The society is pleased to report on the success of its second online presentation and talk for its 2020/21 series. The session took place on November 19th. In a new initiative for us, we were joined by members of the Charlbury group as part of a reciprocal exchange. This swelled our numbers to make a pleasant and and enjoyable gathering.
The talk this time was on the battle of Edgehill, given by the battlefield expert David Beaumont, who has been part of the Kineton local history group for 30 years. He was involved in the comprehensive survey of the Edgehill battlefield for over 2 years and has surveyed other battle sites. His in-depth knowledge was illustrated by maps of the surveyed area, showing the meticulous detail of the research carried out.
Meantime, David has spent 18 months with a group translating the Parliamentary Loss Accounts for Warwickshire. This work has given him a great insight into how the battle and the movement of troops through the countryside had a deep and often traumatic effect on village life. The focus on the effects of the battle was sobering, with stories of wholesale plunder of village livelihoods.
A free and interactive visitor exhibition adjacent to the Battle of Edgehill battlefield is permanently installed within the beautiful surroundings of St Peter’s Church in the village of Radway. Details here.
A photograph on the Wychwood’s Local History website prompted Lee Richardson to write this short biography of his relative, Ivan Wright. The photo shows the Wright family at harvest with John Francis Wright in the centre of the scene. John’s father was Ivan Wright, and a cousin of Lee’s grandfather.
Wright family haymaking 1938 George Bradley in white hat, John Francis Wright in shorts subsequently a victim of the second world war. Photo by Megan Bradley. The Wright family lived in the cottages just over Littlestock Brook
Ivan Wright
Ivan Wright was born in 1887 in Kirkbean, Kirkcudbrightshire. His father, Jack, was a native of Cheshire and in addition to being a farmer was also a greyhound trainer. It is through the greyhound connection that the family moved to Scotland. Jack Wright trained coursing greyhounds for Mr Leonard Pilkington of Cavens, Kirkbean and was appointed as farm manager to him.
Ivan Wright moved to London in the early part of the 20th century and joined the Metropolitan police force, in 1923 he married Edith Harris whilst serving as a constable in the city. They had one son, John Francis Wright born in 1925 in Romford, Essex.
The family association with coursing greyhounds goes back to Ivan’s grandfather who bred and trained dogs from the late 1870s onwards. Several of Ivan’s uncles and cousins successfully trained winners of the Waterloo Cup. Greyhound racing came to Britain from America in the late 1920s and according to the Greyhound Stud Book Ivan was listed as a public trainer of greyhounds whilst living at Ilford, Essex in 1935.
Ivan Wright as a young man
He appears to have retired from the force at some point and is listed in the 1939 register as living at the Kings Head, Chinnor, Oxfordshire with his family. Although they are the only people present at the address, his occupation is listed as Police Pensioner and not as Landlord. Three years earlier they had resided at The Royal Oak public house in the same area.
It is around this time that the family moved to Shipton Under Wychwood and the 1941 stud book lists Ivan Wright as living at Little Stock, Meadow Lane in the village. In addition to training greyhounds he is shown as owning several greyhounds.
Greyhound Stud Book samples, with Ivan’s listing
Disaster befell the family with the loss of John Francis Wright in 1944 whilst in Maidstone, Kent training as an officer cadet with the Royal Corps of Signals. He had attended Burford Grammar School and is mentioned as one of the fallen alumni at Christchurch College, Oxford. He is buried at St Mary’s churchyard.
As was common with the ownership of greyhounds Ivan gave his dogs registered names that started with his own initials: Indian Wave, Imperial Wave, Inky Wave, etc. I can perhaps only speculate but I suspect that Ivan Wright trained greyhounds for the sport of racing and possibly took them to the Oxford greyhound track which opened in 1939.
Stud Book entries, including names of greyhounds. Ivan’s wife’s middle name was Mary, and it seems she may have owned these dogs?
Ivan continued to train greyhounds at Shipton Under Wychwood until around 1950, his younger brother, Hardy Wright, saw some success in this era and trained Waterloo Cup winning greyhounds at Cummertrees, near Annan.
Ivan Wright passed away in 1971, his death being registered in Banbury and his wife Edith Mary Wright nee Harris died in 1996, her death was registered in West Oxfordshire.
“I was delighted to give the Wychwoods Local History Society’s first zoom talk. Good preparation on the part of the hosts meant that everything went smoothly, and I hope that everyone enjoyed it as much as I did”.
Liz Woolley, Oxfordshire Local Historian
The society made its own piece of history on October 15th, with its first venture into the world of video-conferencing – a move towards Zoom technology which for many of us is a new, or relatively new, experience.
This is a short report which we hope will encourage members to join us for future events.
Constrained as we all are these days by the restrictions around social gatherings, the society has deftly re-organised its events schedule for 2020/2021. This has been an interesting and progressive experience, with a great deal of understanding from our speaker line-up. Though it is certainly a compromise solution to current difficulties, we are delighted to be settling into a new pattern for the immediate future. We are certainly delighted too, with the outcome of our very first online Zoom session, which attracted a group of around 25 members to a fascinating and beautifully-constructed talk by local historian Liz Woolley.
Liz has in previous years given us fascinating talks in the comfort of the Village Hall, and her experience both as an expert in her field and her encouragement to us in the use of Zoom made her a perfect choice. Aware as we all are of the changes we have to address, Liz tells us: “Zoom talks are no substitute for the ‘real thing’ but until we can all meet again, lots of Oxfordshire history societies are finding that they are a good way for members to keep in touch and still be able to hear some interesting talks”.
