MADE IN BAMPTON
The life of Frank William Hudson 1936-?
TO START WITH, LET ME SAY WHO I BELIEVE I’M DESCENDED
FROM. YOU MAY NOTICE HOW LOCAL MY IMMEDIATE FORE-BEARERS HAVE
BEEN.
Hudson & Coopers
Thomas Hudson
David Cooper Born c1775 Bicester. Born 1723 Curbridge
John Hudson Phillip Cooper
Born 1811 Cogges / Witney Born 1761 Langford Died 1882 Died 1844
Frederick Hudson
William Cooper Born 1834 Cote / Bampton. Born 1811 Lew Oxfordshire Died 1871 Died 1879 Lew
Thomas Hudson
X Annie Cooper
Born 1864 Cote Bampton Born 1866 Rudgwick Sussex Died 1921 Stone Aylesbury Died 1936 Bampton
William Cooper Hudson
X Ethel Mary Townsend Born 1896 Aston Born 1907 Cote Died 1982 John Radcliffe hospital Died 1936 Radcliffe Infirmary
Frank William Hudson Born 26/03/1936 Bampton
Townsend & Portlocks (Sometimes Clarke or Portlock Clarke)
Richard Townsend Born 1722 Aston
John Townsend Lucy Grubb ?? Born 1760 Aston c1788 Died 1829
Solomon Townsend
Thomas Clarke (illegitimate) Born 1801 Cote/Aston Born c1803 Black Bourton Died 1869 Cote/Aston Oxfordshire Died 1886 Witney Union Workhouse
James Townsend
Thomas Portlock-Clarke Born 1842 Cote/Aston Born 1844 Bampton Died 1915 Bampton Died 1936 Castle View Bampton
Albert Townsend
X Mary Elizabeth Portlock Born 1883 Cote (Baptised as Clarke) Born 1880 Bampton Died 1968 Cowley Road Hospital Oxford Died 1960 Castle View Bampton
Ethel Mary Townsend (My Mother)
X
William Cooper Hudson (My Father) Born 1907 Cote/Aston Born 1896 Aston Died 1936 Radcliffe Infirmary Oxford Died 1982 John Radcliffe Oxford
Frank William Hudson
X Ann Allen Born1936 Bampton Born 1936 Acocks Green, Birmingham
A LITTLE OF MY GRANDPARENTS AND PARENTS AS I KNOW IT
I know a little of my Great Grandfather Thomas Portlock, sometimes (Portlock Clarke), but will relate what I know. He was born on 16th November 1844, the birth certificate says, at 11pm at Bampton. He married Elizabeth Akers from Faringdon on 26th January 1867 and died at Castle View on 30th April 1936. He worked for over 50 years on Ham Court Farm Bampton and had an allotment for 68 years, giving it up about one year before his death after which my father took it on. He was a keen Morris dancer as were two of his brothers and an enthusiastic supporter of both the Cricket and Football clubs, being buried on 4th May 1936 in Bampton Cemetery.
My Grandmother Mary Elizabeth Portlock was born in Bampton on 9th July 1880, although it shows she was baptised in the name of Clarke on 29th August 1880, family living on Mill Arches, Bampton in 1891. In 1901 she was a domestic servant to Henry a retired Ironmonger and Emma Bailey at 51 Sydenham Hill Dulwich, London. She married Albert Townsend on 14th April 1906 at St Mary’s Church, Bampton. They had five children, Ethel Mary my mother, Gladys Amy, Thomas Albert (Son or Sonner) Jack Langley and Theresa Dora. My Grandmother had a scarred face due to some skin complaint and I remember she used to go to the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford for treatment, also to somewhere in London for more exploratory examinations being a sort of “guinea pig” for this disease. However, her face was much improved in her later years. Mary died of a heart attack about 4pm at Castle View on 15th December 1960.
Albert Townsend my grandfather was born on 10th August 1883 in Cote Oxfordshire. The family were still in Cote in the 1891 census. He was a grocer’s assistant at Kingston Bagpuise. When he married on 14th April 1906 at St Mary’s Church Bampton, he was a Journeyman Baker still at Kingston Bagpuise. In 1911 with his wife Mary Elizabeth (Portlock) and two daughters Ethel Mary and Gladys Amy, they were living in Aston. It was in 1912 that the family moved to Bampton where Albert became the landlord of the Elephant and Castle Public House in Bridge Street, Bampton, taking over from William Wardle on 23rd September 1912.
Here he fattened pigs besides being a haulier to and from Bampton Railway Station, doing this with a 1921 Ford model “T” lorry which was possibly the first in Bampton and his horse and “Gig”. He also supplied and drove the horses for the Bampton Fire Brigade. Once a year this lorry was scrubbed out and a cover put over the back; then Albert took a number of children from the village on a day out to the New Forest.
While he was at the E&C he took Short Service Attestation for the Army Service Corps on 8th December 1915, mobilised 5th April 1917 for WW1, regimental No 325861 being demobbed 10th March 1919. He had a type of railway clock that hung in the taproom of the E & C and the family told the story that when Albert was away in the army, it stopped and no-one could get it going again but when he returned home, he swung the pendulum and away it went. I still have this clock in our kitchen and must say it’s still very temperamental.
On 23rd September 1935 the family moved across the road to Castle View and made a farm of it having much more room to fatten more pigs. He also had a coal business delivering around Bampton and neighbouring villages. He now had three more children, Thomas Albert, Jack Langley and daughter Theresa Dora to help with all his exploits. I remember going with Thomas and Jack to Bampton & Brize Norton Railway Station to help shovel coal off the railway wagons onto the Ford Thames lorry he had at that time or sometimes it was weighed and put into one hundred weight bags ready
for delivery. He had very poor health in his late 60s but with the wonderful Doctor Atkinson in the village he pulled through, living to being 85 when he passed away on 14th June 1968 in the Cowley Road Hospital Oxford.
I know nothing of my paternal Grandfather Thomas Hudson other than he was born in Cote in 1864 and worked on Ham Court farm Bampton for Mr John White & his wife. Family living at Plantation Cottages in 1911 which was about a quarter of a mile behind the farm, they were knocked down many years ago. He died in Stone Aylesbury in 1921 buried in Bampton Cemetery plot 35 West Border.
My paternal Grandmother Annie Cooper was born in Rudgwick Sussex in 1866, married in Aston in 1890 and died in Bampton in 1936 living with her son, my father, and her daughter Elsie at 5 Victoria Cottages, Bampton, being buried with her husband.
My Father was born in Aston on 5th September 1896. The Hudson family moved to Bampton in 1901 and in 1911 lived at Plantation Cottages, he and his father working at Ham Court Farm for Mr John White and his wife, Annie; Thomas as a cattleman and Dad aged 14 as a farmer’s boy and general worker. I’m not sure when he started working for my grandfather, possibly in the early 1920s when the Townsends were at the Elephant and Castle as I have a photo of him with Albert’s 1921 model “T” Ford lorry. He told the story of when taking a load of Albert’s pigs to London, occasionally they were too heavy for the lorry to get up Stokenchurch Hill (this being on the old A40) so sometimes they reversed up, the reverse gear being lower than first gear or if this didn’t work, they would unload them, walk them up the hill, reload and carry on.
My father was in WW1, enlisting on 26th May 1915. He was in the Queens Own Oxfordshire Hussars (QOOH) Regimental No 2693, then on 28th September 1916 was transferred to the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Reg No 32821. This was thought to be due to losses on the Somme plus the realisation that cavalry was not proving successful in trench warfare. Whilst in the OBLI he was injured twice in the legs, on 4th April he was admitted to the 5th General Canadian Hospital in Rouen. From there he sent a postcard to his mother as follows.
“Dear Mother. I expect you have had card saying I am wounded again but I don’t think I shall get to England in the right leg this time shall have a good try to get home don’t know if it will come off I have not got any paper at present will write again soon as I am at base hospital at present. Hope you are all well at home”. Love, Bill.
He was sent back to England on 8th April 1918. After the second injury he was awarded the MM with bars: his citation reads as follows.
“The Major General commanding 20th Light Division has received a report of the gallant conduct of 32821 Private W Hudson 6th OBLI on 16th August 1917 in carrying messages continually under very heavy shell fire near Langemarck and wishes to congratulate him on his fine behaviour,” signed Major General William Douglas Smith. Finally, he was transferred to the 5th Battalion Royal Berks regiment Reg 220517. He was demobbed on 16th January 1919.
Dad played football for Bampton in the 1920s, I think at centre half. It was said he could head a ball further than most could kick it.
He was in the Bampton Fire Brigade for many years during and after WW 2 being driver and pump operator. This was when the water pump was towed behind the fire appliance. He told stories of when the Bampton crew went to London and Coventry during the blitz saying, occasionally they used to come back with a few bottles of spirits or beer. He never talked of the horrors he must have witnessed there or when in WW1. The fire engine and pump at this time was housed in the Town Hall with a siren outside to call the men when there was a fire and as youngsters, we ran to the square whenever this went off. The Bampton brigade has always been respected in and around this area and won many competitions in the late 1800s, cumulating in winning the National Shield at the White City London in 1904.
Dad, his mother and his sister Elsie rented 5 Victoria Cottage in Broad Street. This was until 1949 when he purchased it for £225 from Miss D. F. E. Wright. His mother died in 1936 and Elsie had Polio and couldn’t walk so Dad carried her up a very narrow staircase each night to bed until she died in 1952; from then he lived there alone.
Payment on 5 Broad St, Bampton
My father retired from the Central Garage in Bampton in 1964 at the age of 68, still living at 5 Victoria Cottages, Broad Street. He came to us for Christmas day 1981 and collapsed with a stroke on Boxing Day morning and was rushed to the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford but passed away on 3rd January 1982, being buried with his wife Ethel on 8th January in Bampton Cemetery plot 33 West Border.
Weather wise it was also a bad day as we had about 4” of snow on the ground and my cousins from Staines area only just got to the church on time. Not only that, on the way back to Alvescot one of our neighbours who came had slid into the bank and was stuck, so we had to rescue them. It wasn’t until we cleared his house that I knew he had won the Military medal or had been injured in the war when we found various papers from his war experiences, including 2 large maps of the trenches he must have used as a messenger, amongst other things in a tin in his pantry. He told the story many times of when he went to the George and Dragon one evening for a pint, he bought a packet of ten Woodbines which had gone up a halfpenny in price. On getting home and taking one from the packet, he thought to himself, “What a fool I am in smoking and said I had just that one but never smoked again”. A packet of 9 cigarettes was also in that tin which I still have. Talking of cigarettes, I have never smoked one in my life even after being in Germany during my National Service where they were very cheap. In the 60s and 70s Dad used to love going to see and stay with his brother Frederick and his wife Edith who lived in Englefield Green, Surrey. Sometimes he would drive himself but in later years I would take and fetch him.
My mother was born in Cote near Aston on 13th June 1907 and in her early working life, I think she was in service at Weald Manor Bampton. She died on 12th May 1936 aged 28, about seven weeks after I was born. 1936 was a very up and down year for the Townsend and Hudson families in that there was one birth, two marriages and three deaths. Mum had a “sit up and beg” bicycle and when she passed away it was hung up in one of the sheds at Castle View where it remained for some 40 plus years until the farm was sold. Then in 1977 I had it and it now hangs in our garage. I did write to The Repair Shop programme on TV to ask if they might like to restore it but to date have not heard back.
Now onto my life. I was born 26th March 1936 at 5 Victoria Cottages, Broad Street Bampton, Oxfordshire and was the only son of William Cooper Hudson and his wife Ethel Mary Townsend. I was brought up by my Grandparents, Albert and Mary Elizabeth Townsend who lived at Castle View, Bridge Street, Bampton as my mother died in the John Radcliffe hospital Oxford seven weeks after giving birth.
