- Foreword
- Some of the Brookes Family of Shipton
- What price a Funeral ?
- How to Keep your House Clean
- Buern Abbey, 1935-1947
- An Idyllic Life – living by an old Oxfordshire Mill before and during the Second World War
- Graham Cairns
Introduction to The Wychwoods Local History Society Journal No 29
It is as if the prolific Brookes families, who lived in the parish of Shipton in days gone by, conspired to confuse local historians intent on sorting them out. Joan Howard-Drake tackles the families that used so many identical names for their children – far too many Thomases and Elizabeths. With the help of wills, census and other materials, she makes it all as clear as it is ever likely to be.
To inspire the house-proud, we recall the booklet issued to new tenants in Pear Tree Close, Milton by the Chipping Norton Rural District Council in 1934. Do we need to be reminded not to swing on the garden gate, not to store ‘things’ in the bath and not to keep pigs ? Perhaps not but it certainly would not go amiss to have a handy ‘Surveyor’ at our beck and call to deal with intractable household problems.
Wendy Pearse shares one of her many forays into Ascott history and, personally, solves a local mystery by lifting the carpet in the church vestry.
Then we have two memories of life in the 1930’s and during the Second World War.
Jeff Broxholme describes living at Combe Mill before and during World War II. Jeff was born in 1931, the son of the Manager of the sawmill for the Duke of Marlborough’s estate. His recollections include precise descriptions of the mill workings as well as childhood adventures and wartime activities.
Dick Mason, in his own words, takes us on a tour of Bruern Abbey grounds during the period 1935 to 1947, when his father, Bill, served as Head Gardener and Farm Bailiff to Mr Crompton Wood. He describes life growing up in a small community, going to school and church with no local public transport. Highlights during this time were the presence of American servicemen and, later Italian prisoners of war. Both he and Jeff recall seeing the glow from a bombed Coventry
And finally, the passing of one of our Journal’s greatest admirers, of whom you may never have heard.
Trudy Yates and Joan Howard-Drake
[Download Full Journal No 29 PDF here]
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