And this of course is quite right – the technology clearly demonstrated its benefits during the online arrivals of individual visitors, many of whom had not seen friends’ faces for months on end. There was certainly plenty of “hubbub” in the lead up to the start of Liz’s talk, and people seemed more and more at ease with it all.
CND march, Kensington High St, May 1965. Olive Gibbs 2nd from left, with Marc Bolan, Joan Baez & Donovan amongst others
Olive & Edmund Gibbs at the Cutteslowe Walls Demolition1959
Liz’s talk featured the life and work of Olive Gibbs, the Oxford politician and peace campaigner whose life was a demonstration of a commitment to fairness for all, often at personal cost but always with extraordinary courage and energy. More about the talk is available here >> Olive Gibbs, Oxford politician and peace campaigner
With plenty of Q & A at the end, the evening was lively and entertaining as well as informative. We are grateful to Liz for making this a memorable start to our time with this new format – and of course to all who attended and made the experience so worthwhile.
Please look out for updated details of forthcoming talks on our events page, and please do make contact with the society (members or non-members ) should you have any questions or would like more information about how to join future events. All are welcome!
An unusual feature of Milton is the scattering of small pieces of sculpture which adorn a number of properties throughout the village. We are never going to rival Florence in our sculptural adornment, but these little carvings illustrate a sometimes-overlooked theme in the history of the village. This article is firstly intended to provide a record of these items as interesting artefacts within the village and secondly is an attempt to put these sculptures into their historical context and to suggest what their origins may have been, because almost all have been relocated from now unknown original settings. If any of our readers have any information on the further history or origins of these sculptures the History Society would be delighted to hear from you. I must also say thank you to the owners of buildings who have provided information about their sculptures and allowed access to their properties to take photographs.
Usually sculptures in small rural villages in the Cotswolds and elsewhere are to be found on and within the local parish church in the form of architectural ornament or funerary monuments. However, almost all the ones described here are scattered among the domestic buildings of Milton, that is unusual. Most of these survivors are a legacy of the presence of Alfred Groves and Sons in the village. Many are probably salvaged features from the demolition or restoration of other buildings in the region by Groves, or sample pieces undertaken by apprentices. There are other pieces of sculpture and ad hoc bits of carving inside a few properties within the village which are not on public view but are also a part of the legacy of Groves’ presence (figures 1 and 2), these seem to be the doodles of masons living locally. Groves was once a huge enterprise in the centre of Milton. The company provided masonry, timber and building skills to many projects throughout Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire including Oxford Colleges and St Paul’s Cathedral in London. Their heyday was in the second half of the 19th Century, and early 20th Century. An account of their history by Norman Frost appears in volumes 7, 8 and 9 (1992/93/94) of the Wychwoods History Society Journal.
Figure 1 relief carving of a lion (?) inside property on Milton High Street
Figure 2 Standing man carved into a quoin now inside a property on Milton High Street
Wooden figure of angel playing a woodwind instrument
The oldest surviving figure sculpture in Milton is the wooden, probably oak, carving of a figure playing some sort of woodwind instrument. This instrument is sometimes identified as a shawm (figures 3 and 4). He has wings and is therefore an angel. Unfortunately, he is no longer on public view, but for a long time he occupied a niche on the front of the former Wesleyan Mission Room on Milton High Street. He is thought to date from the 15th Century.
Figure 3 Angel Musician front view, former Wesleyan Mission Room
Figure 4 Angel Musician side view, former Wesleyan Mission Room
He might have been a fixture in Milton for many years before he was given his own niche in this prominent location on the High Street sometime in the later 19th Century (figure 5). His time outdoors has taken its toll and he was taken down around 2006 and is now housed indoors. His origin is unknown, he almost certainly formed part of a decorative scheme of such figures in a religious setting, and it has been speculated that he may once have formed part of the decorations of nearby Bruern Abbey before it was dissolved by Henry VIII.
Figure 5 Photomontage of the angel
within his niche
There is a strong tradition of such musical angels in churches in East Anglia and figure 6 shows one such from St Wendredas in March, Cambridgeshire. This is one of 118 figures of angels in this church. Similar figures appear in the church of St Mary the Virgin in Ewelme, Oxfordshire, a little closer to home.
Figure 6 Wooden figure of musician angel forming a corbel to the roof of St Wendredas, March, Cambridgeshire, early 16th Century
Figure 7 Wooden figure playing woodwind instrument from La Maison d’Adam, Angers c1491
There is of course a tradition of musical angels in European painting and sculpture from the middle ages and they also sometimes appear in secular settings. A distant cousin of our figure can be seen on La Maison d’Adam in Angers, France (figure 7), a late medieval house from 1491, and therefore of a similar age to our figure, just one of the many carved figures which decorate this French house.
Two stone heads on St Michael’s – a house on Milton High Street
These two heads were not made for this location but have been repurposed from their original locations sometime in the late 19th Century when this property was probably upgraded. The uppermost grinning figure forms a corbel that supports the timber strut-work that now decorates this gable (figure 8). Strut-work of this type was becoming a popular architectural feature in the area towards the end of the 19th Century. He is much weathered and has the appearance of a gargoyle. Again, this figure may also have been salvaged from some church restoration undertaken by Groves. He is difficult to date, possibly 18th or early 19th Century. Such caricatures frequently decorate local churches, and many Oxford Colleges (figure 9) and one or the other may have been his original function.
