A Glance Backwards

A Memory of Stadhampton.

I came to live in Stadhampton in 1954 from Henley on Thames. My father was the village Policeman. I found that even for 1954 life in Stadhampton was comparatively primitive compared with what I was used to! But it was a very good life for all that. Life was gentler, slower and bore far more comparison with Victorian England than I had been used to. The village was full of 'characters'. George the Postman still suffered from Second World War shell shock. He could not/did not speak, just 'zuzzed' his way through life. He made a perfectly competent local postman, cycling around the village with his collie dog parked in the carrier on the front of his bike. Would he be employed as postman (postie) now? Not a chance.
The social life of the village was centred around the Village Hall, the venue for the Youth Club, Cinema, Dances - this old thatched barn of a structure was one of the places where I learnt about life ( with some success), human relations (quite a bit), table tennis (with a fair bit of success), and girls (with hardly any success at all!).
Memories of Stadhampton are flooding back now, over the past few years I have made a few notes, and collected some memorabilia/photos. If anyone who lived in Stadhampton in the 1950s would like to share them with me, please do so.