With the death of Janet Wallace in April, the Wychwoods Local History Society, has lost one of the last of the generation still living in the Wychwoods, who created our Society and made it what it is.
For a fuller account of her life written by Trudy Yates, please see Journal 25 here.
Janet was born in Hammersmith, the eldest child of Dr Gordon Scott and his wife Betty. She had two sisters and a brother, Dr Sandy Scott. She worked for a year at the Chipping Norton Memorial Hospital before training as a nurse at the Middlesex Hospital and then doing midwifery training at the Radcliffe in Oxford. While her family was very young, she worked at the Cokethorpe School in the sanatorium and then as a classroom assistant and later secretary at Milton primary school.
She joined her father and brother as a typist/nurse in the Wychwood surgery in 1972 and worked there as practice nurse for 25 years.
She joined the committee of the Wychwoods Local History Society in 1992 and, after 25 years of service, stepped down in 2017. She wrote articles for the annual Journal, especially looking at emigration during the latter part of the 19th century. Janet was a pioneer in carrying out recorded interviews with local inhabitants. She produced many hours of such in-depth recordings, making a priceless contribution to the society’s oral history archive.
For many years she organised refreshments for members at speaker evenings. She manned the Society’s stands at village fetes. As somebody who worked with her on our committee for more than fifteen years, I remember her as an efficient and engaged local historian but someone also prepared to do the humblest of tasks for the good of the membership and to share her wide knowledge of the Wychwoods and its people.
The Reverend Doctor Thomas Brookes was the Rector at Shipton from 1773 to 1814. The story of how his rather powerful portrait came to be returned to Shipton in 2013 was told in the Wychwood Volume 34 number 2 of 2013, and is also available here >>>
Recently the Wychwoods Local History Society heard from a lady called Vicky Sangster who lives in Sydney. She is a direct descendant of Dr Brookes’ daughter and wondered whether it would be possible to see his portrait while she was on holiday in England.
Vicky duly came to Shipton and, although time was tight, we arranged for her to see the portrait in the Prebendal where Dr Brookes formerly lived and St Mary’s where he preached.
For more than four decades, from the 1960s, Margaret and Frank Ware were energetic contributors to Wychwood society and are fondly remembered by many particularly in the Wychwoods History Society and the WI.
Frank died in 2019 and now the death has been announced of Margaret (neé Williams)
Margaret was born in London in 1933. She gained a first class degree in Botany at Kings College, London and then did postgraduate research into plant biochemistry leading to a PhD in 1962.
She had a keen interest in social justice and current affairs and in 1957 she joined the Liberal party and became chair of the Dulwich Young Liberals. It was through this political interest that she met Frank Ware, whom she married in 1959.
Margaret and Frank rented in London for a couple of years, where Margaret taught, first in a grammar school and then in a technical college, but then they moved to Oxfordshire – first to Milton-under-Wychwood and then to Shipton-under-Wychwood – where Frank stood as a Liberal candidate at the 1964 general election. Margaret gave up work to support his political ambitions, and, when these were cut short, she continued to support him while he pursued an increasingly stressful and demanding career in tax and finance.
In 1965 Margaret gave birth to twins, Fiona and Alison. When they reached the age of eight, she began a 17-year voluntary career in local government – first on Shipton-under-Wychwood Parish Council, and then as an independent councillor on West Oxfordshire District Council, where she became chairman of the Recreation committee, vice-chairman of a Planning sub-committee and also served for one year as vice-chair of the entire council. For ten years she was also a governor of Burford School, which her daughters attended.
Margaret co-founded the Wychwoods Playgroup with a group of local mothers and she was instrumental in raising funds for and ensuring the building of a swimming pool at the Wychwoods primary school.
In 1981 Margaret co-founded the Wychwoods Local History Society, and subsequently edited its journal. She and Frank organised many field walks over several years, which many members of the local villages took part in. Notable finds were prehistoric flint arrowheads, medieval pottery and even fragments from a WW2 crashed aircraft.