Figure 8 Uppermost head on gable end of St Michael’s, High Street
Figure 9 Gargoyle from New College Oxford
The lower figure is a different sort of character (figure 10) and has the appearance of a portrait. There is evidence of a moustache extending to bushy sideburns, and his shoulders appear to be adorned with toga-like drapery. These details date him to the early to mid-19th Century. The toga draped busts of British worthies of the Georgian and Victorian era decorate many a provincial town hall or art gallery, not to mention the Houses of Parliament. Such portrait busts were also used to decorate the façade of public buildings. The heads of Shakespeare and Garrick feature on many a theatre façade, and famous artists feature on municipal galleries. There are quite a few for example on the National Portrait Gallery. Figure 11 shows one such figure that decorates a building in Bath. It would be nice to know who our character is, but his rather eroded and decrepit state makes this a tricky task.
Figure 10 Lower head on gable end of St Michael’s High Street
Figure 11 Head of a bearded figure on the facade of former premises of S F Andrews, Provision Merchant, in Union Street, Bath, 1885
Female head on Dashwood House
The head of a young woman projects from the wall above the doorway to Dashwood House on Shipton Road (figure 12). The building dates from the late 19th Century, but the stone head of the young lady is from elsewhere, and possibly 18th or early 19th Century. She was probably carved as either a supportive corbel or as a carved termination of a drip hood such as are frequently seen on English parish churches. Rather weathered examples can be seen on the nearby Church of St Mary in Shipton, but a close relation of our girl can be found as a decorative termination to a drip hood to a window on St Edwards in Stow-on-the-Wold, this was probably the original intended function of our young lady.
Figure 12 Stone head of young woman on Dashwood House, Shipton Road
Figure 13 Female head terminating drip hood on St Edwards,
Stow on the Wold
Bulls Head, Milton High Street
A prominent piece of sculpture on the High Street is the carved bull’s head topped by a ball finial atop the gable of what is now the High Street entrance to the small development of Harman’s Court (figure 14). The single-story building is modern rebuild of a similar structure on the site that once served as a butcher’s shop by the name of Harman’s. The back of the premises once housed an abattoir. The bull’s head was in situ on the original building and was saved and re-mounted on the replacement building which is now a domestic residence. The building opposite was once a pub called The Butcher’s Arms. Our bull now serves as an important reminder of this now hidden past. Nonetheless, he is also a refugee from some other location, as it is highly unlikely that a small village butchery would have commissioned such a statement piece of sculpture. Again, the hand of Groves is seen in the re-homing of the bull’s head here. He probably dates from the mid-19th Century and would have once adorned some Victorian Market Hall. Similar examples can be seen on Victorian Market Halls in many larger British cities. Figure 15 shows an example from the former Smithfield Market in Manchester.
Figure 14 Bull’s Head, Milton High Street
Figure 15 Bull’s Head, Former Smithfield Market Hall, Manchester, 1858
Boar’s Head, Groves Industrial Estate
A companion to the head of the bull can be found atop a gable on one of the buildings just behind Groves’ hardware store. It is the head of a boar, perched high on this gable, and he is difficult to see. However, he is also a rehomed piece of stone carving from a now unknown location, but possibly also from a former market hall.
Figure 16 Carved stone head of a boar, Groves’ Industrial Estate
Kneeling Praying Figure, Brasenose, Shipton Road
This surprising figure sits on a pierced gothic plinth sited above a door canopy on Brasenose, a cottage on Shipton Road. It shows a kneeling praying figure with face raised heavenwards (figure 17). The figure is not well detailed partly through weathering and partly by the design of the unknown sculptor. He is a rather simplified copy of a figure originally known as the Bambino Inginocchiato Orante (Kneeling Child Praying) originally conceived by the Florentine sculptor Luigi Pampaloni (1791-1847). Pampaloni first executed the figure in plaster in 1826 (Accademia Belle Arte, Florence). It was a commission for a funerary monument to the daughter of the Russian noblewoman Anna Potocki. The original design had the unclothed boy kneeling on a cushion (figure 18).
Figure 17 Figure of kneeling child praying, Brasenose, Shipton Road
Figure 18 Luigi Pampaloni, Kneeling Child Praying c 1830, sold at Sotheby’s 10/07/19
The figure became an enormous success and subsequently Pampaloni and his assistants executed many copies in marble that can be found in museums and graveyards across Europe. Whilst the original praying boy was conceived as a nude statue the concept was taken up by many other sculptors throughout the 19th century. In many of these variants his modesty was often preserved by the addition of a discreet piece of cloth draped over his right leg (figure 19). This is the version copied in the Milton figure. There are now probably thousands of versions of this figure throughout the world, many featuring as funerary monuments to young children. The one illustrated here is in the churchyard of St John the Baptist in Tibshelf, Derbyshire from the early 20th Century (figure 20). Our modest figure, from the late 19th or early 20th Century, was probably also originally intended to decorate a funerary memorial. This is reinforced by the gothic base containing a candle, a symbol of the brevity and fragility of life. However, whose memorial this was intended to be and how it ended up as a decoration to this door canopy we might never know.
Figure 19 Figure of Praying Child, attributed to Vincenzo Vela (1820-1891) Biblioteca de Nava, Reggio Calabria, late 19th Century, now with added loin cloth
Figure 20 Figure of praying child as part of child’s gravestone, St John the Baptist, Tibshelf, Derbyshire. Early 20th Century
Sculptural collages on Holmleigh, Jubilee Lane.
