Rupert Gooddy, a Loyd House pupil from 1970 to 1974, died on July 10 2023, after a short period of illness.
He was brought up in Blackheath, South-East London, the son of John, the clerk to the Governors of St Bartholomew’s Hospital, and Barbara, a radiographer. He attended Carn Brea prep school, Bromley, excelling as a sportsman, and was at one stage coached by Derek Underwood, the celebrated England seam bowler.

In Loyd House his sporting progress continued and within two years he had represented Bradfield’s cricket 1stXI. He was a batsman of real power and had an excellent eye. One school report said: “Gooddy played a well-judged and entertaining innings.” Another described him as “a most dependable opening bat and a fine gully.”

Ru’s family spent a good deal of time with his maternal grandmother at Byworth, West Sussex, which may be what inspired his love of country pursuits. He fished and shot, pastimes he pursued enthusiastically all his life. As a boy he kept doves in the garden at Blackheath.

While at Bradfield Ru, ever the nonconformist, with his great friend James Sutherland, acquired two ferrets, Blodwyn and Bill, which were kept out of harm’s way in his Housemaster’s garden, until one morning the Housemaster’s wife opened the front door to find Blodwyn tucking into the contents of her milk bottles. Blodwyn and Bill were “asked to leave”.

He was also an accomplished footballer, golfer and tennis player, his achievements matched only by his insistent pall of self-effacement, any compliment waved away with a genuine lack of conceit. He was ludicrously modest, as well as kind and caring. While he could be, as he admitted, ‘a grumpy sod’, he was essentially an engaging mixture of understated, unshowy charm and quietly forceful mischief, an astute listener and a huge enthusiast for merriment and fun.

Ru was a brilliant and generous host; excellent at putting people at their ease. He spoke with great gentleness and warmth, often almost in a whisper. It was part of an easy, engaging charm, but you underrated Ru at your peril; possibly in business sometimes people did and regretted it. He was a doer, softly spoken but a man of action.

Professionally he was a shrewd, hardworking and extremely successful entrepreneur. There had been early signs of this flair. At the age of six, Ru reported very excitedly that his parents were allowing him to use a couple of square yards of space in their garden, for his own devices. He explained: “I want to grow cabbages that I can sell to my mum.” Thus, the successful businessman was born.

The interest in horticulture was developed in his time at Writtle Agricultural College, Essex. During that period he spent a year working at Wyevale Nursery in Hereford, where he gained a love of the Wye Valley and Black Mountains, his parents having bought a cottage near Hay-on-Wye, which Ru loved. He went on to work at Northmoor Nurseries and in 1979 he opened his own nursery, Rupert Gooddy Plants Limited, Bampton.

Ru clearly belonged in Oxfordshire, where he lived for over forty years, indulging enthusiams for motorbikes, fishing and of course cricket. Moving there was absolutely the making of him, and he married his wife Elizabeth in 1990. His son Francis arrived the following year and daughter Mimi a year after that. The marriage lasted for 17 happy years.

One of the people who worked for Ru for many years was Di Newman. She said of him: “He was such a good bloke. Funny, caring and looked after his staff really, really well … If anyone was in trouble, he’d help them out, he’d go above and beyond… he would always give the young a chance by offering them work and he would always consult his staff before making decisions. He was out in all weathers with us, and never asked anyone to do a job he wouldn’t do himself. He was fun-loving and always rewarded well … Nothing was too much trouble for him. You couldn’t fault him. He was a lovely, lovely man …”

He enjoyed life to the full and was enormously and rightly proud of his son Francis, who followed Ru into the nursery business and helped it go from strength to strength, and daughter Mimi. He had a gentle, all-encompassing love of life. He was generous and loyal, with a wonderful warmth. His distinctive and hugely lovable personality will be enormously missed by all those who knew him.

James Hanning

Celebrating the launch of the nationwide Farm Holiday Bureau are Mr Nick Hooper, Mrs Mary Rouse from Lew and Mr Dick Millard of the English Tourist Board. Nick and Mary were members of the local group, the Thames Valley Farm and Country Holiday group and were part of a small group of people from across the UK to set up the national organisation with included members in England, Wales, Scotland and N Ireland. Several years down the line the name was changed from Farm Holiday Bureau to Farm Stay UK. The launch was held at Cogges Farm in Cogges next to Witney.

The map was produced in 1921. The first map is has been reused to show where council houses were to be built on the south side of New Road and where the sewerage pipes were to be laid to the sewerage works along the Buckland Road.

Mains sewerage came to Bampton in 1958 after a long struggle and at a cost of £105,000. Miss Marjorie Pollard was the driving force but in the end, it was the death of Horace Morse who emptied the 'night soil' buckets twice a week which made it imperative. Jack Bellinger was the first manager of the sewerage works.

This Ordinance Survey map was produced in 1974 and covers the area from Hobbs buildings/Deanery Farm in the north, due east to Coal Pit Farm, south to Bampton centre, on south to Weald, east to Aston and south to the Radcot Cut and Great Brook and the Thames.

A PDF document of 9 pages detailing the sale of Calais Farm in 1984 by Moore, Allen and Innocent for Mr Bryan Stevens. About 185 acres freehold with vacant possession for sale by private treaty as a whole or in six lots

TOE2 is Oxfordshire’s independent environmental funder, supporting projects that make real and lasting improvements to the environment and to the lives of local people. TOE2, a charity and a notfor-profit company, has worked in partnership with OCC for several years to improve access to rights of way and green spaces across the county, supporting the aims of the Oxfordshire Rights of Way Improvement Plan

These newspaper cuttings, all from local papers are from 1972. Topics covered include:

• the marriage of Richard Snook to Shirley Cranston
• reports from the badminton club, football bingo, the bowls club, SPAJER's pensioners' party
• Drew Warren hitting a cow
• another death from the Wood Green School crash (Alec White)

This peaceful scene is of an Ayrshire cow enjoying standing in the stream behind The Grange. It must have been taken fairly early in the twentieth century; by 1945 these cows were not often seen where they had once been bred

This Indenture on Vellum records :-A Release from William Thomas and Hester his Wife of Lands in Bampton Oxfordshire to Francis Sims Dated the Thirteenth day of June 1735.