This collection has been compiled by Mary Beck. Some interesting tales that paint a picture of family life at that time
Children's wartime memories
You can see many photographs from this era, as well as images of the original scrap books produced by Peggy Spinage.
There is also a booklet written by Mary Beck, and contributed to by 1950s members, giving an easy read all asbout the club and its activities.
Its very interesting, real history, and a tribute to Russell Spinage and his sister.
Youth Club photos, scrapbook and booklet
It was amazing to see the photo on page 2 - for I, along with the other 46 in the School picture can say, "Snap!" (I rushed to find my own copy stored away in a cupboard!). I can only recognise a few faces (including Sister Ruth, and Margaret Hockeday too tall for the photo at right! I'm third in left, back row with to David Jeayes on my left. My friend was Margaret Watts, day girl of Manor Farm,Black Bourton - and where is Biddy Kipping? I certainly recognse the boy, first on left next row down (name?), for in the summer along with others we went out to Margaret's Farm for a happy day. I think many of the fellow students were day- school atendees.
Since writing all this as a draft (and not submtting it until now) I was delighed to see Jane Meredith (nee Robertson) has written in with her memories - and identity as the girl third row back, sixth from left. (I am hoping a copy of this will reach Jane, and I will also write to her separately.)
As with David Paris' tribute - 1946-47 - in retrospect I am enormously grateful to Miss Downs for coaching me to get to Christ's Hospital, girls then at Hertford. I had missed out on the crucial 3R's - and even though I was a slow learner Miss Downs did all she could! Other CFH students destined for CH were Ruth and David Jeayes, Margaret Hockeday and Biddy Kipping - and maybe others in the photograph? And would Margaret Watts and Biddy Kipping be on e.mail to write to me?
It was good to have David Sheringham's reminiscences - did David provide the photos? Whilst, as said, my 3Rs were lacking the music made a lasting impression - one of my letters home, May 12, 1940 apparently enclosed a chapel list on the occasion of 'S. H. Nicholson came to hear us sing.'
Now I belong to the Quangle Wangle accapella Choir in Weymouth (begun in 1994-5 to coincide with the Tall Ships Race here - now some 90 members with songs lined up for the 2012 Sailing Olympics here!
It was sad to hear that Mis Downs died leavng Miss Sims to run the School.
So - all CFH past students - aren't we fortunate to have gone there - Three Cheers for Miss Downs and Miss Sims!!!
Francia Milray Hardman (nee Mayes)
franmil5@btinternet.com
| Photo of Church Farm House School, taken in the summer, when all the windows were open. The picture was on one side of a postcard which the headmistress of the school, Miss Downes, sent in 1942. |  |
Hello from London, Ontario, Canada. I attended The Elms from 19 53 until 1957. Rosemary Haynes and I were two new girls together and we became best friends, still are and I come over to visit her at least once every year. My maiden name was Ann Tullett - I lived in Watchfield and took the bus every day to school. Some of our classmates were Bobby Anderson, Pat Smith, Helen Knapp, Pauline Paling, Wendy Allen, Sue Roberts, Peggy Collins and Margaret Smith, who sadly, was killed in a rather nasty car crash whilst we were all still at school.
I came to Canada in 1966, married and had two sons. One of my sons is married and I am now a grandmother. Anyone remember me??
A few trips ago Rosemary and I went to The Elms and were rather horrified to see our girls school had become a boys/girls school with an entrance specifically for boys! The school looked much the same though.
I started when Miss Moore was still headmistress and then Miss Towns arrived. I loved the camaraderie of all the girls but loathed the uniform, especially the awful grey felt hat. Rosemary and I still have the huge photograph taken of the whole school when the two of us "rebelled" that day by wearing black belts instead of the obligatory white belts with our blue checked dresses!
Pretty mild rebellion by todays standards. If anyone still has that photo - check us out - you can pick us out through the black belts!
Ann Neilson
ann.neilson@sympatico.ca
June 2011
What a marvel the internet is! This morning, thinking of my childhood war time boarding school days, I typed in Church Farm House School, Faringdon and, bingo, there was an entry from one David Sheringham, enclosing a photograph of the pupils. There I was - fair haired little girl with a fringe, third row back, sixth from the left! His letter brought back so many memories. During my time at the school Miss Sims and Miss Downs acquired Romney House, in the town (I'd forgotten its name), and we used to walk there from Church Farm House for some lessons. I remember the cinema and looking longingly at the advertised programmes and wishing I could see the films.
The chapel played a big part in the school's life. I think I'm right that the school prepared some boys for choir schools, and some girls for Christ's Hospital School. I think my love of music stems from those days and hearing beautiful boys' voices singing such arias as My Heart Ever Faithful and Let the Bright Seraphim. Although a girl, I was also in the choir which, as David Sheringham says, was in the old farm stable. This was only used as a chapel on Sundays - it was a classroom the rest of the week.
Walking to The Folly and the fun we had there lives in my memory. We would race round it in opposite directions and see who got back to the starting post first.