The next item is what might be described as a sculptural collage of various carved fragments inserted into each gable end of Holmleigh on Jubilee Lane. The house bears the date 1869 and was almost certainly built by Groves. The fragments are obviously from different sources, and from different types of stone. Many of the fragments seem to have funerary associations and were perhaps intended to form parts of gravestones. The composition on the right-hand gable contains the head of a cherub. Similar cherub heads can be seen on gravestones in Ascott and Shipton Churchyards, and a rather faded one appears carved above the doorway to Stone Porch, a house on the High Street. Beneath the cherub is a carving of a weeping willow arching over a cross and some tombstones. The weeping willow is another common motif on Victorian gravestones for obvious reasons, though I have not been able to find any on local gravestones. The assemblage includes some gothic arches, placed horizontally, and vertically in a rather whimsical composition. These fragments are again almost certainly salvaged pieces from demolition jobs or renovation jobs, or even perhaps apprentice pieces done by younger masons working for Groves.
Figure 21 Assembly of carved fragments in
North-west gable of Holmleigh, Jubilee Lane
Figure 22 Assembly of carved fragments in the south-east gable of Holmleigh, Jubilee Lane
Hooded figure on Forest Gate (Formerly Frogmore House)
Our next sculpture comes from a grand late Victorian villa on Frog Lane (figure 23), formerly known as Frogmore House but now called Forest Gate. The house dates from the very early 20th Century and is quite a statement property with its multiple gables and large stained-glass windows to the main façade. Topping the pyramidal roof to one of the front bays is a cowled figure made from terracotta. He is the only sculpture in our study to occupy his original intended location. Figural terminations to roof lines were common on some of the grander houses of the later 19th century, dragons being a particular favourite. There is a terracotta dragon on one of the gables to the nearby Woodhill, the Sands (originally known as Holmleigh) which is of about the same date. This figure, half man half beast – note the claw like feet – is a re-imagining of the many hybrid-creatures that decorate churches and cathedrals and colleges up and down the country (figure 24). His face, however, is no caricature but has the look of a sensitively modelled portrait; one assumes he is the person who originally had the property built, some further research is needed here.
Figure 23 Terracotta sculpture of a hooded man with claw feet, Forest Gate, Frog Lane
c 1903
Figure 24 Corbel with carved head 14th Century, Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Mother and Child by Constantine A Smith, Broadstone, Green Lane
The carving of a Mother and Child sitting in front of a house on Green Lane is something apart from most of the other sculptures in this article: it is freestanding, rather than attached to a building, and it is the first piece of “modern” sculpture to appear in the village. It was commissioned by a former owner of Broadstone, and executed by the sculptor Constantine A Smith, about whom little is known other than that he was Cheshire based and active in the 1960s and 1970s. This sculpture dates from circa 1970. It shows a naked woman sitting cross legged on the ground cradling a young child who clings to her, burying its face in her body in a naturalistic way, though in other ways this carving might be described at expressionistic rather than naturalistic. The sculptor has exaggerated the size of hands and feet and generally simplified the swollen forms of the figure and stylised the facial features of the woman, perhaps in an attempt to express the fecundity of motherhood. The image of the mother and child has a long and daunting history in Western art, including the many images of the Madonna and Child, and even with the decline of the church as a patron of such works, sculptors have continued to tackle this iconic subject. This figure is a secular version of the subject, a kind of Earth Mother, naked and seated almost directly on the ground. The style can be described as broadly modernist, owing much to the revival of the technique of direct carving (working directly in stone rather than preparing a model in clay or plaster to translate to stone) as promoted by sculptors such as Eric Gill and Jacob Epstein in the early decades of the 20th Century. The sculptor has left the texture of his toothed chisel very evident in the carved surfaces. If we want a very direct precursor for this Mother and Child we need look no further than the figure of Genesis by Jacob Epstein from 1931 (figure 26), a sculpture that was hugely controversial in its day.
Figure 25 Mother and Child by Constantine Smith circa 1970, Green Lane
Figure 26 Jacob Epstein, Genesis 1929-31,
Whitworth Art Gallery
Carved Head of Dr Who, façade of Groves Hardware Store, Shipton Road.
Our final head appears after a gap of over a hundred years since the last head was added to the village (Forest Gate), so represents a renewal of this Milton tradition. He projects from the upper story of Groves new hardware store which was re-built after a fire in 2014. He is also a sculpture that was originally intended for another location, and was one of a number of heads commissioned as part of a Groves’ maintenance project on the medieval church of Holy Trinity in Bledlow.
Figure 27 Carved head depicting
Patrick Troughton as Dr Who,
Groves Hardware Store 2014
However, for reasons unknown this head was not used. The other heads for this church included the four members of the Beatles and the local lord of the manor Lord Carrington. The head featured on Groves hardware store is intended to be the actor Patrick Troughton as Doctor Who. He was again to be a figure terminating a drip hood. And so the tradition continues.
Further Reading
Michael Rimmer: The Angel Roofs of East Anglia: Unseen Masterpieces of the Middle Ages, 2015.
The volumes in the Public Sculpture of Britain series published by Liverpool University Press since 1997
Benedict Read: Victorian Sculpture, Yale University Press, 1982
All images copyright of the Wychwoods Local History Society except:-
Fig 6 – courtesy of Lynne Jenkins Fig 1 and 2 – courtesy Peter Bradford Fig 15 – courtesy Manchester Evening News Fig 18 – courtesy Sotheby’s Fig 19 – courtesy of the Biblioteca Pietro de Nava, Reggio Calabria Fig 24 – courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts Boston Fig 26 – courtesy of Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
Here is an article by Wendy Pearse, published in the Society Journal No 30, 2015
In the latter part of the 20th century the long-established firm of Farrant and Sinden Solicitors of Chipping Norton uncovered a chest of documents relating to the Ascott Poors’ Estate Charity.
