Wonderful Memories

A Memory of Middleton Stoney.

We moved Middleton Stoney in 1954 from Weston on the Green (the lay-by transport cafe and garage). We lived in Ardley Road, in the brick house next to PA Turneys and opposite the Jersey Arms. The Varneys lived next door. He was the old village blacksmith. We moved to the stable yard (now Clock Court) in the park in 1956/7 after Dad lost his job at Turneys after a spell in hospital and Mum got a job at the "big house". It was then a training place for National Provincial Bank managers and I remember that the manager, Mr Gill, let all the estate workers have the use of the pool when the training stopped for the summer. All the estate kids learned to swim there. We lived in Grooms Cottage which is opposite the church and I remember a spinney outside the house which is no longer there. The Scotherns lived next door. I look back at it as a wonderful place to grow up in with none of the restrictions of today. We went to the village school and for some reason I am in possession of the old school bell. We moved from the stable yard in 1973 when I bought one of the cottages in School Lane and my parents lived there while I was in the Navy. My father was on the parochial council and my mother ran the Christmas club until they moved to Bicester in the early 80s. They are both buried in the churchyard and although my work has meant that I have travelled a lot and worked in many different countries all around the world, I consider Middleton Stoney churchyard to be the most peaceful place I have been to.

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