As David said, it was possible to get to the school by train; my mother would take me to the station and I would travel in the guard's van, in charge of the guard. How times have changed!
For a period of time my dormitory was in the hayloft, which had a wooden staircase leading down from it into the vegetable garden. As he says, there were fruit bushes in the garden - I remember picking gooseberries. I also remember gorging myself on elderberries and being very sick afterwards.
The school was divided into different 'Houses' and mine was Shepard House, named after E. H. Shepard, the illustrator of the A.A.Milne Winnie the Pooh books. Mr Shepard used to write letters to our 'house' and I remember seeing them pinned up on a notice board. Instead of signing his name he would draw a little Piglet waving his hankie goodbye.
There was a day boy in the school whose parents owned a sweet shop in Faringdon. It was war time and sweets were in very short supply so this boy was popular with us; if we were lucky we'd be the recipient of his lump of chewing gum once he'd chewed all the taste out of it!
I remember an occasion when my mother came to see me and stayed at a guest house in the town which had gas lights!
Jane Meredith (nee Robertson),
Dublin, Ireland
jameredith5@gmail.com
| 1940s, 1950s My memories of Faringdon go back a long way, not only because I was born here in '61 but also by word of mouth from grandparents and great grandparents who were also born in the town. I don't have many historical photos but it would be great if anyone has any to back up these memories. As an 8 year old at the junior school, I remember the excitement of watching the tall brick chimney of the dairy being blown up during one lunchbreak. It made such a crash that the ground shook and there was a huge cloud of dust. My grandfather Robert Wright was the director of Vale Engineering which had a works in Coxwell Road, where agricultural vehicles were serviced. He left school at 14 and worked as an apprentice for Frank Lane, who was the owner of The Vale before it was taken over after the war by my grandfather and another director. As well as the engineering works, The Vale had an ironmongers in Coxwell Street where the bookmakers is now. The Vale eventually outgrew their premises in Farindon and moved to Clanfield at a site which has now closed down and is used for storage. While working as an apprentice, my grandfather learnt the trade of wheelwright and made carts and wheel barrows! There was a carriage workshop in the three storey building which is now a furniture outlet on the top of Arthur's Hill. Evidently, they started work at 6 am to the sound of a hooter from the steam boiler in the workshop. They were then allowed to go home at 8 am for breakfast. WWII evidently completely transformed the agricultural industry in the area, with modern machinery imported from the US under lease lend replacing victorian implements. It paid to be a fast learner to adapt to the new technology and my grandfather certainly adapted to the challenges. Once they had a shipment of Jeeps which had to be fitted with a device at the front to cut wires that the enemy might string across the road during the Normandy Invasion. In former times there was a brick swimming pool somewhere off Park Road near the railway, which was I think demolished in the '50s. The two brick railway cottages which are on Park Road opposite the Esso filling station were at one time supposedly haunted by a poltergeist, which was very alarming to the then tenants. Anthony Field |
 Bigger photograph |
More photographs from Church Farm School
church farm school 1951.JPG
church farm whole school 1951.JPG
church farm choir 1951.JPG
Chris JF Watts
c.watts187@ntlworld.com
I just discovered this site and am so glad that Church Farm House school is remembered. I was a boarder there for 5 years and it was a fantastic school where the standards of learning were exceptional under the very strict Miss Downs and Miss Sims who mainly focused on the choir.
I was at Church Farm House in the Dormitory with its horsehair mattresses and thin grey blankets. I remember we used to conduct scrumping raids at night on the various fruit trees and at time raid the pantry. On our walks we used to collect elderberries and make a fermenting brew with sugar . This was hidden under the floorboards and we had "midnight feasts" drinking this and nibbling on candles, scrumped fruit, and a mixture of butter and sugar brought by the weekly boarders.
We used to compete to help in the kitchen so we could get the crusts off teachers sandwiches and at breakfast get the lumps in the porridge.
Highlights of the week were the small chocolate bars selected from a table and the weekly tablespoon of syrup of figs and tablespoon of malt. The former followed by congestion at the toilets. We were always hungry but were not allowed to ask for food from parents with our weekly letters home censored so I posted "secret letters" and still have some. "Dear Mum. I hope you are well. Please send me some food".
As mentioned the education was fantastic including French and German and we had great books read to us or available for reading with authors such as Dickens, De Maupassant, Sir Walter Scott, John Buchan,Wilkie Collins, H.G Wells etc. I still recall one dictation exercise that I got correct "I was descending the declivity with such an excessive velocity that I lost my centre of gravity and was precipitated upon the macadamised thoroughfare". The education was so good that the 11 plus exam was a romp and I left the school with great manners, great speech and knowledge that opened up opportunities in my future life that would never had been possible without such a great all round education. I should add that unlike other students I came from the east end of London and went to Church Farm on a bursary from St Paul's School as my grandfather was the chief stonemason there.