I found from the Oxfordshire Health Archives that cause of death was “Septic Thrombosis of the Iliac Veins-Puerperal Sepsis”. My doctor informs me that basically it’s a Clot on the Groin and almost certainly could be treated nowa-days.
I was baptised on 31st May 1936 by Reverend Gegg. I’ve been told there were three families who wanted to look after me after my mother’s death: they were my mother’s parents, Albert and Mary, Frank and Gladys Ginger living in Nutfield Surrey, Gladys being my mother’s sister. And Sidney John Hudson, my father’s brother who lived in Barking London. I think I was very lucky that my grandparents won; at least I was still close to my father as at that time he worked for my grandfather.
My parent’s wedding
My earliest memory was that aged 3 plus I was not very well, as I remember I slept in a bed in the kitchen of Castle View adjacent to the cooking range with a green curtain around the bed. I never did find out what I had but seem to remember that bright lights were a no go. Looking at the 1939 register which was taken as a form of census because of the onset of WW2, I note that there was an Elizabeth Quilter an LCC Helper with child, with two sons plus two more children also living at Castle View so I can only assume she was helping look after me. I spent my first 37 years at Castle View with my Grandparents until they passed away, Gran in 1960 and Gramp in 1968; then with my auntie, Theresa Dora Townsend until I got married in 1973.
In my early years I remember being in the farmyard with my grandfather, Uncles Jack and Thomas (Son). When playing with the Old English sheepdog they had I pulled on his bobtail and he turned round and bit me on the face above and below the left eye. I was taken to Doctor Atkinson in the village and tidied up. He was an elderly man but a wonderful doctor who was admired greatly in the village. In fact, I was very lucky not to lose an eye. I still loved that dog whose name was Jim. He was the yard guard dog chained up across the entry and he would let people in but not let them out.
Dad did odd jobs for Doctor Atkinson like gardening and cleaning his Austin car. The Doctor had an old De Deon car at the back of his garage which Dad admired asking the Doctor many times what he was going to do with it but never had a clear answer. Then one Saturday when Dad went, the car had gone; when asked, the doctor said, “Oh someone offered me some money for it, so I let it go.” Dad was very upset about this as being a motor engineer he would have loved it and perhaps it would have been passed down to me.
As a youngster I loved helping out on the farm including “mucking out” the pigsties and going round with Gramp in the evenings to check all the animals were ok. He had a terrier dog called Nancy which always came with us and loved it when the pigs’ feeding trough was pulled away from the wall as usually there was a rat sitting there which she would catch. Family records show that on 1st May 1936, Albert bought a railway wagon, which was put up in the yard to keep pig and cattle feed in. Records show it was brought from Swindon and unloaded on the road with help from many men who then pulled it into place on rollers. This was all done under the charge of Mr Jim Swinford. A Mr Jack Joyce put up sheds in the yard for Gramp. Jack was also the local undertaker and lived in Buckland Road. When the second World War started there was an air raid shelter put up in the yard at Castle View as I recall, made of red bricks with a galvanised tin roof covered over with earth. Luckily it never had to be used. I also remember that a large shelter was built in the school playing field (Sandfords); this had long reinforced concrete plinths as a roof. When this was dismantled Grandfather obtained many of them and used them to make the sides of paths in their garden at Castle View, also to cover a new cesspit that was built. I think they are still there. There is a lovely Pantry in Castle View and once or twice a year Gramp would have a pig killed by Jack Harrison, the local butcher. Then it would be left hung up in the yard overnight for its blood to drain. The next day the hair on its body would be burnt off and Mr Harrison would cut it up. I remember the two hams would be hung in the pantry which had a flagstone floor. Most of the rest would be salted and put into a large lead lined trough also in the pantry. There was a large American fridge also in there together with a fine wire meshed food cabinet. The butter was also made here, me doing a lot of the churning by hand. This was until they bought an electric one; this made life a lot easier especially on warm days when it took a lot longer to make. One thing I did enjoy was when Gran cooked a pig’s trotter for me. Mr Fred Skuce, a baker from Clanfield, used to come round on a Saturday morning delivering the bread. Gran would cut the crust off and butter it for me when it was still warm, I can still taste it as I write. Jimmy Elles, who had a grocer’s shop in the square used to deliver the groceries often quite late in the evening. What I remember most about him was that he talked very fast.
Gramp and me digging at Castle View
At the age of 5, I started my schooling at Bampton School in Church View, being taught by the then three teachers of that era, Miss Farmer, Miss/Mrs Pratt and Miss Hobbs. I remember my first day being taken there by my auntie Dora, me crying the whole way there. The headmaster there was Mr Fry; then soon after Mr Hughes Owen took over, known to us all as “Crusty”. There are two things I vividly remember at this school. First, as a 6 year old going out of the classroom one day after a lesson I put my hands on the desks each side of me and started swinging onto the next one but my right hand slipped off one of them and I went down hitting my mouth on the edge of a desk cutting my lip. It was another trip to Dr Atkinson to be stitched up. The second incident was when as young lads we used to go down Buckland Road and along the side of the Isle of White Brook to a field they used to practice and test parachutes for dropping supplies etc for the troops. We called it the DZ (dropping zone) field. Obviously some of these went astray so we would get the silk and rope from them and make our own parachutes which we would throw up at school to try and get it to go over the roof. I did this one day tying a stone on it for weight but unfortunately it came off when I threw it and went through Miss Pratt’s classroom window. No one ever did find out who did it.
Towards the end of the war around 1944 I remember sitting in the kitchen at Castle View one evening with Gran, Gramp, Uncle Jack and Auntie Dora listening to the push button Cosser radio when there was a bang outside the back door. Jack and his father went out to investigate and found out that the door to the bathroom could not be opened so assumed someone was in there. After shouting “Come out there’s two of us here with sticks” they pushed hard on the door only to find a bag of potatoes had fallen against it causing it to bang shut. I think Gramp thought it might be a German as there was talk of an invasion.
Talking about the radio in my early days I remember having to take the accumulator (battery) to Dickie Lane at the Central Garage in the square (now Abbey Properties, the Estate Agents) to be charged bringing home another for that week. One other thing that comes to mind was watching the planes coming back from bombing raids on Germany.
One such time I saw one with a large hole in its port wing fly quite low over Castle View. There were many bases besides Brize Norton in this area that they flew from, some of the Corsa gliders also went from nearby. When America joined us in the war a number of coloured servicemen were billeted in wooden huts situated by the junction of Broad Street and New Road. My grandfather banned me from going near them. I think residents were a bit suspicious of them to start with but I don’t recall any serious problems. I think they gave a lot of sweets etc to the village children but as I say, I was not allowed to get involved.
Dora Townsend together with many other ladies during the war joined the ARP (air raid precautions). She drove the ambulance which was housed in one of the sheds at Castle View, from then on it was always called the Ambulance shed.
My father worked for my grandfather then as a driver mechanic at the Central Garage Bampton. When the Ferguson tractor came into production, he changed to agricultural engineering and went on a course at the Banner Lane Factory, Coventry where they were built. Sometime around the end of the 1940s when Dad was working at the Central Garage in Bampton he used to go to the Ferguson factory in Coventry to bring back new tractors and on a few occasions he took me along in the firm’s Commer lorry. What I remember about this is that we took chicken egg sandwiches which Dad put on the engine cover in the cab. When we came to eat them, they were lovely and warm. I was very lucky as I always had money in my pocket but I had to earn it by doing jobs in the house or garden at Castle View.
These included cleaning the brass, scrubbing the hall flagstone floor, weeding the garden especially the front one and churning the milk by hand to make butter. My Grandparents grew tomatoes in the front borders of Castle View during the war instead of them being flower beds and as I remember, they did very well there. After the war they went back to having a lovely display of salvias there. Not so long ago I met a former classmate who said during our conversation “I always remember you at school”; when I asked how, he said, “You had a watch.”
Sometime in the mid to late forties I was given a Midland Bank (now HSBC) round chrome money box with slots around the sides to put coins of various denominations in, pennies, three pence pieces, sixpenny pieces, two shillings and half crowns (two shillings & sixpence). When full it was taken to the Midland bank in Bampton where they had a key to open it and put it in a savings account. I still bank with the HSBC after more than 75 years and still have this box together with a “Black Man“ money box I had as a child.
My Grandparents were very strict with me if I did something wrong or got in later than they had said. I would be sent off to bed with perhaps just a glass of milk. Looking back, I think it probably did me no harm. On the upside in my later teens Gran quite often left me a rice or tapioca milk pudding in the bottom oven of the old black leaded cooking stove for when I came in from perhaps having a couple of pints with my mates.
Blackpool was my Grandparents’ favourite holiday destination and I was taken there quite a few times with their daughter, Dora or my dad doing the driving in his Standard 10 car or Gramps’ Austin. I remember we used to stop somewhere this side of Preston for a picnic, in total taking us about eight hours to get to Blackpool.
In those days there were many farms in Bampton besides my grandfathers at Castle View; some others that come to mind are Mr Ernest Parker, Mr Collins, Mr Pinnock, Frank Collett, Barlow Vaughn, Mr Oliver then later Mr Rouse, Alec Townsend, all these in Weald. Then there was Mr Read, Arthur Gerring, Mr Busby, Mr Wilcox, Mr Henley and the Wilkin brothers. In the 1950s there was a Mr Farthing, Mr Halfpenny, Mr Penny and Mr Money living in the village.
In my youth there were eleven public houses in Bampton as follows: in Bridge Street there was the Elephant & Castle; the landlords were Mr Hawley during the war, Mr Penny in the 50s, Mr Owen, Mr Scott Norman, 1968 Jim Dickinson, Bill Lyle, Peter Crick, Lionel Cook, John Rainey, and George Blackwell. At the Wheatsheaf it was Mr Bill Cozier, 1955 Mr Bartlett, in the 60s Mr Frank Barrett, and George Stephens. It closed in 1970 and became the Post Office run by Mr & Mrs King. The Horse Shoe had Mr Fleetwood, Mr Cyril Weeks, in the 60s & 70s Maurice & Rene Wiggins who my wife used to say that he made the best gin & tonic. At the Eagle in Church View it was Mr Ernie Martin, Reg and Phylis Absolom, Lyn & John Shuker and Chris Lewis. At the George & Dragon it was Edie Horne in 1955; then Fred & Eileen Hammond. At the Lamb or as it is mainly known the Tree was Mrs Allam. The Talbot in the Market Square had Peter & Jean Elliott from 1965-85, Harry & Ann Walton and then Mark King. In the Malt Shovel was John Kent. At the Jubilee at the start of the High Street it was Reg Pratley, Cynthia & Barry Lock, Steve & Ann Setch and Frank & Eve Godwin. The New Inn now called the Morris Clown had Bill Wagner, then Tom Mace. Last but not least there was the Swan down Buckland Road, run by Mr and Mrs Bunce then Mrs Sollis for many years, these being the landlords I remember. My grandmother used to say that in her youth there were 22 places you could purchase intoxicating liquor in Bampton.
I was confirmed in St Mary’s Church, Bampton by Rev Bateman, also joining the choir there when I was about nine or ten until my voice broke at about fifteen. Miss Taunt was the organist and choirmaster and I think we got 3d for each Sunday morning and evening service and 3d for choir practice on Thursdays plus extra if we were asked to do weddings. Others in the choir as far as I can remember were Terry and Don Rouse, Stan Green, Barry and Graham Taylor, Walter Woodley, Robert Radband and Phillip Addison. Then the men were Roy Stroud who also played the organ, Jack Bellinger and Dickie Lane. A Mr Warren Green who lived in Church View, who I think was a music teacher at one of the Oxford colleges, also played the organ occasionally and when he did, you could always tell without knowing it was him just by the volume and the way he played it.
