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Tackley
Tackley maps
Historic maps of Tackley and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Tackley maps
Tackley area books
Displaying 1 of 7 books about Tackley and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Tackley
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Oxfordshire memories
Where I Was Born
I was born at 24 Freehold Street in September 1939. My mother told me that a man who lived at the top of the street came down on his bike blowing a whistle to warn people of an air raid the same day. I can still remember most of the peoples' names who lived in the street.
There was a house at the top of the street that was a shop. I went to school with the girls from the family. We could play out in the street in those days and were safe too.
I remember the milkman coming round with his pony and milk float every day. My mother used to fetch water from a tap down below our house. There was a well outside the back door, but my father sealed the cover I would imagine for obvious reasons.
Dads First Cattle
My dad had a yard here before the houses were built back in the 40s. He bought his first cows and used to milk them in a barn there.
I can remember as a small child being in the barn with mum and dad when an aeroplane crashed just behind the village hall on the corner of the cross roads close by. The pilot had parachuted out and survived. The plane was trying to get back into Upper Heyford at the time. It must have been near the end of the war or just after. No one was hurt anyway.
The Bakery
When I lived in the village there was a bakery at the building on the corner of this road where it went down to the canal. The flour was ground at the Mill over the drawbridge for making the most delicious bread you could buy in those days. My grandfather worked at the Mill grinding the flour.
The last time I visited the village there was an antique shop in its place.
MY SECOND HOME
In 1943 I worked on the Great Western Railway and sent by them to Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire as a locomotive fireman. It was here that I met a young lady whose home was Lower Heyford, Oxfordshire. She also worked in Leamington on the GWR as a Passenger Guard. This lady was later to become my wife. After a short period of going out together she invited me to her home.
Her home 112 Freehold Street, Lower Heyford is shown in the picture, seen on the right with a Porch at the front door and a bush adjacent. The Family were Mr. & Mrs. George Cuss. They had three children, 1. Alice, (Now Mrs. A. Stockley living at Swanage, Dorset. 89 years of age) 2. Mary, Later Mrs. A. Davies (deceased) who also lived in the village. 3. Ronald George who was in the Army at the time 4. Edith Eleanor Ruth, (Always called Ruth) and the girl I met in Leamington.
Warmly welcomed Ruth and I visited... Read more
Red Lion Pub
As a U.S A.F. Airman stationed at RAF Upper Heyford , I lived in the flat on the second floor above the Red Lion. Landlord was Mr. Bert Mellor. Good memories !!
Childhood Memories
I remember the winter of 1947 when the snow stopped us going to school at Lower Heyford. I can't remember for how long although it seemed weeks. My father farmed at Daisyhead Farm and he and Ernie Knapton and Billie Butler took milk on a tractor and trailer over fields to the station at Lower Heyford. This was because the roads were blocked with snow and the milk lorry couldn't get through. We children went for a ride with them. We were able to go back home by the road as someone, I think Ernie's brother, had made a way through with a scoop on the front of his tractor that was used to clear slurry in the farmyards. The summers were very happy.We didn't have electicity and no televisions which had just come back after the war. What you didn't have you didn't miss. The outdoors were an adventure playground with no one worrying about Health and Safety. I wish we had have had photos of the village then. We had a... Read more
Girl Guide Camp
Hi! I have fond memories of Steeple Aston. I attended a guide camp somewhere outside the village, it was the first time I had seen real countryside, we spent two weeks there. I came from London's East End there were guides from other areas of London and also guides from what I think was a boarding school, but I can't remember where from. We all got on well with each other. I seem to remember the land we camped on belonged to a farm, the name Browning comes to mind but I can't be sure. I have never forgotten that time, wonderful to be out of London at that time we had seen so much bombing and it gave me a love of the countryside. I left London when my husband and I retired. We are now living in Sussex which is lovely. It would be great if there is anyone who remembers that camp.
