Western House Warborough

A Memory of Warborough.

I lived in Western House, Warbororough between 1950 and 1955 and went to Dorchester Secondary Modern School. All the Warborough youths used to assemble outside the shop opposite the church and cycle in a convoy to school each day. The variety of roughly assembled bicycles was extraordinary. I particulrly remember one ridden by 'Chucker'Hussey that had vastly differing sized wheels which gave the rider a rather down at heel look.
I was a member of the 1st Warborough Scout Troup under Theo King and Tom Bullock and was chosen to represent our district at the World Jamboree in Austria in 1951. We went on several summer camps and I remember going to Thame Park (it rained) and North Devon and to Bosham. I certainly remember all the camps with a great deal of pleasure.
I also sang alongside Theo in the church choir for several years.
Western House is opposite the Bullock's bakery and was at that time alongside old Mr Bullocks house opposite the Cricketers Arms (There has been a couple of houses built since then in what was Mr Bullocks front garden) When we moved into Western Hose it had no bathroom or inside toilet and no water into the house. My father put a tank in the roof and installed a pump under the stairs to pump water from the well in the garden of the half of Western House then occupied by Theodosia (Dosie) King, an eternally cheerful tenent. My mother dug the huge pit in the back garden for the septic tank my father installed and an upstairs room was converted into a bathroom and toilet. During the extensive renovations to the house done by our family a large open fireplace was discovered in one of the downstairs rooms. Since the house dated from the late 17th Century this fireplace became the subject of great family hilarity when a visiting vicar announce that it was definately of Saxon Origin! The house is built very close to the road alignment which makes the front garden very small but just big enough for a large pear tree which reached up to the top story. My brother, David and I managed to sneak back into the house undetected by climbing the tree and breaking in though a bedroom window.Very daring and romantic. The garage protruded right up to the road side and spoilt the look of the house so my father dug out the land behind the garage, jacked up the structure which he then let down onto the roof of our car (a 1930 Austin 12) and drove the car forward to a new alignment back from the road for the garage.
Milk was delivered via a horse drawn float and 'Yakka' Yates from Drayton took over the driving at one stage. Yakka fancied himself as a motorcycle 'Scrambles' rider (He owned a DOT Scrambler) and drove the milk float as though he emulated Ben Hur.
After leaving school I was apprenticed to John Wilders in Walligford but went up the street in Warborough for some tuition in mathematics under old Mr Johnson. This ulimately led to some small success in examinations and was the start of a more substantial academic career than was available for me from Dorchester. Mr Johnson's grand daughter Eve Sharman also lived in Warborough at the time (in Henfield Rise) and we went together to the Pressed Steel Social Club dance in Oxford on at least one occasion.
Coronation Day was a big event in the village and my family crowded into Mr Bullocks front room to see the big event on his black and white television. Afterwards we all trooped up to the top of Warborough Hill and a bonfire was lit. I suppose this was happening all over Britain that night.
In August 1955 my parents sold Western House and I sold my Hercules bicycle and we went down to Tilbury and boarded the SS Himalaya and migrated to Australia, leaving behind Warborough and England for ever.

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