My grandparents were always on to me about learning to play the piano; they had an old upright piano in their sitting room and Miss Taunt would have taught me. I always resisted this but in my later years wished I had taken it up. Around this time there was a wonderful youth club at the old Grammar School (now the library and archives) run by the Vicar Rev Bateman where Snooker, Billiards, Table Tennis, Darts and other games could be played. Juniors were there from five until seven then seniors from seven to ten.
At the age of eleven I passed the relevant examination and went onto Burford Grammar School with others from Bampton, including my two best friends, Ron Amos and Percy Dixey. In those days it was in the old buildings at the bottom of the hill near the church with both girls and boys but separated by a seven foot wall. We were taken there by Backs’ coaches of Witney, picking up others on the way. One morning getting to the turning off the A40 into Burford (by the Cotswold Gateway) and before the roundabout was where the driver turned right without seeing a lorry coming from the Cheltenham direction. It hit us about where the entry/exit door was and pushed us across the road, hitting the kerb nearly turning us over. Obviously, we were shaken up but luckily no one was seriously hurt. One girl, Shelia McKensie, had some glass in her eye but with no lasting trouble. As boys we used to play football with a tennis ball in a narrow lane between the school and church; one day the ball went onto a six foot high wall. I went to retrieve it, pulling myself up on an overhanging branch of an elder bush, just got my hand on the ball when the branch broke and I fell backwards hitting my head on a much lower wall cutting open the back of my head. I was carted off to the Burford Cottage Hospital where they stitched me up. I had a headache for the next few days. I certainly saw stars that day.
I was never the brightest boy in the class and looking back, I don’t think the teachers were very good. Our maths one often came into a lesson and said, “Now, do you want me to tell you some jokes or do maths?” Guess what we said. I did have some good times at Burford. Possibly one of the best I remember was going in a group to the 1951 Festival of Britain Exhibition in London and I still have the programme of this event. The school played rugby in those days, which I detested but was made to play. I was more into football, ironically they started playing this just as I left. I remember one day we had a rugby match at Sherbourne School after which we were given beans on toast, this being the first time I had eaten them. I actually enjoyed them. In class I sat next to a boy from Carterton named Laurence Hawkins and on a few occasions we got sent out of Geography lessons, punishment being going to umpire a cricket match. I always said this was because no one else would do it.
As a youngster my pals and I used to look forward to Bampton fair pulling into the square; it was there for three days, 24, 25 and 26th August. The galloping horse’s roundabout at that time was driven by steam and an old lady ran it. She always seemed to be covered in soot. As children we would try and get a free ride on the steps going up to the ride; invariably she would see us and chase us off. Two days before the fair pulled in it was the Bampton horse fair where people from all over the country would come to sell and buy horses of all types. I remember it used
to get quite violent at times with fights breaking out as there was much alcohol consumed, also my grandfather together with the village policeman were constantly going down to his fields in Buckland Road to turn out their horses. They used to show their horses by racing them up and down Bridge Street.
Then in September it was Witney Feast we had to look forward to. This fair was so much bigger than ours with many sideshows such as the Wall of Death, Boxing Ring and many others. My Father told me more than once that his father made him and his brothers pick up the potatoes from their garden before giving each of them 6d to go to Witney Feast, which they did by running across the fields from Plantation Cottages. He said the closer they got to the lights, the faster they ran.
From about the age of ten to sixteen I used to be taken for a two week stay with my uncle and auntie, Frank and Gladys Ginger, who had a Butcher’s shop in Nutfield Surrey. I always loved this holiday as they had a large snooker table on the third floor of their house, which I could play on sometimes. When my dad took me, I would have a game against him before he returned home. In the end they gave this table to the RAF Benevolent Fund.
I also helped in the shop and with deliveries to the surrounding villages in their Morris 8 van and was also shown how to make and twist the sausages into groups of four. I could also go into Redhill on the 410 or 411 bus to the Odean Picture House. On two occasions I took a friend on this holiday, one being Stan Green and the other was Dennis Green, no relation of Stan.
Mrs Rogers who owned the sweet shop next to E & C
There were many interesting people as I remember in Bampton, just some I recall. One was Mrs Rogers who kept a sweet shop next to the E & C in Bridge Street; she always had plenty of sweets even during the war apparently due to being half way between Swindon and Oxford. Another was Jack Harrison, the butcher. I used to go into his shop and he would always say,”You knows me” why, I never did find out. Then there was George Bishop who ran the paper shop again in Bridge Street. He loved his pint of beer. I’ve been in the Wheatsheaf many a time when he’s been drinking a pint and when his doorbell rang he would then quickly down his drink and say, “Put us another in there misses shan’t be long.” Then he would dash across the road to serve his customer coming back to drink his next pint. Further along there was Mr Percy Money, a wonderful shoe maker and repairer. I always liked to go and have a talk to him. Across the road from him it was Arthur Hill who had an antique/ odds and ends shop, a fairly eccentric man but lovely with it. He actually paid for me to go to the pictures in the village one evening. When he opened up the shop each morning, he had to get many of his items out onto the pavement before he could get in.
Talking about the pictures, a man by the name of Bunny Shaylor from Carterton showed these in the Town Hall. Invariably it would break down and he would get a lot of cheering and catcalls when this happened. Then there was Dutton’s, which was then taken over by Mr Mathews who had the grocer’s shop. He was very good to me in my early years as he used to give me books etc. Next to him was another grocer’s shop, run by Mrs Tounge and before her, I think it was Thomson’s. It’s now a public house called The Romany. At the bakers in the Market Square there was Mrs Constable, who did lovely lardy cakes, which is my downfall. Also, there was Jimmy Elles who had a grocer’s shop delivering items mostly in the evenings. I also remember that he talked very quickly. Next to him was a butcher’s shop run by a Mr Gill. My uncle Ernest Spurrett worked there for a number of years. Also in the Market Square was the Central Garage with petrol pumps at the front and workshops to the rear. On the other side of the square there was another garage in my early years run by Mr Bullock and later on by John Taylor. Then going towards Broad Street there was yet another garage owned by Len Hughes. The mention of Mr Bullock reminds me that I believe he was the first person in Bampton to have a Television, as an “H” shaped aerial appeared on his chimney and when others in the village followed him, the news soon went round the town.
From the Market Square you could also see Mr Chandler though the window of his upstairs room where he worked as a saddler and made all sorts of quality leather goods. Below him there was Mrs Renolds, who ran the Post Office. She was quite a large lady and very intimidating to us youngsters. Opposite the PO there was a vegetable shop run by Mr Applegate; going down the high street there was a wet fish shop on the right run by Paul Bovington and in my early years there was Mr Busby’s clothing and haberdashery store on the left; then much later on it was run by Mr & Mrs King. On Saturday evenings there was a fish and chip van in the square owned and run by Mrs Buckingham, who lived near Fishers Bridge down Buckland Road. My friends, Perse Dixey and Ron Amos, used to push her cart loaded with potatoes and fish from Fishers Bridge to the Town Hall and one day it tipped up on the way sending its contents all over the road. They just scraped it all up getting most of the stones etc off and carried on; I don’t think anyone knew. I remember looking at the cold fat in the fryer more than once to see black pieces of something on the top of the congealed fat but most people seemed to enjoy her fish and chips. I can’t recall when it finished but Wednesdays used to be early closing day.
In the 80/90s there was a wonderful restaurant in the Market Square called The Poacher’s Rest run by Phillip and Helen Deacon. We had a wonderful 25th wedding anniversary there in 1998. In earlier days it was a Barclays Bank.
Mr Chandler saddler
I don’t have many memories of the ending of the war in Europe other than there was much merriment, but I do recall at the end of the war with Japan (VJ day) in August 1945, there was a huge bonfire lit in the Market Square with huge crowds and that more cider had to be brought up from somewhere down Weald. I think it was perhaps from the farmer, Mr Oliver. In the late forties, early fifties my father used to take me to his friend Aubrey Rose in Carterton on a Saturday night to watch his black and white television. He was one of the main tomato growers in Carterton, which was well known for its delicious fruit. The main programme and the one we liked most, was Café Continental which was a variety show, I remember Dad in tears laughing at it. In the fifties Aubrey got a coloured TV, which we thought was wonderful.
In 1949 Cycle Speedway came to this area although there are reports that some form of Cycle Speedway was taking place around the country before the Second World War but as far as I can make out, controlled Cycle Speedway came into being early after WW11 when through the bombing there was a lot of open ground especially in London. Youngsters cleared these bomb sites and set up makeshift tracks. There are still Cycle Speedway clubs around the country now, one being Horspath Hammers in Oxford.
Bampton Bullets as we were known began their interest in about 1950 when I was still at school and I remember getting very excited together with others in my class at the thought of it. Various villages in this area got a team together. In these early days we rode friendlies against Alvescot and other local teams; then eventually a general meeting was held on 7th June 1951 and a committee formed. We then joined the Four Counties League in 1952. This committee was made up of Chairman Len Hughes, Secretary Stan Green, at a later meeting Peter Allum agreed to be treasurer; the rest of the committee was made up of the Chairman and Secretary of the playing fields’ committee (Reg Rouse and Jack Lawrence respectively) George Hunt, Doug Read and Frank Hudson. The main problem as I remember was finding a site for the track but luckily the parish council came to our rescue and let us build one on the playing field in New Road (the fire station is now on that site). If I remember rightly Robert Radband, who worked at Mount Owen Farm borrowed their tractor and plough to “skim” the turf off so we could get to work preparing the track, which was similar to a motor cycle track but obviously smaller, having two straights of approximately twenty yards with about six yards between them and two corners. We worked tirelessly to prepare this track and five loads of cinders were purchased for £1/ load from a Mr Hickman to make the track surface. There were four riders in each race two from Bampton and two from the opposition. The starting gate was a piece of elastic which was let go from the outside of the track so as not to give added advantage to the inside rider. In 1952 a concrete grid was laid to improve the start and a mechanical starting gate installed.
Mr Len Hughes who owned and ran the petrol station, garage and car hire business in Bampton was a stalwart for our cause, giving us so much help and encouragement all the time it was going. I seem to remember he purchased two special speedway bikes for the club members to ride (he was reimbursed in due course). These consisted of special frames with one very low gear which could be changed by putting a larger or smaller cog on the rear wheel (a larger one lowered the gearing whereas a smaller one raised it); this was to adjust to different lengths of race tracks. These bikes had no mudguards or brakes and wheel spindles were not allowed to protrude outside the retaining nut. As previously said Len Hughes helped us in any way he could; he got spares for us and also, crash helmets of sorts. Where he got them from I will never know; as for protecting the ears, there were like pieces of rubber tubing sticking out.
He also took the team and bikes to away meetings. For this up to twelve of us would pile into one of his taxis, this being an old Austin 16 with a trailer on the back for all our bikes. Various teams in this league like Minster Lovell, Lechlade, Highworth, Southrop, Clanfield and Alvescot rode on different days. Bampton’s night was Tuesday and many of the residents came to watch us. Unfortunately all this came to an end when at the end of 1953 the playing fields committee asked us to move the race track. This was just when the club was on the up and this was too much so the club disbanded. Following this I went and rode for Clanfield for a short period winning the league in 1954.
I spoke of Leonard Hughes; he had an old Bedford coach, which he used to take people from Bampton on a mystery tour on a Sunday afternoon/evening. It was always on the downs around the Wantage area. He also took about five or six of us lads to the wrestling at the Locarno Hall in Swindon. He used to get so worked up watching this especially when things got dirty. He once threw his cap at a wrestler; it went through the ropes across the ring and flew out the other side and he never did get it back. Another time he threw his lighter towards the ring; luckily it hit a rope and bounced back. When we went after that we always emptied his pockets before the bout started. Other places Len took us lads were to Oxford and Swindon speedway matches, also to grass track racing at Blunsdon near Swindon.