Margaret was a member of the Shipton WI and enjoyed performing on stage in some of their pantomimes in the 90’s and early 2000’s. In one performance of a Spice Girls skit, she was Scary Spice dressed in tight fitting leopard skin leggings, and her mother, who was nearing 100 herself at the time, was not amused when shown the costume beforehand, saying, in a horrified tone, ‘You’re not going to go on stage wearing that, are you?’
Between them, Margaret and Frank also contributed significantly to the fundraising efforts for the building of the New Beaconsfield Village Hall.
Margaret and Frank shared a lifelong interest in archaeology and beginning in 1976 she was the District Council’s representative on the Oxford Archaeology Unit’s governing body. In 1992, they both began studying archaeology at Oxford University Department for Continuing Education, eventually being awarded the Oxford Diploma in Archaeology. From 1996 to 2005 Margaret served as chair of the trustees of Oxford Archaeology Unit, which by this time had become one of the three leading professional archaeological businesses in the country with a growing international reputation.
After the death of Margaret’s mother in 2005, Margaret and Frank moved to Leominster to begin a new chapter in their lives, and again got involved with the local community, joining the U3A and many interest groups.
In 2015 she became seriously ill and spent the next nine months on kidney dialysis three times a week. Remarkably, she recovered sufficiently to not need the dialysis and even to regain most of her former physical strength.
Margaret and Frank celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in February 2019.Then Frank had a stroke in the April and passed away after only a couple of days in hospital.
On 24th June 2023 – four days before her actual birthday – Margaret threw a 90th birthday party for all her friends in Leominster. She had a heart attack on Sunday morning, 2nd July, and was admitted to hospital. She died just six days after her 90th birthday. She is survived by her two daughters, Fiona and Alison, and by four grandchildren, William, Stuart, Becky and Silvia.
Read Margaret’s artice on the society’s first 21 years here
The society has had access to a set of scans from recently-discovered glass plate slides owned by the late Ellis Groves 1872-1914. Here, I describe a small selection of these slides, and also include them with 40 more of the better preserved in a slideshow.
“Would I like to look at a box of old black and white transparencies?” This was the offer made to me by Peter Rathbone a few weeks ago. Peter brought them round and I settled down to go through them. The simple wooden box contained about five dozen old glass transparencies. Not your familiar, modern 35mm slides but 3¼” x 3¼” magic lantern glass plates, many in the form of glass sandwiches.
Ellis Groves’ Box of Magic Lantern Glass Plate Slides
A label in the top of the box indicated that they had been put together by the “late Ellis Groves 1872-1914”. Most were very dark and dusty and not always sharply focused. A few had begun to peel off the glass substrate. Not surprising as they had been kept in one of Grove’s sheds for thirty years and had been saved from going to the tip by Peter.
Going by the rare labels, the collection appeared to date from the first decade of the 20th century. A few slides had been coloured by hand. Several I recognised having seen them already in the archives of the History Society. My first reaction was that it was unlikely there would be any treasure here – perhaps just half a dozen images could be salvaged? I was wrong.
In the end more than 40 interesting and usable images emerged, after scanning, from the collection. A few were very surprising and these are the images seen here, in most cases probably for the first time in 125 years.
Slide 1Slide 2
Slides 1 and 2 – These depict an old three wheeled car with the single passenger seat facing forward at the front.
The second slide probably shows the garage where the car was kept. Was this the first internal combustion vehicle in the Wychwoods? Could the driver have been Fred Pepper who had bought Shipton Court in 1901? It does look like him although he is not known to have owned such a vehicle. His first car was in fact a larger French Gobion Brillé but perhaps this three wheeler was a precursor.
Slide 3
Slide 3 – This shows a mix of two cricket teams in front of the Shipton Court cricket pavilion. The label refers to the Shipton Court team and a team from Monk Bretton. Monk Bretton colliery in Yorkshire was owned by the Pepper family. It is known that twenty of the long service employees were invited down for the day to Shipton to play the team from Fred Pepper’s new village in 1908. This photograph marks the event.