The chest’s contents were catalogued by the Oxfordshire Record Office (now Oxfordshire History Centre); brief summaries of the documents were typed on to catalogue cards, copies of which were handed to the Ascott Parish Council and the Charity Trustees. One set of copies is kept in the Tiddy Hall at Ascott-under-Wychwood. The Poors’ Estate Charity of Ascott-under-Wychwood helped the needy in several ways: during the second quarter of the 19th century one of its aims was to help with apprenticeships for poor boys.
These apprenticeship indentures cast some extra light on Ascott’s inhabitants at that time. Between January 1823 and July 1848 the Charity trustees arranged twenty-one apprenticeships for Ascott’s youths. Exactly what criteria were required to apply is unknown, but only eight families are represented, with two families having four sons apprenticed and two families having three.
The first Indenture was made in 1823 for Luke Quarterman, who was sixteen and apprenticed to the trade of shoemaker. In fact, sixteen of the applicants were bound to training as shoemakers, including in 1841 another Quarterman, William, and later the two sons, Israel and George, of Sarah Quarterman, a young widow. They were both thirteen at the time of their Indentures in 1846 and 1847. Sarah’s family lived in High Street, then known as Upper Street, as compared to Lower Street (Shipton Road), which was nearer the river. With the consent of his father William, Luke of the earliest Indenture was to be bound to John Parrott of Charlbury, Shoemaker, for five years from 14th January 1823.
The Trustees of Ascott Charity – James Ansell (solicitor), Thomas Chaundy, James Hyatt, John Chaundy and John North (all farmers) and C. R. Henderson (solicitor) – signed the document in consideration of the sum of £14. Half the sum was paid to John Parrott at the binding and half two months later, while another £2 was paid to Luke’s father at the time of the binding to be laid out in clothes for his now-apprenticed son. Among the earlier Indentures the consideration sum varies between £12 and £14 (later rising to £16), but in three cases it is only half that. This smaller sum may partly be explained by the situation concerning George Venville, one of the three apprenticed sons of Hannah Venville, a widow living in one of the References 1. Oxfordshire History Centre, A. S. P. E. C. I/1/I and I/1/ii. 2. Written alongside the text at the beginning of the document.
Charity properties in the vicinity of Church Close. William, the eldest, had been apprenticed in 1833, aged sixteen, to a mason at Burford, when Hannah, already widowed, was aged thirty-two. In 1834 Charles, aged apparently only nine, had been apprenticed for seven years to a pipemaker in Burford. George himself was apprenticed at sixteen to George Groves of Kingham, shoemaker, in 1843. William and Charles’s considerations were for £12, whereas George’s was £16 for five years. Two years later, however, George was reapprenticed to John Adbury of Adlestrop, shoemaker, for £6 for three years and two calendar months. Presumably George Groves died and the Trustees made other arrangements.
A number of Indentures are for six or seven years. Apart from shoemakers, two boys were bound to blacksmiths, two to tailors and one to a mason. I know the ages of only twelve of the applicants, which vary from twelve to seventeen years, Charles Venville being an exception. It is to be hoped that his lot was not as dire as we might imagine for a child taken from his home so young. At least Charles was only in Burford, whereas some of the others went to Witney, Eynsham, Faringdon, Hook Norton and Bourton-on-the-Hill. Only two of the youths were able to sign their names on the Indentures, but, surprisingly, Hannah Venville signed all her sons’ Indentures despite the boys’ inability to make more than a mark.
There is one unusual case when in 1833 a £7 consideration was arranged for William Baughan for a five-year apprenticeship to a cordwainer (shoemaker) in Bristol. It appears, however, that his mother, Mary, was living in Bristol; perhaps William had been born in Ascott and therefore qualified for a certain amount of assistance.
I can follow only one boy in Ascott into later life. Two of the sons of Richard Weaver of Upper Street were bound to apprenticeships: Charles in 1844 to a shoemaker in Eynsham and John in 1848 to a cordwainer in Hook Norton. Charles actually returned to Ascott in the 1850s to ply his trade. He married Mary Ann, from Somerset, and together they produced a family of six, living at the eastern end of Upper Street until at least the 1880s.
Copies of the Wychwood History Journal, Number 30 (2015) are available to buy: £3.50 [ How to Buy ]
Articles include: Brasenose Leases; “All Christians for Evermore”: the Ascott Village Charity; Apprentice Boys; A Study of the Vegetable Gardens in Shipton and Milton View as PDF here
In January 1990, the new decade was celebrated in truly entertaining style by the society. Here we present the show, digitised from the old VHS tape which recorded the event.
The Victorian evening was based on the format of a concert given in Milton Board School in 1885. Society members and friends entertained the audience with a feast of words and music depicting late Victorian life in the Wychwoods and surrounding areas.
The cast played, sang or recited from contemporary sources with material created and researched by members. Many aspects of everyday life were included – Christmas, cooking and health were prime examples. Farming life with its attendant problems was also part of the show. The themes made many references to low pay, woodland disappearance, emigration, the coming of the railways and fear of the Workhouse. Much more fun than it sounds!
A publication funded by the Ascott Village Charity can be seen here. The publication is offered courtesy of the charity. It highlights the fascinating and varied history of the village.