I left school on 25th July 1952 at the age of sixteen. My friends Ron and Percy left the year before me and I did miss them for a few months. A number of our class cycled 120 miles to Whipsnade Zoo and back a few days after leaving school. My father had bought me a green Raleigh Lenton bicycle for my 16th birthday, which I thought was the “Bees Knees”. In the 1950 and 60s together with my auntie I used to go to perhaps two or three Whist Drives a week with up to eleven or twelve tables. The highlight of these was the Fire Brigade one at Christmas in the W.I hall where there were up to thirty tables all competing for wonderful prizes, the top one being a large Turkey, others being bottles of spirits etc. These were mainly given by farmers and gentry in and around Bampton.
On leaving school I started looking for a job. First, I tried to get into Early’s blanket factory in Witney on their maintenance team but no luck. Then it was Axcels garage in Standlake but still no joy. Then I heard Taphouse’s garage in Corn Street Witney was looking for a youngster as an apprentice. I applied for this and got the job. I started my working life on October 10th 1952 as an apprentice motor mechanic at Taphouse’s garage on a wage of £2-5 shillings a week (£2-25p in decimal money). To start with I used to cycle to work; this was when I was at my peak of fitness. If it was wet my auntie Dora would take and fetch me in her Father’s Austin 10. I shall always remember my first day at work, it being nothing to do with mechanics; it was to move a cart load of manure from outside the garage to the garden of the proprietor.
Luckily as I’ve previously said, I was brought up on my grandparents’ farm, so it was no problem. I’ve always said I had a good schooling in mechanics there, as those were the days when you repaired the mechanics of a vehicle not just change faulty parts. I also attended the Witney Technical College for one day a week. This garage also had petrol pumps, which had long arms that pulled out to go over the footpath which are not allowed to-day. As the junior I did most of serving the petrol etc but I didn’t mind this, as often I would get a 2 or 3d tip. We had one good customer who was a farmer from Curbridge; he had a Rolls Royce and when he came in for fuel, he gave me 6d.
On Monday 12th October 1954 I passed my driving test at the second attempt receiving my official licence on 14th October (hooray). I then bought a 1933 Ford 8 “Y” model car for £50; it had two doors and three gears and had been hand painted in Maroon.
About 1955 Mr Taphouse obtained a site for a workshop in Witney High Street opposite Welch Way, so I was transferred there. Many Americans were at Brize Norton Air Base in those days and we used to get many of them into the garage and I can boast that the first automatic car I drove was a “Hudson Terraplane”. I remember we did an engine overhaul, I think, on a Chrysler Red Cross for one American customer who didn’t run it in properly and seized it up so we had to do it again. This time he asked if I would ease the new engine in for him and he would pay for all the fuel. This I gladly agreed to. I was very popular with my friends for the next week. About this time Mr Taphouse, his wife and son Peter took me to the London motor show at Earls Court, then afterwards to some high class hotel (I don’t remember which) for a meal. I had never seen such a place and thought I was in heaven. I did have one mishap as an apprentice that I remember; it was when a lady came in with a Morris 1000 which had a faulty indicator, the ones that flipped up on the side of the car. I took it out and went to test it on a large battery that was being charged up for a customer. As I touched the wires onto this battery there was an almighty bang and the battery exploded. No one had told me the gasses from a battery on charge were explosive. Obviously, it destroyed the battery and within half hour my overalls fell to pieces. Luckily there was a water tap close by under which I ducked my head, especially my eyes and no lasting damage was done.
My 1933 Ford Y model car
I used to play in goal for Bampton and in 1956 I scratched my left knee but thought nothing of it. I went home after the match and had a bath and carried on with life for the next few days but then my knee started to swell up, so went to see Dr McCartney, who took one look and sent me to the Radcliffe hospital in Oxford where they put my leg in plaster and sent me home. After a week I could bare the pain no longer and was back in hospital to have an operation to drain the infection from my leg, coming back home on 4th November and I was off work until 1st January 1957.
I finished my football career aged 33 when I broke the Fibula in my right leg and damaged the tendons in my ankle, this before the start of the game. As I’ve said I played in goal and during the kick about before the start I jumped up to catch the ball, came down and my ankle buckled under me so was in plaster for a few weeks. I also played Cricket for Bampton a few times, also green bowling at Weald Manor.
There were eleven public houses in Bampton when I was of drinking age: the Elephant and Castle, which incidentally had a devastating fire on Sunday 28th September 1958, taking out the thatched roof which was replaced by tiles. To me it never was the same again. Ironically my uncle Thomas (Son) Townsend, who was born there in 1914 was in the fire service and helped put the fire out; The Wheatsheaf, Elephant and Castle together with the Eagle being the ones I used to frequent the most playing Darts, Aunt Sally and Bar Billiards for them. I also played for the Talbot at Ten Pin Bowling at Brize Norton Air Base, the twelve lanes being left over from when the Americans were there.
The Eagle in Church View was a most interesting pub; it was owned by a Mr & Mrs Ernie Martin. It had no bar and only one taproom, which was very small and had settles on three sides; there was also a room upstairs that was used by Roman Catholics for their Sunday service. I believe this was the only pub in England doing this. I used to love going there as some of the elderly men in the village such as
The Eagle pub. Mrs Martin at the altar
Mr Long, George Smith, Jack Harrison, Jack Horne and Dia Horne plus one or two more used it and they would relate some wonderful stories of their life. I’m afraid we used to play Ernie up occasionally; one such time was when Dia Horne ordered a cider and when it was brought up from the cellar, he put a small apple in it and said to the landlord, “Hey Ernie, what’s this?” He took one look and said, “I can’t understand how that got there,” and picked it out. Then one Sunday evening we decided to see how many we could get in this small taproom; we did get fourteen in there but that’s when the fun started. We all ordered our drinks, which had to
be brought up from the cellar two at a time and of course when that was done, it was time for another round. Sometimes he would say he had run out of bitter after serving us. When we asked for perhaps a light ale, he would say, “No, you’re not mixing your drinks.”
The other seven were the Horse Shoe, George & Dragon, Lamb (or Tree), Malt Shovel, Jubilee, New Inn (now the Morris Clown) and the Swan.
I’ve just mentioned George Smith; he worked for the Thames Conservancy and one day he was with others cleaning vegetation from the Mill Brook by the bridge near Castle View when he said to me,” Go upstream, the other side of the bridge, and make the water muddy.” This I did. When this got to where he was standing, he put his hands into the water and pulled out a small trout.
On 27th February 1957 a month before my 21st birthday, I had an accident in my 1933 Ford Y model car at Lew Turn when turning right towards Witney. An American in an Austin Metropolitan coming from Witney collided with me. My car was a write off and I sustained a broken left arm and was off work again for eleven weeks. Looking back, I seem to have had many scrapes over my life as going back into Witney on my bike one evening to take a girl to the pictures, I went over the old railway bridge between Lew and Curbridge when my foot slipped off the rat-trap peddles and went into the front wheel throwing me over the handlebars. I injured my arm and face but no bones broken. The proprietor of the garage at Curbridge who I knew, took me and my damaged bike back to Bampton. Don’t think I saw that girl again. I did have other girls along the way but as they say no names, no pack drill. There is just one I should mention, although she didn’t know I took a shine to her. She lived at the bottom end of Corn Street and walked past the garage to work each morning. She was a real stunner and whoever saw her first would say, “Here she comes, Frank.” She still lives in Witney with her husband and knows this story and I now get a kiss from her when we meet. Just to clarify, my wife Ann also knows this story.
At the end of my apprenticeship aged 21 I was called up for National Service and was conscripted in to the REME on 24th October 1957, regimental number 23429375 (It’s a number you never forget) doing my six weeks basic training at Honiton, Devon. Here we were billeted in wooden huts of about twenty per hut. The one I was in was about 20 yards from a main railway line and at 4-30am every morning the Penzance to London express came by at full speed; it really shook the hut and woke us all up. That wasn’t the end as just as you got to sleep again at 6-30am the Sergeant came along banging the polished “yes polished” dustbin banging the door and shouting, “Come on you lazy lot, get up.” It was a rude awakening from civilian life. At least I was lucky in one thing in that many of the new recruits got badly blistered feet through not being used to wearing boots. I was ok with this. As I previously said, I was brought up on my grandfather’s farm.
We were not allowed out of camp for the first four weeks so on the next Saturday, most of us went into town for some drinks. Somerset being famous for its cider, I and a few others decided to try it. I took my first sip and thought it was off but when asking the landlord, he said it was ok and that’s how it should taste. With that I don’t think I drank any more of their rough cider. But watching some of the other customers especially women, they seemed to be thoroughly enjoying it. It was here that we went on guard duty around the camp at night armed with just a pickaxe handle.
I then went onto a camp in Taunton with a number of others in our platoon for 22 weeks to do basic trade training on all types of light vehicles getting 87.5% on my finals. On about the second Saturday at the Taunton camp we were on morning parade before having our weekend pass when the Sergeant Major, who was drilling us all, gave the call to “fix bayonets”. All on parade did this except our contingent as we had neither been issued with or seen a bayonet. This did not go down well with the Sergeant Major; he dismissed the others but marched us to the stores to get issued with these, then took us back onto the parade ground to train us into using them.
I enjoyed it at Taunton as on free weekends I could thumb a lift home, which took me between 3 ½ to 4 ½ hours and then come back on the train from Swindon, Dad taking me there in his old Standard 10 car. On a few occasions Dad let me take the car for a week. They always detailed nine soldiers for 24 hour guard duty each night but only eight were needed so the best dressed one was picked out as “Stick Man” and did not have to do the guard but had to be on standby if needed. One such time I was on leave over Easter but was on the roster for Monday morning so had to be back in camp for that only to be told I was stick man so spent the day watching television.
Another thing I remember about Taunton was some few weeks after I arrived there, five of my friends from Bampton namely Robert Radband, Ken Long, Cyril Smith, Jeff Horn and Horace Holifield from Ramsden said they would come and see me one weekend and asked me to book Bed and Breakfast for them. I found a place not far from the camp and duly booked two rooms. On the Thursday before this weekend they contacted me to say they couldn’t make it so would I cancel the B&B; this I did. On the Saturday the whole camp were called onto the parade ground, which we thought was for more drill before our weekend pass. This was not the case as we were brought to attention the Sergeant Major bellowed out would Private Hudson take one step forward and with some hesitation, I did this. He then got two Corporals to march me to the Adjutants office, who asked if I was the person who booked B&B at this certain house. When I said yes, he asked why I had cancelled it so I told him my mates couldn’t make it. It transpired that he thought it was some IRA threat as at that time the camp was on high alert. He must have done some checks for I heard no more of it. They never did come and see me at Taunton.
Following this I was posted to Bordon in Hampshire for nineteen weeks where I was trained on armoured vehicles, tanks and personal carriers. It was here I got to drive tanks, which was a great experience but I think the most impressive vehicle I ever drove was the Saracen armoured personnel carrier. It was a 6-wheel drive vehicle, all independently sprung and it drove over very rough ground as if going over smooth water.
