Great Haseley memories
Here are memories of Great Haseley and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Great Haseley or a Great Haseley photo.
Great Haseley
I was five when I moved to Great Haseley from Newington, near Stadhampton, with my mother, father and brother. The year was 1957 and Horse Close Cottages was a new housing estate - we were thrilled to have a bathroom and an inside toilet, a Rayburn for cooking and to keep us warm. My maternal grandfather Caleb Tyler and his parents before him lived in a two up, two down cottage next door to the Bishops opposite a pond, water was from a pump at the bottom of the Lane. My mother Kathleen Tyler, her brother Geoffrey and my father Lionel Ring from Stadhampton both attended the village school up to the age of fourteen. I attended the village school from 1957 to 1963 where Mr Hunt was headmaster, with other teachers whose names I cannot remember, we were taught a fairly wide range of subjects. Over the years I remember using the village hall for PE lessons, Christmas parties, jumble sales, cheese and wine and bingo evenings, having... Read more
Memories of Oxfordshire
John Bull
I worked for John Bull at his butcher's shop in Wheatley, we lived at Home Farm until his bungalow was built in the summer of 1963. Does anyone recall the period?
Famliy
In the last two months (year 2006) I found out that I had a Great Uncle that lived in Cuddesdon in the 1881 census. This was a surprise to me as I lived in Cuddesdon in Parkside Cuddesdon for 5 years under my ex married name(1995 to 2001) and never new I had famliy there beforehand. This was David King who married a Ann Gunn, who was born in Cuddesdon, her father John Gunn was also born in Cuddesdon. (I am not related to the Gunns, only by marriage.)
Playing in The Daisy Field
I grew up in Cuddesdon and spent many happy hours playing in the surrounding fields. My family moved up to Parkside (No. 15) from The Park houses in '56 when I was 2. I don't remember living there although a trip with mates down Redman's Lane, turn right and pass the crab-apple tree, then on towards the river was a regular summer jaunt. The water from the spring was so refreshing - much more pleasant than the Corona bottle of tap water someone had brought along.
We would play in Cuddesdon Brook (straight down the hill on Redman's Lane) although that was seen as 'foreign' due to it being on land owned by a Wheatley farmer (Mr Greaves) rather than the familiar Palmers. The sloping meadow at the top of Parkside by (now) Sunset Lodge was the Daisy Field, named for reasons obvious in the summer. In the winter of 1963 when the snow and ice was ferocious I well remember sledging on Mum's baking tray to the bottom of... Read more
Oh to be A Bishop's Daughter
In 1971 my father The Right Reverend Kenneth John Woollcombe became the youngest Bishop Of Oxford at the age of 47 and we came to live at Bishop's House, Cuddesdon, opposite the Theological College, next to Bishop's Wood.
On March 3rd of this year ( 2008) he died after a long illness at the age of 84.
The Times wrote in his obituary "Scholarly clergyman who rose to be a capable, effective and popular Bishop Of Oxford". I quote "He also had an enormous gift for friendship. He gave support and often spiritual direction to many throughout his life."
Whilst we lived at Cuddesdon, life was not so easy for us, the young family. Me and my two sisters were teenagers and had been used to living in the centre of Edinburgh. My elder sister, Meg, went to boarding school in The Lake District but Fran and I attended what was then Holton Park Grammar school in Wheatley (it is now known as Wheatley Park School). It was quite... Read more
A Glance Backwards
I came to live in Stadhampton in 1954 from Henley on Thames. My father was the village Policeman. I found that even for 1954 life in Stadhampton was comparatively primitive compared with what I was used to! But it was a very good life for all that. Life was gentler, slower and bore far more comparison with Victorian England than I had been used to. The village was full of 'characters'. George the Postman still suffered from Second World War shell shock. He could not/did not speak, just 'zuzzed' his way through life. He made a perfectly competent local postman, cycling around the village with his collie dog parked in the carrier on the front of his bike. Would he be employed as postman (postie) now? Not a chance. The social life of the village was centred around the Village Hall, the venue for the Youth Club, Cinema, Dances - this old thatched barn of a structure was one of the... Read more
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- ... and lots more - Browse this week's memories now.
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