The bearded gentleman on the left is Thomas Alfred Groves who owned and managed Groves and was the Captain of Shipton Court and Milton cricket teams. He was the son of Alfred Groves and his first wife, Ann Shepard. Ellis Groves, who assembled the lantern transparencies was the eighth child of Alfred’s second wife Mary Reynolds.
Slide 4 – This shows a young girl holding a poster advertising a magic lantern lecture in Milton for the Mutual Improvement Society. It was included more than thirty years ago in the Second Wychwoods Album. The photo was apparently taken by Ellis Groves who also operated the magic lantern. Did the Mutual Improvement Society meet its aim? As a Shiptonian I could not possibly hazard a guess.
Slide 4
Slide 5- shows the bottom of Burford Hill in around 1905. In the background, behind the assorted Burford urchins, is Hambidge’s Delicatessen. Ellis Groves married one of the Hambidge daughters and his younger brother, Samuel, married her sister.
Slide 6 – A distant view of Green Lane Milton. Older by at least ten years than the view shown in the first Wychwood’s Album. The building on the right was the Quaker Meeting House which was sold in 1925 and divided into two cottages.
Slide 5: Burford Hill c.1905Slide 6: Green Lane, Milton under Wychwood
Slide 7: c 1903 Milton under WYchwood Sunday School Project
Slide 7 – Milton Sunday School built this large life boat and took it to a Sunday School Festival at Moreton in 1903.
Slide 8: Shipton under Wychwood Station Master’s House
Slide 8 – This shows the erection of the Shipton Station Master’s house. It is not clear whether this was the original building or the subsequent demolishing and re-erection as the last house on the right as one one leaves Shipton for Milton.
Wedding of Raymond Burden and Ivy Slatter June 1943
A lady called Jo Lewis wrote recently to the Wychwoods History Society to say that her mother-in-law, who died last December aged 100, had in her possession a wedding photograph of a friend she had made while living in the Wychwoods during the Second World War.
She wished to know whether any of the relatives of the bride or groom might be still living in the area and might like a copy of the photograph.
The mother-in-law’s maiden name was Joan Nesta Mills. She worked with a Shipton girl called Ivy Slatter in Cowley Oxford where they were both engaged in welding to repair spitfires and other damaged aircraft probably at the Metal and Produce Recovery Centre established there (or possibly at Witney where similar work was undertaken).
From the WLHS archives, it appears that Ivy had worked in the drapers, Hathaway’s, before the War and lived in one of the cottages behind the Red Horse Inn. There is also a Private G J Slatter shown on a photograph of the members of the Shipton Home Guard, who may have been a brother of Ivy’s.
Joan returned to Bristol where her mother was ill and became a fire watcher. Ivy married Raymond Burden in June 1943 and sent her friend a photograph of the wedding. Raymond died in 1972 aged 54.
Rod Blackman, who lives in Milton and who is a member of the WLHS, relates that his mother, whose maiden name was Higbee, also worked at the recovery centre during the war and may have known these two ladies. She is fortunately still with us at 98.
If anybody knows of any relatives of either Raymond or Ivy still living in the Wychwoods perhaps they could get in touch and we would be pleased to send them a copy of the photograph.
The death occurred on 31 October of Joan Howard-Drake following a long struggle after she suffered a severe stroke about a year earlier.
Joan and her husband, Jack, were founder members of the Wychwood Local History Society (WLHS) in 1981.They remained stalwarts of the Society for the remainder of their long lives. Joan and Jack were very computer literate into their 90s and spent many hours beavering away in their book lined study in Shipton largely for the benefit of history research in the Wychwoods and the WLHS in particular.
Both were on the Society’s committee following the first Annual General Meeting 1982. Jack became the Chairman in 1984 until 1992. He died in 2013 at the age of 94. Joan was on the committee for 35 years, until 2016.
Under the auspices of the Family History Society, the Howard-Drakes started the long task of transcribing the Shipton parish registers from 1538-1899. They also worked together on significant projects such as the transcription of the Oxfordshire Tudor Church Court Rolls.
