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Witney memories

Here are memories of Witney and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Witney or a Witney photo.

Cadel Shop - Market Square

The Market Square c1955
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The shop in the middle of the picture with the two awnings (now the Nationwide building society) used to belong to my great grandmother Eva Cadel and was a wool and toy shop.  My Grandmother and Great Aunt ran it until 1971.  My grandmother Joan ran the toy side and my Great Aunt Mary ran the wool.  Many people still today tell me that their first pram/doll/train set came from the Cadel shop. Pictures such as these are very special and are a treasure.

Filled Our Trolley

The Old Waitrose c1985
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We were married in April 1978 and our first big shop was done at Waitrose.  We filled a full size trolley to the brim for the princely sum of £20.00.
This area is now the entrance to the Woolgate Centre
Happy days....

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The Market Square c1955
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The two awnings belonged to the Cadels shop. To the right of the awnings was an archway which was the entrance to their yard and home. The shop was in the family for 70 years, the fruit shop was further down.

Memories of Oxfordshire

Flying From Brize Norton

Although I have been to RAF Brize Norton a few times I have never actually seen the place with the name Brize Norton as each time I have on army duty and taking off on an RAF plane!
In the 1970s I flew with members of my regiment several times to Germany and Malta and RAF Brize Norton supplied the transport each time.

My Home 1962

I was born in Bampton in 1957, my family moved away to Dunstable to give us a start in life. I have always and always will reguard Bampton as my home. I visit when I can which is about once a year. I walk around the village which brings back lots of memories. The times I remember are of going to the fields in May to get wild flowers to make a garland to take around on the spring bank holidays, also watching the Morris Dancers and the shirt race. I will never forget my childhood at Bampton. I will always class it as my home.

A Child's Memories of Eynsham

A Quaint Corner c1950
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I lived in Eynsham for just 6 months when I was 9 years old.  My mother was doing her health visitor training in Oxford and so from Monday to Friday we lived in a rented cottage in the village and I attended the local school.  At the weekends, we returned to the family home in Stafford.  I have such happy and vivid memories of that episode in my life; it seemed to me that we had stepped back in time to some bygone era.  I shared a bed with my mother - the mattress was made of horsehair and it was lumpy and tickly.  We had a paraffin stove that made me feel sick at times, I did not like the smell.

I would fetch the bread from the bakery and see it being taken from the ovens on spatulas on long poles.  I would walk to school through the alleyways between the thatched cottages.  

The school was wonderful - having come from a large town school,... Read more

The Queens Head

As the ex-landlord of the Queens Head in Eynsham have many fond memories of the village and my customers, and cricket club of which I was president-1975-78.
Known as the village with the most pubs, of which i have visited all, including a race in which the contestants had to drink a pint at each pub, i finished some what worse for wear, but happy. Carnival day was a great day for publican with an extension, , it was not unusual to run out of glasses, although everybody behaved and enjoyed themselves. Great village, great people.

Jim Rand  

The Bell Inn, Long Hanborough

I have a long line of ancestors from the Jarrett and Maisey families who were born in Long Hanborough.

James Maisey, born in 1852, was originally a game keeper who became landlord of the Bell Inn in the late 1880s. He and his wife Mary Ann (my great-great aunt) had at least ten children. Among them was Frederick Thomas Maisey, who joined the Police Force and worked in Romford, where he met his wife.

After he retired, Frederick took over as landlord at the Bell Inn, which I believe they ran for several years, into the 1940s. They used to keep pigs in the back yard.

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