The Second Wychwoods Album | The Wychwoods Local History Society

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Here we present a series of snapshots of Wychwoods village life taken from the Society’s publication “The Second Wychwoods Album” edited by Sue Jourdan and John Rawlins. “The Second Wychwoods Album” is one of two publications from the mid to late 1980s which featured a variety of images of the Wychwoods. These publications are now out of print, and so we record on these pages the images which were selected for them. Along with the images, we also include the verbatim text which accompanied them at the time of publication.

The photographs presented here reflect the limitations of the technologies of the times. Please see the introductory remarks below.

Here are the introductory remarks to the second volume:

The Second Wychwoods Album is another selection of old photographs of people and places in West Oxfordshire, this time including Ascott under Wychwood, Leafield, Langley, Lyneham, Bruern, Fifield and Idbury as well as Shipton and Milton under Wychwood.

As it is now 76 years since the start of the First World War and 50 years since the start of the Second, we have used this opportunity to focus on the impact that these two great events of the twentieth century had in these villages. From the two plaques in Shipton church, one listing the 162 men who served and the other remembering the 27 who died, together with the 1911 census, it is possible to calculate that over half the men of Shipton left the village and one in six did not return.

The situation was similar in the other villages, with 42 men from Milton, Lyneham and Bruern killed, 13 from Ascott, 13 from Fifield and Idbury and 20 from Leafield. In the Second World War, the casualty lists were not so horrendous, but the people of the villages were much more involved in wartime activities.

Many men and women were ‘called up’ for long periods and those remaining, who were in reserved occupations, too old, too young or disabled, had duties such as the Home Guard, Civil Defence and Women’s Voluntary Service. In addition, they undertook the billeting of the military, Women’s Land Army, evacuated children and their families. They also had to answer the call to produce more food, the collection of salvage, and the raising of huge sums of money for charity and National Savings. Interestingly, the photographs from the First World War are mainly taken by professionals while, with the greater availability of cameras though with restrictions on use, those of the Second are by amateurs.

The names of people in the photographs have been included where space has permitted. We apologise for any inaccuracies and shall be pleased to hear from anyone who can set the record straight or provide further detail.

We should like to thank all those people who have lent us their photographs and shared with us their memories.

We should also like to thank Sue Richards for her professional help and advice, and for arranging the layout of the album.

Sue Jourdan and John Rawlins

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