobhan O'Rourke owned the Cotton Club and started it in these premises in Rosemary Lane. It acquired a wonderful reputation and I know one seamstress in South Wales who came once every two months to buy her cotton fabric here. After a few years, the shop went across the road into the right-hand side of Duttons and from there it went to the Market Square in the premises that had once been the Central Garage, then Barclays Bank and it was when the bank left the Cotton Club moved in.
John Temple ran this hardware shop for many years and it was brilliant. He always had a smile on his face and worked very hard to stock items that were really wanted.
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 is the YouTube address for the filmed interview we did with Patrick about his working life. His training for being a butcher and where it was done are really interesting and I don't know if it is still available today. Patrick ran the butchers shop in Bridge Street for many years and really enjoyed it. He won prizes for his sausages
Seen with a horse and their families, the blacksmiths Townsend and Wheeler are outside their home, Cromwell House in Cheapside. The door to the right of the bay window has since been removed and the wall filled in.
The blacksmith Mr Cripps at Cromwell House with his family worked the forge between 1888 and 1908. A blacksmith worked with metal and at the time this picture was taken most of his work would have been with farm machinery. There is a seed drill in the picture on the left and the handles of a plough can be seen on the right.
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.