After eleven months in this Country I tried to get a posting to Hong Kong but was posted to Kunsebeck, going there on 22nd September 1958. This was a small village near Bielefeld, Germany where I spent the remainder of my army career working in a REME Field Workshop. Here I had an Albion lorry signed over to me with a “crash” gear box that meant you had to double de-clutch all the time but it was fun, especially driving on their Autobahn motor ways. It had a workshop on board and pulled a trailer/generator to supply power when on exercises, which we did occasionally. On one of these we had a tour around the Volkswagen factory and in those days, I thought it was wonderful as they were way ahead of the UK in the manufacturing of cars. After three to four months this lorry was replaced with a new Bedford RL lorry, which was much easier to drive. It was here I was asked or perhaps was told to join the company’s Tug of War team, being the only private in it. This I did as we had training 2 mornings a week, which meant I missed the early morning parade and after a hearty breakfast started work later. The irony of this was that we got to the final of the Army Championships in BAOR (British Army on the Rhine) but on the day when we were weighed for the class we were in, we were found to be overweight so could not compete. I often wondered how we would have got on.
I had always been brought up to value money and from the first couple of weeks in the army I started a savings account, I think at first saving 6d a week, which I raised as time went on. When I was demobbed, I had over a hundred pounds to bring home, this after paying for a flight home (my first one) from Germany for a Whit weekend in Bampton. I was made up to Lance Corporal about two months before my two years were up, I think this was only to give me the incentive to sign on, but an army career was not for me.
I was de-mobbed on Thursday 22nd October 1959 and on the following Saturday I did the Vernon’s football coupon and came up with 8 draws giving me the maximum 24 points but there were a lot of draws that week. So many others also had the same as me but I did get £18 plus.
I then started looking for work; a colleague of mine, Mick Hirons said there was an experimental garage at Smiths in Witney which he thought would be just right for me. So, I went to see if there was anything going at S Smith & Sons, which changed to Smith’s Industries and is now Smith’s Group but no longer in Witney. I arranged to see the Personnel manager who said there were no vacancies in the experimental department at present but if I would like to take a job on one of the production lines, perhaps a vacancy would come. I was not one to work on a menial job but when told it would be on assembling and testing automatic transmissions for the Rootes group, I said I would give it a try. On 2nd November 1959 I started work at Smith’s at five shillings two pence per hour, approximately 26p in today’s money.
Plane (Vickers Vicount) I flew back to Germany on
Me and colleague Alan Zelzer on a scheme in Germany 1959
This turned out to be very fortunate for me as Smith’s were still developing this transmission and I got to know people who worked in the Experimental garage, one being Colin Adams. After about eighteen months on this job a vacancy occurred in the Experimental department and when I applied for it, I was successful. I bought an Austin A40 Somerset on 2nd April 1960 from Hartwell’s of Oxford for £350 so didn’t have to cycle to work anymore. I remember I fitted a radio in the car and when my gran saw it, she couldn’t get over it. Talking of her, she would never answer the phone and always condemned it saying “that umbugging thing”. One thing she did like was watching boxing on the television and Gramp used to say, “Do not tell her there’s boxing on tonight.”
I came home from work at 5-30 on 15th December 1960, only to be met by my uncle Son to say that Gran passed away about an hour ago. It really knocked me back. Although she was my grandmother, she was a mother to me; she was an absolutely wonderful woman.
1960
This car did me well for a number of years until one foggy February morning going down Lew hill on the way to work, I hit a large black and white pig full on in the middle of the road. I’m afraid the pig (owned by Don Rouse) died and needless to say it didn’t do my car much good, although I did get it repaired.
Back to my story, the Experimental department was a large garage where we worked developing and testing many new products from weight loading on lorries, developing new heater systems (remember this was a time when some cars did not automatically have them), emission control valves, seat belts and also air bags.
We took cars to the Motor Industries Research Association (MIRA) near Nuneaton for testing. This was a unit set up to test various things on all makes of cars. Two visits I remember going there for was first, the testing of seat belts and air bags. This was sometime before anyone had heard of air bags. An Austin 1800 body with dummies inside, wired up to instruments, was fixed onto a steel trailer. This was so the car body could be used more than once, which was then propelled along a track at 30mph into a solid object. After seeing this even before seatbelts became compulsory, I always wore one. We also developed and tested the emission control valve for the Rover 2000. MIRA had a banked test track, which consisted of 4 lanes in a diamond shape with the three corners of various degrees of banking with the top one at about 45%. I was driving around there in the Rover one day in the third lane at about 80mph. Also on the track in the fast lane was an MG from Abingdon doing about 100mph. When he overtook me on the outside lane on a corner, I had to look up to him out of my side window. Quite an experience and obviously you were not allowed to change lanes. It was said that if the car was set up properly, you could let go of the steering wheel when going round this track and the car would follow its contours. I never did try it.
As part of the development for this product we had to put 24,000 miles on the clock in one month. This was done in about 27 days by having a rota where the car was taken out and 200 miles done before another driver took over and did the same. The third driver then took over. It was then checked overnight ready for the same the next day. The rest of the mileage was done on Sundays by the foreman or other senior persons. We also did work on double deck buses developing a counting system for the upper deck besides heater work on them. Sometimes one of us was detailed to get and return these buses from Manchester or Sheffield. It was usually Colin Adams or my-self. We also worked on Triumph 2000 police cars from Sheffield developing “head up displays”. This is where you can see information such as speed as it is transferred to the windscreen. It was fun taking these vehicles out on the local roads; one could really build up a queue of vehicles behind you. Yet another thing we were involved with was the infancy of air conditioning in vehicles.
In the 1960s Smith’s had a very good car club and we used to go on rallies about twice a year. We also did two to Southern Ireland. Well, I say rallies; they were more a boozy weekend. About a dozen of us would drive down to Fishguard on a Friday evening and catch the midnight ferry across to Dun Laoghaire and first thing in the morning pick up some Ryan hire cars which had already been booked. We then set off to the West Coast, stopping to pick up clues on the way. On one of these runs I remember getting to a small village on a Saturday for lunch only to find it was market day and a Ford Anglia turned up with 5 Pigs on the back seat. You must remember Southern Ireland was a lot different then, than it is to-day. I think it was in Tralee we went into a small bar and ordered twelve pints of Guinness, which the landlord had to draw from the barrels about head high at the back of the bar. There were three of them; one was nearing empty; the second one was also in use but half full; the third was in the throes of settling. He got half a pint from the first, then topped it up from the second and did this for all 12 pints, each time scraping the head off the top of the glass with what looked like a 6” ruler. You can imagine this took some time, as in the Eagle at Bampton, (previously mentioned), we were ready for another round even before the last one had been served. Not to dwell on this story too much, we travelled back to Fishguard getting home in the early hours of Monday and then it was back to work. On one of these rallies in this country, I remember one of the best clues was “high powered gravy” somewhere in Dorset; it turned out to be the village of Powerstock.
On the 5th January 1963 I was part of a group of engineers and technicians that took three cars, a Mini, a Morris 1100 and an Austin A60 to Ivalo, a small town in the north of Finland which was very close to the Russian border, to do evaluation of
heaters in temperatures of around minus 30 degrees. I went as driver and mechanic and was away for five weeks. The winter of 1962/63 was a very cold one with lots of snow. We were due to motor to Newcastle to catch the Fred Olsen ferry to Oslo but due to the roads, put the cars on the train in London to get to Newcastle. It took us a week to reach Ivalo travelling through Norway, Sweden and on to Finland. When going across the border from Norway into Sweden, we had to change driving from the right side of the road to the left. They just had some forty-gallon oil drums in the form of a chicane in the road, which you drove around to get from one to the other. Sweden did change to the same as Norway on 3rd September 1967. Going along a long straight stretch of road towards the end of our destination, the steering froze solid so we had to stop and let the heat of the engine thaw it out. I was delighted to find that we had a very comfortable hotel in Ivalo, having triple glazing and a large garage beneath the hotel of which a small part became my workshop. For the next three weeks we got up at 4-30am to start testing on the surrounding roads by 5am. This would last for up to two hours; then we would have breakfast. It was then down to me to prepare the cars for evening runs. This entailed changing some of the heater parts, perhaps putting a different radiator in it or changing the deflectors. The evening tests usually started around 5pm. These times were to ensure we got the coldest temperatures. I remember one afternoon 3 of us went to get our hair cut and was surprised to see just 2 ladies working in the shop. That was a first time for me. Another first for me was having a Sauna and then going out to roll in the snow. When we finally returned to the UK, the snow was still here and lasted for a few more weeks. About 2 years later my colleague Colin Adams took an Australian Holden car to Marrakech to test the air conditioning unit developed and fitted by us at Smith’s.
During the 1960s & 70s in evenings and weekends, Colin and myself used to repair and service cars for people, using a shed at Castle View Bampton where I lived. These vehicles were mostly owned by persons from the factory, but some from far afield. As the Rootes automatic transmission was only made for about six years, very few garages knew anything about them, then when owners contacted Smiths, they would put them in touch with us. We did cars from all over the country and in fact I bought a Hillman Super Minx automatic, which we repaired for a lady in Bristol. Her chauffeur brought it to us one Saturday and waited whilst we repaired it. During our conversation he mentioned that his boss was getting on so would possibly be selling it soon. Seeing the wonderful condition it was in I asked him to let me have first refusal. I heard nothing for almost a year. Then I had a phone call to say this lady was going to sell it and was I still interested. I said yes and would come and see it that Saturday. Colin took me there and to cut a long story short, I drove it home, paying £165 for it. When I gave it a thorough inspection it was even better than I had hoped. I ran it for eight years and sold it for £275 to a person named Rae in Scotland. He wanted the number plate 500 RAE.
As part of the 1953 celebrations for the Queen’s Coronation in Bampton, John Quick (gas man) the main instigator, Paul Bovington (fishmonger) and Doug Read (farmer) came up with an idea of running a pram race through the village, asking the nurses from the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford to come and make a collection for the hospital. This was done and so much money was collected that they decided to make this an annual event giving the proceeds to the elderly of the village and so the Spajers (Society for the Prevention of Ancient Junketing) was born. I was asked to join their committee in 1965. This I did, serving almost 40 years, 17 of those being Chairman.
I also ran in this race for a number of years and actually won with my cousin Jim Townsend in 1964, 65 and 1968. My 2 cousins, Bob and John Hudson, also won it a couple of times, being probably the only ones from outside the Village to do so. I’m glad to say this society is still going strong. I’ve just mentioned John Quick. Yes, there was a Gasworks in Bampton; it was just going out of the village on the righthand side towards Aston. It made the gas for the village and also sold coke to the public. On Sunday mornings the gasometer would be full up but come midday, it was very low due to everybody cooking their lunch and people used to complain that they had no gas pressure. Those were the days.
I went on my first overseas holiday in 1968, going to Malta for three weeks with a lady friend of that time. My cousin June Spurrett, who was married to a soldier in the Royal Signals regiment, was stationed out there so, we were invited out to stay with them. It was a very nice holiday but I was so pleased to get home as we hardly saw a cloud in the sky for the whole of the three weeks. Oh, how nice it is to have seasons.
Sometime in the early 60s I bought a Phillips tape to tape recorder. On hearing my voice on it for the first time, I didn’t like what I heard but it will be sad if all the local accents die out. A group of us lads namely Robert Radband, Cyril Smith, Ken Long and Horace Holifield plus one or two more, used to have a ride out on a Saturday evening visiting various pubs. One of our favourite haunts was the King’s Head at Bledington; here they had a piano and Horace was a wonderful pianist. So he always made a beeline for the piano and really got the pub going. I think the landlord rubbed his hands when we turned up. I took my recorder a few times and there was one elderly gentleman there couldn’t get over it when he heard his voice coming out of it. Yes, we really did have some wonderful nights there. It’s a good job there were no drink driving laws in those days. I finally swapped this recorder for a GoCart, hoping to take up the sport which was still in its infancy, taking it to Smith’s car park on a Sunday to drive it around. I didn’t keep it long as the nearest track was at Shennington near Banbury and the cost of tyres etc was a bit prohibitive.