Joan became the guardian of the Society’s archives in 1995. She managed them until she stepped down from the Committee by which time they had grown from one box file to more than five. Joan herself added much material to the archives through her research on local family histories.
Joan was involved with the planning, writing and production of the Society’s well respected annual Journal for thirty years and was joint editor with Trudy Yates from 2012 to 2015. She indexed all the first 27 volumes of the Journal.
She was an active member of the Wills Group – associated with and partly funded by the WLHS – which transcribed 17th century wills in the Wychwoods.
Apart from researching and publishing with other members of the WLHS on team projects, Joan also wrote separately on:
The Poor of Shipton under Wychwood Parish 1740
The Burford to Banbury Turnpike Road
Care in the Community 18th Century Style
Bruern Abbey (with Joy Timms)
The Reade Family
The Crown Inn Charity
The Old Beaconsfield Hall Shipton
The Brookes Family of Shipton
Brasenose Leases
She was always ready to give real and generous help to younger local historians working on various projects and for that alone she will be sorely missed.
This article, first published in the Wychwood Magazine some years ago, features the story of the bell from the small Shipton church, long since demolished . The bell featured in the Society’s 40th Anniversary celebrations.
Some of the older inhabitants of Shipton can recall a small tin church up on Fiddlers Hill. Today nothing remains but a small, dense copse of trees sited somewhat incongruously in the corner of an extensive arable field.
Fiddlers Hill showing tin tabernacle. Probably in the 1950s
What Happened to the Church? The church is believed to have been built in the 1880s to serve Shipton inhabitants who could not easily get down to the Mother church, St Mary’s. It had ceased to be used as a church before 1930. Sometime in the 1930s it was bought by Dr Gordon Scott and used to store clothing during the Second World War under the Bundles for Britain scheme – hence the name given to it by some irreverent residents of ‘moth hall’!
In the period immediately after the War the building was used as a basic youth club for children living close by, run by Alf Clarke who had the small grocery shop opposite (now a garage). He ran a cable from the generator in his house to light the snooker table.
Only the Shed Door Left! By the 1960s the building had fallen into disrepair and Dr Scott could not get permission to develop the site. The tin church was therefore dismantled. Nothing remains, except the vestry door, from the rear of the church, which was re-used as a shed door by Charlie Pilcher who lives opposite the site.
Charlie recycles the old Vestry Door
The Story of the Bell This left Dr Scott with the problem of what to do with the small but solid church bell. The problem was solved when he gave it to Peter Coveney who lived nearby. But eventually Peter moved away to the outskirts of Oxford where he died earlier this year (2012). His Widow, Margery, (cousin to Jim Pearse of Honeydale Farm Shipton), thought it would be fitting if the old bell could be returned to Shipton.
She contacted the Wychwoods Local History Society and they now have it in their safe care and are looking for a suitable home.
Bells and Whistles? A suitable home for the bell could be the Wychwood School where presently a simple whistle is used to summon the pupils to their lessons. The school has indicated its interest.
Even the old Shipton school had a proper bell which would be rung by a well behaved pupil worthy of the privilege.
This bell could certainly be an improvement on a mere whistle! It bears the inscription of the maker J. Warner and Sons and the date 1883. Research has shown that this company also produced the first Big Ben. It was a Warner bell which was used as the pattern for the Paul Revere bell founding business in the US.
Gordon’s Penance If it is eventually installed in the school, we hope the current pupils are better behaved than the young Gordon Duester who once rang the bell without touching it – by using his air gun from a safe distance!
The Tin Tabernacle Sketch by Gordon Duester
As a penance the older Gordon Duester has kindly provided a sketch opposite of the outside of the old church, drawn from memory.
Alan Vickers. (First published in The Wychwood December 2012)
This article, first published in the Wychwood Magazine some years ago, features a well-travelled portrait of Revd. Dr. Thomas Brookes, Rector of Shipton from 1773 to 1814, which currently hangs in the Old Prebendal House. This painting will feature in the Society’s 40th Anniversary celebrations, re-scheduled for May 2022.