Ascott Earl Castle Looking South East: photo Hamish Fenton
The booklet contains a variety of maps and images. These include features of the village from Neolithic times and the later Iron Age. It describes Saxon field systems and also the Norman Age which saw the building of Ascott’s 12th Century Holy Trinity church. Also described is the founding of the Ascott Village Charity in 1480. Finally, the booklet also covers medieval, Victorian and 20th Century events and personalities.
All in all, this is a handy guide and is an inspiration to wander through the village and its surroundings and soak up its varied and deep past.
Here is an article by former Shipton resident Jim Hudson, which has been published in the Oxford Mail and also appears on the Wychwood Magazine website.
*****
Jim Hudson
My name is Jim Hudson; I live in County Durham and work in ICT for a local council. Before that, I served all over the world in the Royal Navy and long before that and before my wanderings began, during the mid 1960s, I was a small child living with my parents in Shipton-under-Wychwood.
The Smiths’ Bus
Living at the top of Fiddler’s Hill in Cherry Tree Cottage, I would walk to St Mary’s School each morning and home again that evening usually on my own; this would be from the age of about five. Sometimes on the way home, if I was lucky, I would be picked up by the Smiths Industries’ bus taking workers home from the factory in Witney. I would walk down the length of the bus to where my Dad would be sitting and we would go home together. If I had missed the bus, I would walk home past an old hand-operated water pump.
During the summer (and it always seemed to be summer) I would stop to wash my face and hair, drinking the cool water as I did so. I remember at the School, one of the greatest honours was to be allowed to ring the school bell at dinnertime. A chain hung from the bell in a small bell-house at the top of the school, ran down a cast iron tube and into the hallway. I only remember being allowed to ring the bell once but I can still remember the feeling of importance. I must have been a very good lad that day.
Dinner time meant being served food that had been cooked and ferried in from Burford Primary School. It generally arrived in an open wagon during morning break, packed into large metal flasks. The drivers would employ all us kids to hump it off the wagon and into the kitchens, two kids to one flask. We finished the work and got stuck into the small one-third pints of milk we received mid-morning, small glass milk bottles and straws, served from battered metal crates.
Another Village!
On hot days, we were sometimes allowed to take the class desks and chairs outside into the courtyard. Again during the break, we sometimes stacked the tables up, one on top of another with chairs on top of that. We used this as a homemade climbing frame and called it ‘Table and Chairs play’. The teachers would stand by, telling us to be careful and not get ourselves hurt.
At Harvest Festival, we would all troop to church. Two by two, and it had to be boy next to girl – we were not allowed to walk next to our mates. At church we boys had to take off our school caps, girls of course could leave their bonnets on. Teachers fussed over us, making sure our hair was combed and our partings straight. They would spit on handkerchiefs and rub the muck off our faces.
Also once a term or so we would walk along the road – two by two again, all the way to Ascott-under-Wychwood School where we could bathe in their new bathing pool. It was three foot deep and outdoors. It was great fun, not only because we were splashing about in the water, but also because the whole class had walked all the way along a road to Ascott … and that was another village!
Hay-Bale Heaven
Outside of school, my mates and I would make camps and dens out of the hay bales in the fields. Staking them up, we would make structures two or even three storeys high. We helped the farmers to collect them at the end of the summer, riding on the open trailer and lifting the bales on. Above us, the Red Arrows aerobatic display team, based at Little Rissington, would be practising their next air display. I thought it was perfectly normal to have an air display nearly every day.
We spent long afternoons building go-carts from old tea chests and pram wheels. These carts were very special as you actually rode inside them rather like an armoured car. With a crew of two, one lad driving and one in the back with his head stuck out of a hatch, we ran them down Fiddlers Hill. Whoever was driving nearly always lost control at some point and crashed. We didn’t bother with brakes either, once the cart was going down the hill you could not stop it and you were therefore committed to experience whatever happened next. We certainly never worried about cars coming the other way. We were all grazed up and cut but it was great fun, we dusted ourselves down and pushed the cart back up for the next run.
I often think back to my time in Shipton, and surprise myself that I only lived there for about four years. Even now, so many years later I still consider myself as “growing up in Shipton” and consider it to be my spiritual home.
Are YOU in the Photograph?
Here is a photograph of Jim Hudson and classmates, dated on the back as 1967, so Jim would have been eight years old. He is the lad in check trousers, centre front. Second lad to the right of him is Duncan Barney and five to his left is Nigel Barrett.
So, are YOU in this photograph? Do let us know : Contact Us!
From time to time, we welcome guest contributions from villages local to the Wychwoods. This article comes courtesy of the Churchill and Sarsden Heritage Centre, the small and unique museum in Churchill Village which celebrates the lives of two of its famous sons: Warren Hastings, the first Governor General of India, and William Smith, famous as the “Father of English Geology”. The Heritage Centre is known to most members of the Wychwoods Local History Society, and especially through a talk given to the group in January 2017 on WIlliam Smith by Owen Green.
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Churchill: Church Street with Chequers Inn on the right
In April 2008, Churchill village lost one of its best-loved residents, David Crudge, who had been born in the village in 1920 and at the time of his death, had been its longest resident.
A farmer, David was interested in all farming and rural activities, in particular a project begun many years earlier by his father in establishing the pedigree herd of dairy shorthorn cattle, which he was proud to exhibit at local and regional agricultural shows.
David was a fount of knowledge about village history too, and regularly wrote in the Churchill newsletter, Roundabout. Here are two of his reminiscences of life in and around the village.