I then bought a 20-foot outboard river cruiser moored on the Thames at Radcot, and my cousin, Jim Townsend, myself and our girlfriends had a week’s holiday on it. I also used to sleep on it on the odd occasions I did nights at Smith’s, looking after two engines on “test beds” either doing tests on Bluecol antifreeze or the automatic transmissions.
It was at Smith’s where I met my future wife Ann around 1967. It was through servicing and repairing cars that we met, as a few of our customers were girls in the offices, one being Pam Ayres with her Morris 1000. I must admit I fancied Ann from the first time I saw her but could never get any information about her from the
others in the offices, like was she married, did she have a boyfriend etc. Not only that, I thought she was far too sophisticated for me. She had an old Mini that we serviced, which was a rust heap and it wasn’t long before the battery fell through the floor going over Radcot Bridge. It was then scrapped and we put her in touch with a colleague who had a Hillman Imp for sale. So, she bought that. Ann worked as PA for the sales export manager at Smith’s. It was her brother, Ken, who lived at Hardwick near Ducklington who got us together (we also serviced his car). He asked me if I would escort Ann to a dinner dance at the Riverside Hotel Burcot on Thames. It was on 5th May 1973, a date I remember well as I worked on a vehicle in the morning and then went to the FA cup final at Wembley, Leeds versus Sunderland which Leeds were expected to win but Sunderland won 1-0. It was Aubrey Oakey, the manager of Witney Town Football Club who got me a ticket. Then I rushed home, had a bath and spruced myself up and went to meet Ann and nine others at the Railway Arms, a pub between Abingdon and the Hotel. Needless to say, we all had a very good evening. That evening I found out most of the things about this beautiful lady. She was born in Acocks Green in Birmingham, had been previously
married and divorced but moved to this area in 1968 after her mother passed away, who she had looked after since her father died and she lived in a bungalow in Cote near Aston. Her maiden name was Custance the family originally came from Luton Bedfordshire where most seemed to work in the hat trade being hat blockers, straw plait dyers, or bonnet sewers. The following day I met Ann and we went into Oxford for a drink at the Oxford Hotel. Going up to the bar, I saw a £10 note on the floor, which had fallen out of a man’s pocket, so picked it up and gave it back to him. This got us our first round of drinks. I think it was on this date I asked Ann if she was a good cook. I wanted to be sure before I got too involved. Luckily for me, she said yes, and now I can vouch for that.
Ann left Smith’s in 1969 and went to work at the Ackland Nursing Home in Oxford but only for a few months. Then she went as secretary to the Home Bursar at Jesus College. She also bought and moved to a flat in Old Marston. Both of us were then 37 and as I’ve said many times, it took me a long time to find the right woman. On 15th December 1973 we were married at Oxford Registry Office as at this time we were not allowed to marry in church due to Ann being a divorcee, Colin Adams being my best man. We had our reception for 35 at the Old Parsonage Hotel in Oxford. My father paid the bill, which came to £82-02 with my auntie Gladys making the wedding cake. Our honeymoon was spent at a Hotel in Weston-under-Penyard near Ross on Wye.
We lived in Ann’s two bed room flat for about six months but as I had been brought up in a 5 bedroom farmhouse. It wasn’t for me. Also it meant me travelling to Witney and back each day. So, we started to look for a bungalow hopefully in Bampton but there were none available in our price bracket. Finally, I found a footballer colleague of mine had his bungalow on the market and so we went to Alvescot to see it. Almost immediately we walked in we fell in love with it and at a little over £14,000, we bought it and moved in on 1st July 1974. To this date in 2021 we have enjoyed every minute of living here. Although Ann sold her flat to the college and we both had good jobs, we fell £1000 short of the asking price but managed to get this onto our mortgage.
There is a story of when we first went to view this property, which is on a no through road in Alvescot and it is that when we were coming away, Ann said to me, “I’ve been down here before.” Don’t forget she had lived in Birmingham. As we passed a large house very close to our property, she said that there used to be some cottages there and sure enough, she was right as Roy Oakey had had this house built in their place. We then figured out that she had come down Lower End many years ago with her parents. Her father bred small birds and they came to see a Mr Fitchet, who lived across the road from our purchase; he also was into small birds. They didn’t buy any birds but bought a small Jack Russell and then went to the Swan at Radcot for a bitter shandy and that became the name of their dog. It really is a small world.
Following moving to Alvescot in 1974, Ann reluctantly gave up her job at Jesus College as she didn’t fancy the journey each day and went to work for Mr Kernanhan, who had a garage and car sales site in High Street, Witney, being there for 7 years. Her next job was at Kelland’s, an accountant in High Street, Witney.
The last 10 years of her working life was spent at Oxfordshire Farm Group based in Eynsham until they moved to Frilford. This entailed buying virtually anything the farmers required such as fertilisers, fuel, parts, etc even down to a ladder. This meant at the end of each month each farmer only had one bill so saved on so many cheques and also as the group bought in quantity, they got a better price, a win-win situation. In those days even with only one full time person and two part-time, they had an annual turnover of around 3 million pounds.
In 1975 a friend of Ann’s family who had moved to Vancouver Canada, I think in 1958 as a lorry driver, bought his own truck and finished up with a large haulage business and he and his wife asked if we would like to go and see them. So off we went to Vancouver flying with Wardair, which was a fantastic airline. We had beautiful food on Royal Doulton tableware. Arriving on a Friday he said, “To settle you in, we will take a trip on my boat tomorrow.” So next day they took us down to the Yacht Club and onto his 25/30 foot cruiser and set off for their log cabin on a site with a number of others about 15 miles up an inlet. This transpired to be the only way to get there. It did not have electricity but was about to be connected. We spent a few hours there and it was idyllic. The doors of the cabin had big claw marks on them from the bears. We stayed with them in Vancouver for about 3 days; then we were offered the use of their small car, which turned out to be a Ford Mustang, to perhaps drive up into the Rockies. They also had another car and a large motor home, which they used in the winter months going to Mexico for the warmer weather.
We set off and the first overnight stop was in Kamloops. Getting changed in the evening for dinner, it soon became apparent that Ann had not packed any clothes for me. Honestly, I didn’t complain but next day had to buy a few things. We drove up as far as Banff, following the Fraser Cannon with the river on one side and railway line on the other. On getting to Banff, we had a job finding accommodation but finally found bed and breakfast with a very elderly lady who was most delightful. On our way back to Vancouver we stopped at Lake Louise, I think one of the most fantastic sights I’ve ever seen, with a huge Château type hotel at one end, pine trees up both sides of the lake and a glacier at the far end. To cap it all, it began to snow.
We then had 2 more days in Vancouver, then borrowed the car again and went over to Victoria Island for 3 days on a ferry, going to Butchart gardens, which had been made from an old quarry used to make cement. It was a sight not to be missed. We also had tea in the famous Victoria Hotel and went to the aquarium there, which I think was the best I’ve ever seen. On the ferry coming back we got talking to some indigenous Indians who were going to the Okanagan region to pick fruit. They were so interesting to meet.
In 1976, which was a very hot summer, we went to Germany for a week going in Ann’s Hillman Imp as we thought it would be cheaper than taking my car. Before we got to Dover to catch the ferry the car started to overheat but we kept going, picking up water along the way and also keeping the heater going full blast to assist the cooling of the engine. We were going to a family just outside Trier.
The father Matie had been a prisoner of war in England and together with other German and Italians, worked on Grandfather’s farm. I diagnosed our problem was due to a leaking head gasket and tried to get a replacement in Germany so I could replace it but no one had seen or heard of the vehicle and if we parked up somewhere, when we returned to the car invariably there were people standing looking at it. After the war when Matie returned home he kept in touch as he had really loved working on the farm and I think he and the others were well looked after by my Grandparents. He and his family came to Castle View twice in the next few years and coming to our bungalow once, he said, “ I would love to come and live here.” Unfortunately, he developed cancer and died shortly after his second visit.
It was in this year of 1976 that we took my father for a few days holiday to Blackpool for his 80th birthday. We stayed at a B&B and on the actual day, the landlady came up with a birthday cake for him. He was over the moon and that night we took him to the Blackpool Tower where he had taken me all those years ago. We hadn’t told him that we had booked seats in one of the boxes in the Tower Ballroom overlooking the stage and that part of the show was a display by the band
of the Royal Marines. It made his and our day. On returning to Bampton he couldn’t stop talking about it to his friends in the Jubilee Pub he used to go to.
Around 1984 Ann and I started to learn the game of Bridge. Andrew Peggie, who lived at Black Bourton, started teaching us and about twelve others all about the game of Bridge. We would go to his house on a Monday evening from seven till nine, where he would give us a lesson and then let us play some hands, coming round to advise us on the correct bids to make. On one such evening I remember calling him over to ask what I should open on a hand, to which he replied, “What do you think?” Anyway I bid and played the hand while he stood and watched. I don’t remember the outcome but what I need to say is that the following week he said to me, “You remember that hand you asked me about last week when you had (then he named all the cards)? well I’ve thought about it and think you would have been better to open on a different suit.” That describes the sort of memory for cards he had. It was a very good introduction to the game as he was such a wonderful teacher, being so patient with us. In 1987 he was the main instigator and first Director of setting up the Bridge club at Bampton, which Ann and I are still members of, this being 2019.
Our friends, David and Rosemary Ballard, were out in Honk Kong in 1989 on a 3 year tour of duty in the RAF and asked us if we would like to go and stay with them for 3 weeks. Of course, we said yes and David had a few days off and took us all over the place on all types of transport. We even went on the underground in the rush hour. “Phew”, London’s nothing to that. We also went over to Macau and hired a Mini Moke for the day to see the sites, also going into a Casino (they were not allowed in Honk Kong). You could hardly see across the room for smoke. Ann and I also booked a short trip into China. There were seven in our group and we were met at the harbour by what we thought was our guide, only to be told he wouldn’t be coming with us and gave me all the documentation plus passports, telling me there would be someone in Canton to meet us, I was not a happy bunny but I must say all went well. Looking at their documents, there was a lady and her daughter from New Zealand, a man from Germany and a couple from Australia and us two. On docking in Canton we were met by a tour guide and a driver and were taken to an absolutely wonderful hotel called The White Swan on the banks of the Pearl River. We were told to get settled in and would be picked up in an hour’s time. Ann and I went to our room on the 15th floor, unlocked and opened the door only to be met by a large coloured gentleman in a very colourful costume. On exchanging apologies, we returned to reception and were given another room on the thirty-seventh floor overlooking the river. Then we were taken to a beautiful Chinese restaurant and given a lovely meal. When we asked what some of the dishes contained, our guide gave us a menu and said, “Get it translated when you get home.” I still don’t know what we ate but it was all very nice.
We saw a lot in the next 2 days being taken around in a mini bus, seeing Temples. We were also taken to a Ceramics and Silk factory, going into a large building with all the looms clattering away. It was like you imagine the weaving factories were like in the north of England some hundred years ago. The noise was tremendous and we were allowed to go where we wanted; there was no Health and Safety. After a night in a different hotel the seven of us were put on a train, the doors then being locked and it was back to Hong Kong. It gave us an insight to China. While we were in Hong Kong I had a pair of trousers and Ann had a suit made at Sam’s, a well-known tailor there. Believe it or not after 29 years I still wear those trousers but must confess they have had the waist let out. Ann also purchased a string of cultured pearls and some earrings from a Jeweller’s shop and when we got home Ann had these valued at Baker’s in Witney, as we knew the Miss Baker quite well. They were valued at more than twice the price we paid, so Ann got in touch with our friends and asked them to bring back a longer string when they returned in a few months. Why I tell this story is that to this day we still get our first Christmas card at the beginning of December from this shop.