It has been a convoluted journey, via South Africa and Germany, but the Revd. Dr. Thomas Brookes, Rector of Shipton from 1773 to 1814 is home again. His powerful portrait, probably painted in 1783 when he was fifty, will once again grace the Old Prebendal House where he lived two hundred years ago.
The WLHS acts as a home for some historical objects of interest to the Wychwood Community. Here in 2013 the Chairman Alan Vickers receives the very generous gift of a portrait of the Rev Dr Thomas Brookes who lived at the Prebendal. The portrait was returned by Peter Cullom following the death of his brother. The return was physically made by Mr Cullom's parents. It is currently on long term loan to the Prebendal Care Home
A Well-Travelled Painting Some years ago Mr John Cullom bought the portrait in an auction to furnish his house in Oxford. He became a pilot for Virgin Airlines flying the route to South Africa and took the portrait to his new house in the Cape. Tragically he died when he was swept off rocks near his house and drowned. His brother, Peter Cullom, took over the house and planned to let it. The picture was no longer required there so he brought it back to his own home in Germany and considered what should be done with it.
He noticed that there was a pencil inscription on the back of the portrait describing the portrait as being of the Rector of Shipton-under-Wychwood. He googled ‘Shipton under Wychwood’; and found the website of the Wychwoods Local History Society (the WLHS). After an exchange of emails, Peter then generously decided to gift the portrait to the WLHS for the benefit of the local community. His parents brought the portrait to Shipton and presented it to the Chairman of the Society (see photograph). During their day with us they visited our prime old buildings and especially St Mary’s where Thomas Brookes had preached, and the Old Prebendal House where he had lived. It was wonderful to hear Mrs Cullom say at the end of the day, “This is where he belongs. I am so glad he is coming home”.
In His Church Once Again The following Sunday, the portrait was displayed in the Church during the morning service, for parishioners to view.
Portrait of Revd. Dr. Thomas Brookes, Rector of Shipton from 1773 to 1814 on display during the church service commmorating the portrait’s return to Shipton
Arrangements have been made for the portrait to hang in the Old Prebendal House, possibly in the same room where it may have hung two hundred years ago. The Care Home has kindly agreed to allow interested members of the Community to view the portrait on application.
In the early 1980s Jill Fox joined the band of Home Helps in and around the Wychwoods. She was issued with a nylon check overall and her first client was an elderly gentleman, Fred Tidmarsh in Lyneham. His previous help, Vera Case, had retired. Here are Jill’s memories of those times, in her own words.
Fred Tidmarsh of Lyneham
Fred had originally come with his family from Ebrington. He told me that his father had a job at the farm of Mr Izod in Lyneham in the early 1940s, and there the family had a tied cottage. Mr and Mrs Tidmarsh had, as far as I remember, three children – Fred, Nellie and another daughter (whose name I cannot remember). They crossed the Gloucestershire/Oxfordshire border so that his dad was not conscripted (so Fred said)!
I believe the family had also lived in Wyre Piddle/Upper Piddle which Fred thought was hilarious! When Fred was old enough he too worked at Izod’s farm. Nellie became Mrs Turner and lived in one of the bungalows at the top of Milton High Street when I knew Fred, and she was a widow. His other sister, I seem to remember was in a home somewhere in Buckinghamshire. Each year on her birthday Fred asked me to address an envelope with a £5 note in it, to send to her. Fred could not read or write. I do not know if he ever attended school.
I went to his cottage on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and I collected his pension and some groceries from the then Milton Post Office each week. His shopping list consisted of: 2 oz. of tobacco, ¼lb of tea, a piece of cheese (either Stilton or Cheddar), ½ lb of butter, sometimes sugar but not often, and a jar of marmalade. About once a month he would ask for a packet of candles and sometimes he would say his ‘lectric’ had run out and could I get him some more – that meant a battery for his torch.