Churchill Village: Top of Kingham Road
David Crudge Remembers: February 1999
Much has changed since local historian Arthur Ward wrote in the 1930s, ‘In practically all the villages in this part of the country, agriculture has been for centuries, and still is, the most important industry and the main source of the livelihood of the bulk of the population.’
Until the end of the 18th century, the landscape was quite different: large open spaces with the arable land cultivated in strips and the stock grazing common land. Our enclosures in 1788 saw the beginnings of fields as we now know them and some still have the names they were given then. Many were obvious choices: ‘Mountfield’, ‘Longround’ and ‘Brookside’, and a glance at the map explains why another is called ‘Crooked Elbow’.
Other interesting names are ‘Challenge’, ‘Hangings’ and ‘Childrens’, while the cow fields behind The Chequers were originally Upper and Lower ‘Football’. Even stranger, Mr Loehnis’ land down Sarsden Road was known as ‘Mouse Pit Ground’ and Sarsden still has a ‘Beggar’s Piece’ and a ‘Witney Gate’.
My favourite is a very small field on The Grange, adjoining the old farm yard, known as ‘Lampacre’. Only in recent years have I found out how it got its name. With very few buildings available then, many animals needing attention during the night – cows due to calve, sheep to lamb or perhaps mares to foal and sick animals – would be put in there before dusk. The farmer could then walk round after dark with his ‘lamp’ – most likely a paraffin lantern, and would soon find and attend to them.
David Crudge Remembers:March 2002
Now that the cattle have gone from the village, I sometimes think back to the 1920s when I was a boy and would walk to school past the busy blacksmith’s shop (now the Forge Guesthouse), the thriving shop and post office and The Chequers, which was then a farm as well as a pub. Jesse Barrett the farmer/landlord walked his cows there twice a day from his grass fields down Kingham Road up through the village to be milked.
There were 4 farms actually in the village and they, like the outlying ones, almost all had pigs, poultry, sheep and cattle as well as a dairy herd. Some 70 or more of the menfolk worked on the land or at the blacksmith’s. There were lots of children about then, the number attending school would be written each day on a blackboard and it would generally be over 90.
The schoolmaster, Mr Anson, was also the church organist and was a fine musician. His village choir won prizes at the local music festivals and his church choir was large and exceptionally good. Many of the village men were in it – the same men who during the week would be doing the ‘ploughing, sowing, reaping and mowing’ and of course milking the cows by hand (milking machines didn’t arrive here till the mid-1930s). The Mount Farm had the largest herd and the most milkers, many of them good singers, so as they worked sitting on their 3-legged stools, they sang and they could be heard from the road.
The most distinguished herd was at Churchill Heath where they bred pedigree dairy shorthorns and owner, Mr Rose, was nationally famous as a judge of them. Mr Martin at Rynehill was a pioneer of clean milk production, while Churchill Farm in the village won the Shorthorn Society’s silver medal for the highest herd average in the county for three consecutive years – one year it was the second highest in the country.
Cows were allowed or even encouraged to eat the grass on the sides of the road and every village garden had a gate, which was kept closed or they would help themselves to the vegetables. It was a different world then; I’m not saying it was better or worse – but shoes certainly needed cleaning a lot more often!
Rob Taylor’s memories of Shipton 60 years ago, as told to Alan Vickers
Rob Taylor has lived in Shipton since 1958. His father came originally from Blockley and his mother from Longborough. Before Rob was born, his father, Charlie, had been working in Upper Milton for the Reynolds’. But by the time of Rob’s birth, in Moreton in Marsh hospital, his father was working for Bobby Bull in Bold, which was “three houses and a letterbox”. Rob’s first school was at Idbury and had just 15 pupils.
Rob Taylor
When Rob was 11, the family came to Shipton where his father was employed by Percy Holloway at Grove Farm. Rob’s two brothers got jobs with Dick Hartley, one as a pigman and the other as a shepherd. Eventually Rob’s father got a job as a length man for the Rural Council. This involved keeping the footpaths clear and maintaining ditches. His partner was a Mr Cox. They each had a spade and a bicycle. One of them would go off in the direction of Kingham and Churchill while the other would go as far as Fifield. Rob’s father was a keen follower of the local hunt and would always choose his working area according to whether the hunt was meeting. One of his jobs in the winter was to manually spread gritting from the back of a lorry and to roll out snow fencing to prevent drifting. This happened along the Chippy Road and along the Stowe Road. Rob remembers seeing snow almost the height of the telegraph poles at times. After the risk of snow drifts had gone, the wooden snow fencing would be rolled up again.
Rob’s father had always had a tied cottage while working on farms but was never in favour of this. When he got the job as length man, he had the opportunity to buy two cottages up on Fiddlers Hill – opposite where the telephone box is today. He was £50 short of the purchase price but Ken Early, one of his friends, lent him the money. The houses were separate dwellings – you had to come out of one to go into the other. There was no running water and no sewage although there was electricity. He remembered Gordon Duester living up there and using the shared outside tap.
Rob went for a short while to Shipton School, which he hated. Once he was put on coke shovelling duty by the Head Master, Tom John, for smoking in the classroom. He was found out when the smoke drifted up from the inkwell in the desk!
He was one of three pupils to pass the 11 plus and go to Burford School, which he also hated. The other pupils were David Hicks, son of the village policeman Stan Hicks and Monica Duester. New pupils were based at that time in the lower school where the boarding house is now located. This meant walking up Tanners Lane sometimes twice in the day to attend lessons.