I came to know David when he went to work for Mr Bosley on his farm at Lower Haddon. He was single at the time, so he lodged with my auntie Dora and me at Castle View from 1961-1967. He married Rosemary in 1970, I was best man at his wedding and I am Godfather to their first child Martin.
The job at Smith’s came to an end when they closed our department and if I wanted to stay at Smith’s, it looked like I would be on a production line. Again, luck was on my side as I was transferred to a small Hydraulics unit that built one off units for customers such as lifting systems for large outboard motors out of the water. This I tolerated for about eighteen months. Then in the company magazine there was an advert for an installation and service engineer for a small company called Contents Measuring Systems which Smith’s had just purchased, so I put in for it and went to Putney in London for an interview. This company was in its infancy in developing a way of measuring fuel electronically in storage tanks on sites such as fuel depots and garages. I was very relaxed and I remember the second question they asked was would I consider moving to the Putney area. Immediately I said, “No, definitely not.” Two days later I was told the job was mine if I was still interested. I didn’t know what to say and asked some of the top people I knew at Witney what they thought about this new company. Most said they knew nothing about it.
As a car came with it, I decided to take it. So now I was based at Putney but would in time be working from home. For the next few weeks, I travelled to Putney to be trained on this product in my own car, the Hillman Super Minx, on a Monday and stayed at a Bed & Breakfast until Friday. This job took me all over the UK and many places in Europe, even to Northern Ireland, this when the troubles with bombing etc were going on. I always looked around and under the car when I came out of the hotel in the morning, but I did get £25 extra for going there. I was asked to go to Australia to do an installation. My boss must have looked for the cheapest flight he could find as it took me 33 hours to get there. I left Gatwick onto Frankfurt, Karachi, Bangkok and Manila, where I changed planes, then onto Sydney finishing up in Melbourne where our agent met me and took me to a hotel. Next day he picked me up and we drove 100+ miles north to Shepperton. Then on the Monday I started work on the installation at a petroleum depot. There were a few problems that I had to get over but suffice to say I finished on the Saturday afternoon and was taken back to Melbourne. I actually had the Sunday to myself, so contacted a friend who some time ago I had worked with at Smith’s. He and his family had moved to Geelong in Australia about 60 miles from Melbourne. He and his wife came and had lunch with me.
I also had a job to do in Sweden that was to go out and commission an installation at a new site on a motorway only to find on arrival that nothing had been installed. So, I had to extend my stay and do the installation with help from our agent.
Another system we installed was on one of the American airbases in Suffolk. This was in a one million gallon partially underground tank. It had just been built so we were allowed to go inside it but had to wear special shoes as the inside had been coated with Teflon. This was a good job as we came away with a large box of
Budweiser beer. Smiths built this company up and then after about 5 years sold it on to a firm in Market Harborough, who changed the name to Contents Gauging Systems. A few years later it was then taken over by an American company called Veeder Root. I stayed with them for a few years but being an American company, they wanted their pound of flesh as the saying goes. At this point I was covering the South West of England and South Wales and this meant I was doing up to 50,000 miles a year. This, don’t forget, was to get to work.
One tale I must relate was that quite often when I was on a site, others would ask me where I came from. I would say, “I’ll give you three guesses.” No one ever said Oxfordshire; it was anything from Bristol, Norfolk, Somerset and even Australia. One day I was working on a site in Glasgow and a Glaswegian asked this question so I offered him the chance to guess. He then said, “Say something more.” So, I did. He stopped and thought and then said, “ Stanford in the Vale,” (about eight miles from Alvescot). I said, “How did you know that?” And he replied, “I know Pam Ayres was born there and you sound like her”. I did know Pam quite well as Colin and myself used to service her car when we were at Smith’s. On another occasion in Glasgow I arrived on site at around 1pm and made myself known to the building foreman, who with the rest of the workers were inside having their lunch break and then went to start work on the forecourt when the foreman said, “I wouldn’t go out there yet.” I asked why and he said, “There’s a school next door and you are likely to get a brick come over the wall.” I waited until they went into class.
It was whilst working for this company that we made annual trips to the Isles of Scilly, as it gave me a rest from driving, going there on the helicopter from Penzance, staying with a lovely lady named Wendy Hick at Coastguard’s Cottage on St Agnes. It was a lovely, peaceful spot having no vehicles on the island in those days. In all we have visited these islands about 10 times.
Coastguard Cottage where we stayed on the IOS
Inside the Turks Head on St Agnes
In September 1996 as a 60th birthday present to each other, we took a trip on Concorde to New York, which took us three hours fifteen minutes travelling at twice the speed of sound (1,530 mph) at a cruising height of 60,000 feet (11.64 miles).
We even got a look into the cockpit whilst on the way. I remember how small it looked with the four staff in it and how old the instrumentation seemed. You didn’t get the sense of speed up there but you could see the curvature of the earth and the sky was quite dark. A few days before our departure, a girl we knew from HSBC also flew to New York on Concorde with her boyfriend who was a BA pilot, so we arranged to meet up and have a meal at a revolving restaurant high in the sky, another great experience.
We stayed at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel for three nights, going to see the hit show Miss Saigon on Broadway. I remember we ordered a taxi and on getting in, we asked the driver to take us to this theatre on Broadway, only to be asked where that was. That wouldn’t happen in London. Part of this package was coming back on the QE2 and we were lucky to be put on the chief engineer’s table for dinner. He only joined us and four others for two evenings but at least he provided the wines. Needless to say, it was a fantastic trip.
At the age of about 58 I decided enough was enough and I would like to retire at 62. I had built up a pension when with Smith’s and had it transferred into a personal one. So, the last four years of my working life added as much as I could to it and I did actually retire on 11th December 1998 aged 62. I’ve always said next to marrying Ann, it’s the best thing I ever did. This year (1998) was our 25th wedding anniversary and we had a party for about 35 people in the Poacher’s Rest Restaurant in Bampton. It was a very jolly occasion.
At this point I must admit we seem good at closing businesses down as the Riverside Hotel I first went to with Ann closed not long afterwards; then the hotel at Weston-under-Penyard where we honeymooned closed. Next it was the Poachers Rest at Bampton, which closed not long after our 25th anniversary.
The first couple of months of retirement were spent doing the list of jobs Ann had left for me as she carried on working until the end of 1999. In 2000 we went to Australia via Los Angeles for three weeks, staying a few days with our friends Mr & Mrs Bishop in Geelong who I used to work with at Smiths, then onto Sydney picking up a car there and on up to Cairns in between going out to the Great Barrier reef and having a flight out to Ayres Rock for a two nights stay, including taking a helicopter fight around the rock at sunset. We then flew to Auckland New Zealand for three weeks picking up a motor home and travelled both north and south islands. When we left for home, we vowed that we would return. In 2003 we did return flying out on Christmas day for six weeks. This time we went business class on Singapore airlines. What a difference that made on such a long flight. We flew into Auckland, had three nights in a hotel, then picked up a motor home and set off to explore the North Island stopping at Keri Keri on the way to see the daughter and family of Phillip Addison, a person I went to school with. We then had a trip on a coach to 90 mile beach in the north of the island as we were not allowed to take the motor home along this huge beach although it was part of the highway. Next day we set off towards the south of the island, finally going over to the South Island with the motor home and traversing right to the south.
We stopped two nights at Oamaru to watch the Penguins come ashore from their day at sea and found there was a bridge club in town, so went and played there one night. They made us so welcome and we didn’t let the side down as we came 5th. One of our main highlights of this island was at Franz Josef taking a helicopter flight up to the Fox Glacier. We actually landed on the top and were allowed to get out and take pictures but the most exciting part for me was coming back down. I was sat in the front seat taking a video and we actually followed the glacier all the way down twisting and turning past the rocky terrain on both sides. It was a James Bond moment.
About 2 hours after leaving Franz Josef we heard a loud bang in the engine. On stopping to investigate found that the cooling fan had come off and gone into the radiator. Having no mobile phone, we finally stopped a car with an American couple in it. They were so helpful the wife stayed with Ann whilst he took me to the nearest garage about 5 miles away. They came out and towed us into their workshop in the small village near Lake Tekapo. As they could not repair this fault, they contacted our rental company who agreed to send a replacement motorhome out the following day and also pay for a hotel stay overnight. There was what looked like a nice hotel just opposite the garage so we booked in. As we were getting ready to go down for our evening meal, we noticed that it seemed to be getting noisy down below only to find it was the annual gathering of the local sheep farmers at the hotel. Phew, what a night that was.
In this small village there was a beautiful little church on a piece of high ground which overlooked a lake, the window behind the altar was plain glass so you had the lake view from inside the church. We both loved our two trips to N Z, shame it’s so far away.
In 2001 I started doing a gardening job at Alvescot House as and when I wanted to. It was just cutting the lawns and tending the vegetable garden. Through a friend I then got a driving job with a lady in Oxford who did Private Hire. She had three vehicles, one being a seven seat minibus, and with five part-time drivers, we took it in turns to be on call. I enjoyed this little job as we used to pick up some interesting people, some being well known. The one I remember most was picking up Chelsea Clinton when she was in college at Oxford and with three others, taking them to and from Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons at Great Milton. She had a phone call from her father, Bill Clinton, on the way. Apparently, he was on a golf course somewhere in America. I did have an armed security man along with me and another following me in an unmarked vehicle. Another pick up was a Gentleman from St John’s College, taking him to London Heathrow. There were two others there to see him off and one said to me, “Be very careful as this is probably the most important person you have ever driven.” I never did find out who he was and didn’t say I had Chelsea Clinton in the car a few weeks earlier.
This job also included taking tourists around the Cotswolds. I had some laughable moments on these trips. One was with an elderly American couple, who after a while going through some villages, he said to his wife, “Gee, there’s another castle over there.” When I asked where, he pointed to the battlements on the village church. Another was with two young Chinese girls when they kept on laughing. When I asked why, they pointed to some sheep in a field, as they had never seen them before. So I stopped and let them get their cameras out. Just one more of many was again an American couple who wanted to go to Stonehenge, Bath and
Castle Coombe. We went to the first two, then coming into the village of Castle Coombe, they asked where the Castle was. I had to explain there was no castle but that was the name of the village, telling them that this village was used a lot for filming, including Doctor Dolittle. They enjoyed it anyway; I think Americans are obsessed with castles. Just two more I must relate, first we had a regular Russian lady who one day asked to be picked up from the Savoy hotel in London. She had booked me to be there at 11am. I arrived on time but she did not appear until 1145 and said she wanted to go to Harrods. So I took her there and was asked to wait for her. Well, you can’t just park outside for long so drove around until she appeared about 45minutes later with a man with a load of bags which he put in the car. She then said she was going across the road to another shop so would I pick her up there. Another 30 minutes passed until she finally appeared then asking to be taken to the Dorchester Hotel where she was going to her hairdressers, finally coming out about two hours later saying “I will now go back to my hotel”. So, I had spent 6/7 hours on this trip, why didn’t she get a cab? Next there was when I was asked to pick a young lad up from Brize Norton RAF base. I arrived at 6pm to be met by an officer who took me out onto the airspace where we waited for an eight seat Lear jet to land. We then drove out to meet it and a eleven year old got out and into my vehicle. I then had to take him to the Dragon school in Oxford. On the way I said to him,” That was a nice plane “ and he said yes, “It’s my grandfather’s and he lets me use it sometimes”, he had just flown from Scotland where he had been on holiday. How the other half live. I left this job after about 5/6 years as I had been diagnosed with Atrial Fibrillation and for a parting gift, the proprietor Angie gave me a £150 voucher for the Le Manoir Restaurant at Great Milton just outside Oxford, which Ann and I used one Saturday lunch time, being driven there and back by our friends, John and Margaret Marston. We had a very nice meal but on paying the bill had to pay £87 plus tip on top of the £150 voucher.