On Sundays, Mr Lewis, who lived nearby, would go and give him a shave and Mrs Lewis would give him a Sunday roast. The milkman and the baker called. Three times each week I would fill two plastic buckets from the tap at the bottom of the garden, near the privy, and put them in the back kitchen on the table. One was for drinking and one for washing he told me. Then I had to fill two buckets of coal from the coal shed.
Once a week I washed the floor which was red and black quarry tiles, although you could not see their colour as the soot from the fire had discoloured them over the years. However, Fred was very bent and looked at the floor when he walked about so he saw a lot of the floor. I never made his bed. He always did that and he was always sitting in his chair when I arrived. Each side of the fireplace was a big cupboard and in the one, by his chair, he kept his cider. Normally, Mr Hussey (from Hussey’s in Burford) would deliver his one or two gallon jars of cider each week. However, if there was a hiccup in the delivery Fred was not happy and when I asked him how things were he would say “No good – Brewer ain’t been”. I would then be asked to go on my bike, back to The Quart Pot in Milton to fill up a couple of cider bottles from the Off Licence at the side of the pub. Normal service was then resumed!
Also each week I would take his washing home. He kept himself as clean as he could and was never smelly! On his kitchen table was what he called a blue check oil cloth. On the wall was a picture of Queen Victoria, although she was almost impossible to see because the walls were covered in black from the smoke in the fire. He had a regular delivery of coal.
Fred lived downstairs. He had a range with a kettle, always on the boil and he never let the fire out. I have to say that the range was a bit splattered with ‘baccy’! He slept in the same room with navy blue army blankets (a bit moth eaten). I would wash these periodically when the weather was warm enough because they had to go back the same day! The kitchen was attached to the living room and that is where he kept his few provisions. His mother’s old hat still hung on the wall.
When I arrived in the morning, usually about 9.30 I would knock on the door and wait to be allowed entry. The door was never locked when I got there. I could often hear a clink or two as I think he was secreting his cider bottle but I never ever saw it! We would pass the time of day and discuss the weather before I did the chores.
At that time my youngest child was about four and occasionally I would put her on the back of my bike to take her to visit Fred. While I worked, she played dominoes with him and she often won! It was a lovely relationship and for the 45 minutes or so I was there they both enjoyed each other’s company. There were 80 years between them!
One day I asked Fred when he last saw his sister Nellie. At least two years ago was the answer, so I suggested that if I drove to Lyneham one day each week instead of going by bicycle, I could perhaps take Nellie with me. I could leave her with Fred while I ‘did’ for Miss Treadwell who was round the corner in one of Henman’s cottages, and then collect Nellie before returning home about 11.30. He thought this a good idea so we started the new regime. Each week I took Nellie to visit her brother and they had a good ‘chin wag’. It worked well.
Fred was apparently known as “The Cider King”, although this was before my time and when Fred was much younger. Legend has it that he would walk with his dad every night to the Red Horse at Shipton for their pints of cider. One night they were walking home and Fred asked his dad how much he had drunk. “eleven pints” he replied – “Well, I have only had ten” said Fred and turned round to go back for the other one!
I asked Fred one day if he had ever been married. His reply: “I couldn’t afford any of that tack – done a few jobs in my time though”!
One day I arrived at Fred’s and he was in bed. This had never been known before. I asked him what the problem was and he said he could not get out of bed. I told him I would get the doctor. Fred said that, although he wanted to stay in Lyneham, if they offered him a place at “that Langston House place” he would go, although he didn’t know how he would get on with Miss Treadwell (who had gone to reside there after a fall). He told me he thought “That Doctor Beazer is a real gent”. I said not to worry and got on my bicycle speedily down to the surgery. “That Doctor Beazer” was there and I asked him to come quickly to Fred.
I went back on my bike to Lyneham and waited for the Doctor to arrive. He told Fred he must go to Chipping Norton hospital. This put Fred into a panic because, as far as he was concerned, it was the “Work House” and his biggest fear was that they would give him a bath! I explained that it would be very different and that I would follow the ambulance and see him in safely.
