Harwell, Oxfordshire

Grandad

I spent several summer school holidays in Didcot with my mate and grandad,
he lived in Newlands Avenue with my Uncle Bert. Grandad ran the bar in the army camp. He used to send me round to wake up the men first thing. The man in charge was a Sergeant Biggs. Mum worked in the post office where she met Dad, who was stationed at Harwell.
Grandad would come to Hertford by train and return to Didcot so I could spend
my 6 weeks with him. My uncle owned several cars, there was an XK 140 or E Type outside the house from time to time. Grandad's name was Mr A A Attwooll. Does any body remember him?
Regards,
T R A Johnson

01992  551708
tom@johnsonbutchers.co.uk
Thanks  for letting me put this down.

The Prior family of Steventon

My grandmother lived in Steventon with her own grandmother around 1880. She was Florence Prior and her own gran was Eliza Prior who by then was a widow and a laundress living in Timsbury Cottage. I have tried to find the cottage but the only place I have seen with a similar name is Timsbury Villa. I sometimes wonder if it is the same place. My own visit to Steventon was around 1986. I remember visiting St Michael's Church and having a picnic in the next field among all the cowslips and other wild flowers. It was beautiful. I walked around the churchyard and found many tombstones for the Prior family including one who was in the Grenadier Guards and was killed in the First World War. Intriguingly, I found a stone with an inscription remembering Stephen Prior who died 30 May 1864 aged 46. I am tempted to guess that this is my own great-great-grandfather who married Eliza the laundress. Who knows?

The best time of my life

I was 8 when I moved to Steventon.  We used to live in Didcot while I was a baby.  I enjoyed Didcot and liked the town side of it.  Also we moved here because my mum and dad wanted to live in the countryside while I was growing up to my teens. My mum is called Sharon Tappin and my dad is called Clive Tappin.  So far we have been here for a year and I really like it here and also I am settled in to the school.
My name is Rebecca Tappin.

Homesick

I went to Steventon as a 'Mother's Help' to an Italian family.  I came from near Manchester. I had to clean, look after a baby and a toddler and help with cooking.
But I had never been away from home before and decided it wasn't for me.  It was a lovely house on the Causeway which was a listed building. The family didn't own it.  I remember the lady making me wash and iron all my bedding while my mum sat with me in the kitchen to take me home!