He could read but found spelling difficult. He got little encouragement from his teachers and behaved badly. Not surprisingly he was “top of the league for being caned”. He remembers only two teachers with any fondness, Mr Atkins, the art teacher and Jimmy Weir a history teacher who had been in the Welsh Guards. Rob was good at art and Mr Atkins encouraged him. Jimmy Weir was strict and once hung him out of the window by his feet for looking at the girls playing tennis instead of paying attention to the lesson. On another occasion he was caned for putting carbolic soap in the woodwork master’s tea kettle! One of the worst lessons at Burford was cross country. This took two periods and often would finish after the bus for Shipton had gone. He and David Hicks worked out that the way to avoid having to walk home was to hide in one of sheds and take a short cut to finish early.
He missed quite a few days of school by deliberately not catching the bus in the morning. This usually happened on Thursdays when Hartley’s farm in Upper Milton, where his brothers worked, had hundreds of chickens hatching from the incubators. Rob would be employed in packing them. He eventually left school at 15 without any formal qualifications.
Rob’s father did not want him to work on the land. He advised his son not to work for a farmer or take a tied cottage saying, “You never see a farmer on a bike!” He arranged for Rob to have an apprenticeship in carpentry at Groves but this only lasted two weeks.
He then got an interview with Phyllis Smith who owned one of the Shipton tillyards (Wychwoods Manufacturing Co). Phyllis interviewed him at her home, coincidentally in the same room that I spoke to Rob in. She offered him a job at 1/6 an hour but advised him “not to tell the rest!” When Rob joined, the workforce consisted of:
Fred Smith Dir.
Reggie Weston
Phyllis Smith Dir.
Ernie Hedges
Laurie Pittaway Dir
Rob Valentin
J. B. Broom Dir.
Fred Russell
Rob Champness
Raymond Puddle
Rob Taylor
Jack Beany
Wychwoods Manufacturing Co
His first role was to install two springs with two screws in the rear of the tills. If the till was to go overseas then it got a brass bell. If it was sold in the UK then the bell was made from steel. Later he applied filler to smooth the wood grain before polishing. The person who had finished each till had to put his initials in the back so any imperfections or faults could be traced. The company bought ordinary broom handles to make the spools for the paper rolls, They had a groove put in to hold the paper end and were then cut to size. One of Rob’s tasks was to bury the contents of the toilet bucket once a week. For this, he received an additional 2/6. It was a heavy job and he told Phyllis it was really a job for two men. She agreed and said two could do it. Rob thought they would be paid 2/6 each but the job rate remained 2/6 for both.
He found Phyllis a very shrewd business woman, “fair but strict”. She would make tea every morning around ten o’clock and bring the post in for the directors to discuss. “This gave us a rare ten minutes to mess about in!” There was some animosity between Phyllis and her second husband Fred and the other directors. Fred has some underlying health problems with his heart and the others felt that he did not always pull his weight. For his part, Fred would often moan about his mother in law, Mrs Sifford who lived with them.
Rob left to work as a labourer for Groves’ for around four years and then returned to the tillyard for the last four years of its existence ie about 1970-1974. By that time Phyllis was living in the bungalow now occupied by Dave Johnson. Rob had helped with the footings by working at weekends for Ken Early. Her former neighbour, Jean Hawcutt was working in the tillyard packing the finished tills. At the end there was only Phyllis, Rob and two Mitchell brothers, Ron and Brian. The tillyard was bought by a Mr Cohen but Rob thinks it was used by a saddlers from Charlbury for around eighteen months.
Rob was approached by Bill Dore’s sons, Ray and Trig because their father was looking for a woodworking machinist. Although he had not been a machinist, the boys told Rob to answer yes to all the questions Bill might ask him. He got the job and fused the workshop on the first day because he was not aware that much of the equipment worked on three phase current. Vic Avery was called out to put everything right.
Rob points out that, “If you were a lad in the village, you did not need to leave to get a job. You went to Groves’, the tillyards, Bill Dore or Bill Davis. Bill Dore always paid more than Groves’. Rob worked for twenty years for Bill at the workshop beyond the stream in Meadow Lane where there were around 50 employees. “I was sacked a few times but I never left”. He describes Bill as a larger than life character who would reverse his huge Van den Plas car up Meadow Lane while smoking a cigar. He had a full size dog track on the same site. When he got the job, Bill asked him what he had been earning. The sons told Rob to add a bit and he answered £20. Bill replied, “We can do better than that. Start on Monday and I will pay you £26!” There was no attention to health and safety. If an inspection was made then machines were simply disconnected and turned upside down.
Once he asked Rob to prepare 100 fence posts, five feet high. Rob got them done but Bill was upset because Rob “had not allowed for the two feet in the ground!”
Rob worked part time for Lady Sarah Moon, who lived at Cromwell House opposite the Red Horse and was married to Sir Peter Moon. Sir Peter had an affair and Lady Sarah got her revenge by giving away his valuable stock of vintage port and cutting up his clothes. She also poured paint on his BMW and went on to found the Old Bags Club for women who had been wronged.
Rob himself had a smart purple Triumph Herald but no driving licence. He took the driving test six times in Banbury and failed, always driving himself there alone with learner plates. If the village policeman ever stopped him, he would be told to remove himself from the village because the constable did not relish the necessary paperwork.
Now, in retirement, Rob maintains his allotment and pursues his lifelong hobby of keeping canaries. He has around one hundred birds and travels the length of Britain as a recognized judge.
That is Rob Taylor – a Wychwoods character for six decades and no longer a naughty boy after all.
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