Whilst waiting for the ambulance to arrive Fred had me climb up to the big cupboard, at the side of the range, and in there was a biscuit tin with money and a copy of his Will. He said I was to keep it safe as the Will was for his sister and the money was to pay for his funeral. This I did and off we went in convoy to Chippy hospital.
I saw him safely into a lovely clean bed (they did not give him a bath). He was concerned because he did not have a clock so I gave him my old, schoolboy type, Timex watch which I wore for my chores. He looked very comfortable and as I left he said “Thank you, it won’t be long before I sees the Lord”. I then took the tin and his Will to Nellie in Milton and told her what had happened.
I went home sad, but pleased Fred was in a safe place. The next morning, around 8.0am there was a knock on the door. It was Dr Scott who came to tell me that he had been to certify Fred’s death. I was very touched by his sensitivity, knowing I would be worrying about Fred. Fred is buried in Milton cemetery, strangely near Miss Treadwell. His cottage is now called “Tidmarsh Cottage”.
After his funeral, I was able to buy his chair from his sister and it is in regular use in my kitchen – a permanent reminder of Fred who was a lovely person and whom I feel privileged to have known. My experiences looking after folk who needed a bit of help to remain in their own homes in the Wychwoods enriched my life and gave me many lasting, happy memories.
The Wychwoods Local History Society website often receives enquiries from the wider world. Recently John Longshaw contacted the WLHS from Sussex. He said that his late father, Leslie Longshaw who died in 1990 aged 79, had left a hallmarked silver fob watch. An engraved inscription indicated that this had been awarded to Emma Pittaway for exemplary school attendance at Shipton School. He was puzzled as he could not see any connection with his family name. From here, the story continues…
The watch that started it all……
We were able to establish a connection relatively easily from the parish records. In 1900 a James Pittaway married Lucy Anne Smith (the widow of John Longshaw). Witnesses were Thomas Longshaw and Geraldine Longshaw. They had two daughters – Emma baptized in 1900 and Bertha baptized in 1907. There was no further reference to Emma but it appeared that Bertha had died in 1981 and had lived in Bowerham in Gas Lane Shipton.
John was pleased to learn this and sent us more details of his father’s connection with Shipton. How his father came to Shipton is a rather sad story, although he always claimed his childhood years in Shipton were among the happiest of his life.
Leslie Longshaw as a young man
After the birth of her third child, his mother was sectioned to a mental institution for a condition which today would be recognised as severe post-natal depression. The children were told she had died and Leslie was sent to live with his grandparents who lived in Leafield Road in Shipton. His brother and sister were sent to a children’s home. It was only much later in life that he received a phone call from a nursing home to say his mother was alive and he subsequently used to visit her until her death. As they say “the past is another country”.
His grandfather, Thomas, was born in Shipton in 1859 and died there in 1921. He appears to have been a gardener at St Michael’s Orphanage. Leslie attended Shipton village school and made many friends there. The headmaster was John Strong, who reportedly used to measure up fields, to augment his income, for farmers at harvest time for those who had to hire contractors using traction engines and threshing machines.
Thomas Longshaw of Shipton born 1859
He remembered the Squire, who used to organise a Christmas dinner at Shipton Court, for the village children. Leslie was in the choir at Shipton church and a church member who was a master at Burford Grammar School taught him to read Latin. He recalled a charabanc outing to Western Super Mare organised by the Sunday School.
Leslie was also an active member of the local scout troop and went on camps using a trek cart. He recalled many events and traditions in the village some sadly now gone for ever – Guy Fawkes night, the Hospital Carnival, the Local hunt meet. He said some people celebrated the Epiphany when bonfires were built, shot guns fired in the air and his grandmother baked a special Epiphany cake. The village baker, Marky Buntin baked on a Sunday and his grandmother sometimes took her Sunday lunch to be cooked along with others in his still hot bread oven for a nominal sum. His grandmother’s cottage had no range and meals were cooked in pots over the fire.
Thomas Longshaw and his son Alfred Longshaw
One story that he related was that his grandfather used to like to get the train to Stow on the Wold or perhaps Chipping Norton (both possible by rail in those days) on Boxing Day. He would have a few pints there and then walk back. On one occasion he was joined by John Longshaw, a relative who was a shepherd. The young Leslie went with them. He must have been less than ten years old.
