Charlbury memories

Charlbury Railway Station

View From Grammar School Hill c1950
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I well remember been driven to the station to meet a train that was carrying at least two hundred head of cattle destined for Ditchley Mansion. As a young man in those days, with five other men we drove the animals to the park, it took most off the day I remember. It was for Sir D Wills a short while after he took control of the park, we also spent a few days there doing the fencing. I started my working days for Mr D Wills at Litchfield Manor Estate in Hampshire under the estate manager Mr G Gale, the estate was then run by The Hon Patrick Wills and I left in 1956 to join the RAF.

Chadlington

My great gran lived in Chadlington, Oxon, next door to the Sany's Arms. Her name was Francis Clare Hatton. My grandad was Frak Hatton although I never met him. We used to visit my great gran and I loved it there. I remember Morris Hatton, Mary Hatton, Dale, Barbara, Ron and Barbara, Malcolm and Diane, Auntie Olive and Uncle Wallace.. and someone called Roly who used to play cricket in the village. I'd love to say hello if any of them see this. My mum was Judith Slaughter (nee Hatton).

Evacuee

My memories of Kiddington are happy memories. I was evacuated there from 1940 until 1942 during the Second World War. I was billeted with Mr & Mrs Reynolds at upper Kiddington They were very kind and looked after me well. I was eight years old when I first went there and attended the village school, during the holidays we had a great time in the fields rabbiting and doing the thing kids do. On one of these occasions I put my foot in one of the machines and finished up in Radcliffe Hospital for a week or so and was on crutches for a few weeks. Over the years I have visited the village a few times but had no contact with anyone there. I am now 80 years old and it has always been a lasting regret that I never visited or contacted the Reynolds after I returned home, and it was another 4 years until the war was over, by which time I was working and a thoughtless... Read more

In reply to comments on Maisey and Jarrett families in Handborough. My husband is a Maisey descendant from Warwickshire and Handborough. James at the 'Bell' was his great-grandfather's brother, having worked on the Blenheim estate as gamekeepers for many years, his great-grandfather living at the Head Keepers Lodge and Fishery Cottage on the estate. We have a 'tree' back to James and Jane Maisey 1737. Please get in touch. June.