Longworth Memories From 1950

A Memory of Longworth.

My grandparents were William (Bill) and Molly Free - my mother was their daughter, Barbara. For five of my earliest years, I lived in the building shown, although it did not look quite like that! The shop and house were (mainly) re-built by the Mansell brothers of Longworth, in the early 1960s.
My grandfather was generally well liked in the village, and was a very kind man. Grandmother was the same, and she rode around the village on her bicycle every morning (excluding Sundays), delivering the mail. Later, my stepfather, Philip Osborne, joined the business, and took over all deliveries. Groceries were delivered to customers in many surrounding villages and our van was seen frequently running from village to village. The van was, from about 1954, painted and grained so that it appeared to be wooden and when I was living in Buckland, we would form a crocodile to walk to the canteen for lunch, on the day that Mrs. Preece was having her delivery, most of the children would knock the side to see that it was metal!
Longworth had three shops, ours was the biggest and lasted a lot longer than the others which were Rant and Toombs (I think the spelling is correct) and Broughtons dairy.
The village was always busy, with people walking or riding a bike; frequent double decker buses (no. 67) running between Oxford and Faringdon and tractors: oh, and our van! We knew most of the bus crew as we were agents for the bus company and most of the villagers had their prescriptions delivered by bus.
Longworth had three pubs, the Blue Boar is now the only one left, I believe. The New Inn closed fairly recently and was converted to a house, but the Royal Oak closed many years ago. The Royal Oak was virtually the last building in the village if you were heading for Newbridge, and was run by Den Sandalls who was also the local coal merchant.
Longworth also boasted a bakery, and although I can picture the baker, I cannot recall his name - but you could tap his window with a coin and he would happily sell you a loaf of excellent bread!
Miles and Gorden Drew were rose growers in Longworth, and created many fine roses.
In 1956, we moved from Longworth to Lew (near Witney), but in 1959 we moved to Buckland Marsh and Dad joined my grand-parents, working in the shop.
One last point, until the early 1970s, Longworth was proudly situated in BERKSHIRE!