On the way back a terrible blizzard started and they could hardly see the road in front of them. His grandfather wanted to take shelter but the old shepherd said that, if they did, they would not survive the night so they carried on walking. Sometimes they had to walk backwards so strong was the wind driving the snow into their faces. On the outskirts of the village they were met by the village policeman and men with lanterns. Grandmother had gone to the police house and the village police man had organised a search party. Needless to say, his grandfather received a serious ticking off.
Leslie also remembered an extremely rare sighting of the northern lights at Shipton due to freak weather conditions. A lot of the old folk thought the end of the world had come and had to be reassured by the vicar and doctor.
When he left school at fourteen he was not keen on agricultural work and his grandfather helped him gain a position working on the wooden cases for cash registers in the first till yard established just after the First World War. When he started there his job was to check and start the stationary petrol engines that powered some of the machinery. Later his father, Albert, obtained a position for him with Marshall and Snelgrove where he worked in London. Eventually he joined John Lewis and completed 40 years with the company ending up as a textile buyer.
Helen Hodge who married Thomas Longshaw
He met and married Winifred Schofield, in 1939. She was evacuated during the War to Shipton with her first child Christine. Winifred worked in the booking office at Shipton station at this time and her mother worked as a post woman in Shipton for a while.
Emmie and Bertha Pittaway’s father
Although he lived in Surrey, Leslie kept strong links with family relatives in Shipton and regularly attended annual village ”lads” reunions in the village, staying with friends Graham and Dulcie Arundel at their bungalow Clutterdene. The reunions started in 1972 and friends came from all parts of the country. The Wychwood Magazine reported on the reunion of 1983 in its volume December 1983-January 1984. The following are notes from that report mentioning some of the participants who met in the Shipton cricket pavilion for an afternoon of nostalgia.
“Older residents of Shipton will remember Drummer Longshaw who lived in Magpie Alley; Bert Powell, who lived in Chapel Lane and who joined the Metropolitan Police in the 20’s; Jack Baylis, a nephew of Alf Baylis, who brought the Cash Till industry to Shipton, and who must have employed at least a hundred people at one time; Leslie Longshaw who spent his school days at Shipton under the great John Strong.
On leaving school, Leslie went to London and now lives in Surrey. Bill and Reg Franklin will be remembered by most people as their father was the village postman. Reg joined the Royal Air Force straight from Burford Grammar School and now lives in Twickenham. His brother Bill joined the army soon after the outbreak of war, was soon commissioned and spent most of his time in India.
It was good to see Les, Cecil and Dennis Viner there. Les and George Case are two of our one hundred percenters, having attended all twelve ‘get-togethers•. Les still lives in Shipton and George at Leafield. As always, it was great to see Reg, Bob and Dorothy Brookes. Reg was on top form, and it was like old times to see him well again.
Alf Carpenter was another of our old football team, who was there. There are not many members of that team left now, but it was that team that brought soccer success to Shipton. Charles and Bill Slatter made up the eighteen who attended our gathering”.
Leslie used to say that change was inevitable and the village was never the same as it had been in his youth. He particularly liked to go on holiday in South West France as the old stone working villages and small farms with their tiny fields and many hedge rows reminded him very much of the Cotswolds in the pre-war years.
The annual reunion of Shipton old boys
This image is of the annual reunion of Shipton old boys who had been at school under John Strong in the 1920s. The picture was taken in 1983 in the Shipton cricket pavilion. The first reunion had been in 1972.
Left standing: Bob and Dorothy Brooks; Left seated: Les Reed; Third from left seated: John Longshaw (Drummer?); Sixth from left standing: Leslie Longshaw and in front of him Bill Slatter; Others on the photo include: Charlie Slatter, Alf Carpenter, Reg Brooks, Les, Cecil and Dennis Viner, Bill and Reg Franklin, Jack Baylis, Bert Powell, Les Case and George Case.
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