My Memories Of Chipping Norton In The Early 1950s

A Memory of Chipping Norton.

My recollections of life in England really start from the time when the family lived briefly near Ascott under Wychwood, close to Chipping Norton, where my family had rented accommodation. For a while we were lodgers with Jack and Daisy Callahan at 27, Over Norton Road, Chipping Norton. The Callahans had a pet dog, known as Bill Callahan, which became very attached to me. The dog would accompany my mum when she went to collect me from school, sitting on a pillar by the school gate. Their son Peter had been killed in Belgium on the 20th. of September 1944, his twentieth birthday. I used to play with the wooden model ships which their son had made when young.
Life was gentle and slow-moving. Horses and carts were frequently to be seen in the streets, for example driven by the rag and bone man and the coal man. Dustbins were collected by bin men and emptied into a double-sided bin van. Medical services were readily available. My mother had to have her appendix out at the Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford and then recuperated at the cottage hospital in Chipping Norton.
Being long before the days of convenience food, my mum would prepare food from scratch, spending a lot of time baking. Rationing of some supplies still existed but adequate meat was normally obtained from the local butchers, Freddie Sole on Market Street.
I was taken to see a Punch and Judy show which was part of a Coronation Party in 1953. The Punch and Judy Man was Mr Frederick Lewis (1879-1960), an undertaker and builder who was responsible for introducing baseball into the town. During the performance I became annoyed at Mr Punch’s behaviour, I stole the sausages from Punch which were then passed around the youngsters. This caused hilarity amongst the audience of parents and children and loud demands from the entertainer for the return of the sausages without which the show could not continue. Unfortunately the sausages could not withstand rough handling and were damaged beyond repair. A severe telling-off followed. Apparently on Mr Lewis’ death his Punch was placed in his coffin, as is the normal practice for all Professors or Punchmen.

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