One thing I hate is shopping for clothes/shoes, especially for Ann. So, I have my fun by trying and often succeeding to get a discount. One or two encounters as follows. We were in Jersey on holiday and Ann went into a very nice ladies shop to look for something she could use on a cruise and found two items she liked. I asked the assistant how much discount I would get, to which she replied, “ I’m sorry but Madam doesn’t give discount.” I then asked if I could speak to Madam. When she came, I asked the same question to which she replied, “If you take the two items, I could stretch to 15%”. This I agreed to. Another instance we were in Cavendish House in Cheltenham and again asked for a discount on a dress Ann was interested in, only to be told I could only be given 5%. This I said was not enough and on that, another lady appeared and said, “ I’m sorry but I couldn’t help overhearing you and think I can do better than that.” I said,” You’re the person I’m looking for then,” and I got 15% again. The next was in Hotters shoe shop in Winchester. Ann saw a pair of shoes she wanted but when I asked for a discount, I was told they did not give
discounts and so reluctantly said we would take them. On wrapping them up, the assistant said, “ Would you like some spray polish?” I said, “Yes please, if it’s free. She declined this and so I said,” Would you go and ask your manager about this?” And this did the trick. I got my free polish.
In about 2002 Ann and I started to learn to use a computer, going on a course in Carterton for two hours a week. We then bought our first computer. It was in 2004 I started to look at my Family History, I joined Genes Re-united and have my tree on it. I must say it’s very addictive. At present I‘ve gone back to the 1700s but still have to check out the Hudson line previous to the 1800s. I’ve also looked at Ann’s family and an amazing coincidence came to light as follows. Her Father Arthur William Custance was born two years after my father. He worked as a Fitter/Driver in civilian life as did my Father, was in WW1 joining the Royal Garrison Artillery Regiment and won the Military Medal for taking messages under very heavy artillery fire. This is exactly the same as my father. I would recommend more persons to look at their past family and if you still have your Grandparents, ask them what they know. I wish I had. Within a few months of delving into my fore-bearers I found a cousin in Toronto and another in Australia and have met both. The Australian one came here to see her twin brother soon after me finding her, then a few years later for a Christening and then we met her in Brisbane when we were on a cruise. I also belong to the Oxford Family History Society; they are very helpful, having meetings at Kidlington every first Monday of the month. I am also a member of the Bampton Archives during which I’ve had some amazing “finds”. These are all due to people either coming into the Archives or through their website.
First there was a lady who had been in and left a message in the visitor book to say we had her grandfather’s name spelt wrongly. She didn’t leave her name but left her telephone number.
On looking at this, I thought I know this person, so telephoned this number when I got home and it was the person I suspected. She was born and brought up in Bampton, being four years younger than me. I went to school with her and knew her very well. She also worked at Smith’s as secretary to one of the bosses; not only that, she married my boss, the chief engineer. We were going on holiday to Falmouth about ten days following this, so arranged to call and see her in Plymouth where she now lived. She gave us a lovely lunch and on talking about her father and grandfather, she said to me “you don’t know; you really don’t know, do you?” And I said, “What do you mean?” She then said, “Your uncle was my father,” him being one of my grandfather’s sons who was not married at the time. This I knew nothing about neither did my cousins. Then on another occasion a couple came in and asked if I knew of anyone by the name of Plaster in the village. I said, “No, not at present, but in my early days there was an Arthur Plaster that lived in Church View.” This was the family he was looking for and with that, he got his computer out and put up a picture of a house, saying, “Do you by any chance know where this house is in Bampton? I think it’s called Castle View”. It was taken in 1880. I took one look and said, “Know it I had my first 37 years on this earth in that house”. The next two happened in 2018, again through the Archives. A man from Yorkshire contacted me and said he had just purchased a derelict 1921 Model T Ford lorry he hoped to restore. On checking past owners through the registration number, he came up with Albert Townsend of the Elephant & Castle, Bampton (my grandfather). To put it lightly, I was gob smacked. I have a wonderful photo of this lorry with my father
stood at the side of it. So, I sent it to this person. He was overjoyed. I hope to make a trip to see this lorry sometime this year (2019). This just shows what you can uncover doing your family history.
Finally, it’s about a librarian from Kings Lynn, who said they had work done on the roof of the library and the workmen found a number of names carved into the stonework. He had researched some of these names, two of which came from Bampton and yes, one was my Father, W Hudson; the other was an Aubrey James Cato, of whom I’ve since found out, they were next door neighbours at Plantation Cottages. It transpires that they joined the Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars together in 1915 and were sent to Kings Lynn for training before going across to France and whilst there, they were used as lookouts on the roofs of high buildings to look out for Planes and Zeppelins. Sadly A. J. Cato did not return from France as he was blown up on 9/10/1916 and has no known grave but is on the Thiepval war memorial in France and also the Bampton War Memorial.
In 2006 we went on a forty seven day cruise around South America, picking up the Fred Olsen ship, Black Watch, in Buenos Aires, then onto Port Stanley (Falklands) on round Cape Horn onto the glaciers of Chile, then it was Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, through the Panama Canal, which was a sight to behold. Next stop was a small sand bank in the middle of the ocean called the Sand Blas islands. It was literally only two or three metres above the sea, the inhabitants being jet black and very shy. Then it was through the Caribbean and back to England. It was on this cruise that we had 3 emergency Helicopter lift offs. First one was the fish chef who had cut himself very badly; then a few days later the Captain’s father-in-law had a heart attack; then when we were 18 hours out of Antigua on our way to the Azores, another man had a heart attack and so the ship had to turn round and go back for 9 hours so the helicopter could reach us. This meant we did not have time to stop in the Azores. On this trip we met some very interesting people, two couples in particular, one from Norfolk and the other from London although this lady’s husband passed away some few years ago. At the age of 82 she got married in 2019 to a childhood sweetheart and we attended their wedding in north London. We go to stay with the other couple in Gorleston, Norfolk and they come to us perhaps once a year. It was now 2007 and I had now fully retired from my part-time jobs, so we decided to get a few holidays in before we got too old. Here are just a few of the best, apart from the ones I’ve already mentioned. In 2001 we went on a wonderful cruise to Alaska, combined with a 3 day trip into the Denali National park where we saw brown bears and a family of foxes. Then in 2007 we went from Southampton to Iceland, Nova Scotia, down the Eastern seaboard into New York on to the Bahamas. We did two cruises to the Caribbean, two to the Norwegian Fiords and on the first we went to within 600 nautical miles of the North Pole at latitude 80 degrees north. We were actually in the pack ice, being, we were told, the first cruise ship to get that far north. We saw arctic foxes, a polar bear, arctic terns and a walrus. In 2009 and 10 it was to the Baltic. 2011 it was Australia to Dubai with forty nights on this cruise. Somewhere off the north of Australia, the Captain asked those who wanted to see the night sky to come to the top deck, where he would point out some of the stars. It was one of the most wonderful sights I’ve ever seen as he turned the ships lights out so we were in total darkness and then pointed and named many of the stars using a laser pen. It was as if he was touching them. There were two more interesting things happened on this trip; first in the middle of the Indian Ocean, we saw smoke on the horizon. The ship changed course to investigate and found what looked like a large Dow in a ball of fire. As the crew couldn’t see any people in the sea the captain said he had reported the incident and we carried on. Two days later we had to have pirate drill as we were approaching the Arabian Sea. We had to sit down on the floor in the central gangway with our backs against the wall; this was in case the captain had to make a sharp manoeuvre. The crew also put barbed wire on the ship railings and fixed water cannons around the ship. I think the
only countries of any significance we have not visited are Mexico, South Africa and Greenland. We should have called in at Greenland on our way across to our Eastern seaboard cruise in 2007. After stopping at Reykjavik, we set off for Greenland but on day two we met a gale in the North Atlantic. The ship’s log says force 10/11; it got to its height at two in the morning, things were crashing about everywhere and we were somewhere near where the Titanic went down. Not only that, but the crew were out on deck shovelling snow from the decks but we survived to tell the tale having to by-pass Greenland.
In our later years Ann and I are still enjoying our Bridge and also short holidays in this country. We did go on a couple of river cruises, first a 14 day one on the Danube from Amsterdam to Budapest, which we thoroughly enjoyed but being two of only four Brits on board, most were Australian and then in descending order, New Zealanders, Americans and Canadians but I assure you, we did hold our own. The second was from Paris to Monaco. This place was on another planet, all sorts of cars were being driven about, I think, just for show: Maseratis, Rolls Royce, Porsche and Bentleys, to name but a few. We were booked into the Fairmont Hotel and were lucky to have a huge room with a balcony overlooking the very sharp bend of the Monaco Grand Prix Course; this would have cost a fortune on race days.
It is now May 2019 and we have just been to see the Librarian at Kings Lynn, who let me know about Dad’s name together with many others carved in the stonework on the roof of the library. Apparently while they were there they were billeted in people’s homes and joined in the town life.
I had a long talk with him and he told me about how the QOO Hussars played football against the Bucks Hussars regiment to raise money for the West Norfolk and Lynn Hospital. The game finished in a 1-1 draw and due to the very wet day, only £4 was raised. Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to go onto the roof to see my father’s name carved there, although I have a photo of it. We then travelled to near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, spending two days to visit the Beamish Museum, which I had always wanted to see and I wasn’t disappointed. Then on the way home we had arranged to see my grandfather’s old 1921 Model “T” Ford lorry and meet the father of the man that had bought it and hoping to get it back on the road. We had a long talk and he told me his son had bought it at an auction in Reading and said that he found he had his hand in the air and before he knew it, had purchased this truck. Apparently, his father was with him and said, “Now you’ve bought it, how are you going to get it back to South Yorkshire?” So, he bought a trailer and put it on that. It was a wonderful moment for me to see the lorry.
We have to-day (5/6/2019) been to the Concorde Museum at Filton, Bristol to see the plane they have there. I was hoping that someone could find out for me which of the Concordes we flew on in 1996 but the best they could do was say if it was a BA one, it narrowed it down to one of seven. I know we sat in seats 14c and 14d on the starboard side, taking off at 10-30am and arriving at JFK 09-25am.
We are now into 2020, which was not a good year for us or the rest of mankind. In early January we had to have a new Induction hob in the kitchen; then 3 weeks later our oil-fired boiler developed a water leak so that had to be replaced; then towards the end of the February, Ann was told she had lung cancer. To cap it all, in March along came the worldwide Corona Virus Epidemic. Over the coming year there were 3 separate lock-downs that is, when shops other than food outlets were closed together with many other businesses. I never thought that going to the Churchill Hospital for Ann to have 5 sessions of radiotherapy would be a welcome break from being indoors. This at least seems to have controlled her cancer but she is now having tests for heart problems; at least we have a garden to go into. Our passports ran out in 2020 and we decided not to renew them as coming up to 85 and with Ann’s health, the insurance would be quite expensive but we hoped to see much more of this country. This was not to be. Ah well, there’s always next year.
I will conclude by saying I’ve had a very good life and have always said I was lucky to be born in England, Oxfordshire and in Bampton. When you stop and think, one could have been born anywhere in the world and your life would have been completely different. I had a good upbringing, never been out of work and have had reasonably good health. Besides I was very lucky to find such a good wife and at this point in life being married for almost 49 years. I’ve had a wonderful 25 years of retirement and still look forward to a few more. I put my 86 years down to always eating good food and everything in moderation and of course, a bit of luck. You’re on this earth for a very short time, so I’ve tried to make the most of it.
Frank in 2022