One highlight is when Lord Rowallan the chief scout visited and I have a photograph taken with him. I went from Church Farm to Greenford Grammar and after getting my GCE left to go to Australia by myself as a child migrant at the age of 16.With a career now behind me that has included senior executive positions, university lecturing, management consulting and travel to over 38 countries I still believe that I really owe the great life I have led to that wonderful grounding at Church Farm.
In the 1960's I went back to UK and was touring England with some friends. I took them to Church Farm House and was showing them through the school. A lady asked me what I was doing and I explained. She then smiled and said it is a private home now! I could write a lot more about those school days but it would take up too much space.
Some names I do remember are Raymond Lovejoy, John Lewis, Judy Lewis and Olwen Bennet.
I now live on the south coast of Western Australia on 5 acres not unlike the Church Farm grounds.
David Paris
December 2010
| Church Farm
House School and war time Faringdon During the war years I was at a boarding school at Faringdon (1940-1946), known as church Farm House, opposite the church. It was run by a Miss Sims and a Miss Downs. They also acquired Romney house as part of the school, which was opposite the cinema. Which was known as the Rialto. I remember the 'Wings for Victory' displays in the Square, with a spitfire on show there. On Sundays we walked along the Oxford Road to Littleworth Church. Along the roadside were ammunition dumps. We had a choir school and sang in Westminster Abbey for a special service, attended by Princess Margaret. At Christmas we toured the local churches to serve Carol services . A local landowner was Admiral Clifton Brown who I think lived along the Whitney Road area. He came to invest us into Boy Cubs. Our favourite walk was up to the Folly, but it was all closed up in those days. Perhaps it was used for ammunition storage. On speech day when parents visited, we took them up to the Folly, where for some reason, we all stood on our heads to imitate the Folly! In those days Faringdon was in Berkshire. You could get there from London by train, which we did, changing at Uffington, with a view of the White Horse. The old farm stable was converted into our chapel. There were many fruit bushes, which we picked from for puddings. The hayloft was converted into a dormitory and the field into our football pitch. A local policeman by the name of Chalcroft coached us for sports. American troops were stationed at Faringdon mostly black soldiers. I remember marching around the town keeping in step calling 'Hip, hup, hi, haw' We had 2 days off for VE day. What a day! David Sheringham Gwynnedd |
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1951
John Carter and Ruth: I remember 2 day-boys called Carter - Colin and Patrick, his younger brother; Patrick was a promising footballer - they both were!
I still have some photographs from those days, but mainly of the choir, and I have memories of rehearsals in the song school - now an outhouse at Romney House - which was an early introduction to choral singing.
I remember some of the day girls, especially Joanna Phillips who was an able and talented girl! I'd be delighted to hear from you about what you remember about the school.
I remember going up to Church Farm for lessons during the day; some people slept there. Other names that come back to me: Alan Lowson, Martin Rowling, Miss Ogdon, Dr Billen (priest I think),Jeremy Hayward-Surrey.
I've got a photo of the whole school on the steps of Romney House, taken in 1951!
C.J.F. Watts
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If this is the one and same school that moved to Southmoor into New House just off the Hanney Road.
I have some Photographs of the pupils and staff while it was still in Faringdon. I attended New House School when it was run by Mr and Mrs Street in the '60's. The smell of hops take me straight back to the school as it was part of and next to Blanchard's Farm which still has Hop Gardens. I also helped clearing the buildings when Mr Street, a spinabifida suffer in a wheel chair but quite remarkable man, was hounded out of business and into hospital by the local media. Ron Street was not wheel chair bound though, despite little use of his legs. He was often to be found behind the bars of a huge Villiers powered Ransome mower or an Allen Sythe as they gave him freedom. On one well remembered occasion he had the throttle stick open and rolled of the machine into the ha ha before the ensemble buried itself into the green house. Panic ensued as a body could not be found until he was heard and retreaved, bruised, dirty but triumphant. The man was a lesson to the youngsters that a disability is challange to work harder not a reason to abdicate responsiblity for oneself. I still know some of the staff and pupils of that time as many special and extraordinary people were associated to New House.
Alan Hitchcock
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1940-1946 I went there, in fact I think all four of us went to either Church Farm or Romney House, the school eventually moved to Southmoor, to the house where the ex MP Robert Jackson lives. Not sure you are right about boarders. I seem to remember Miss Downs died leaving Miss Sims to run it. I used to have a photo with sister Ruth in it.
John Carter
Snow had fallen at intervals since Boxing Day, with particularly heavy falls on December 29th and New Years Eve
A new milk tanker service started on 1/1/1963, travelling from HA Job Ltd, Thatcham, via West Hannay, Lyford, Goosey, Challow, Baulking.
The Rowstock: Wantage road was impassable, as was the road from West Hannay to Lyford. Drifts on many roads were 4 feet deep.
On one farm snow had drifted up to ground floor window level and there was a 3 foot icicle as thick as a man's arm hanging from the gutter. The wind was cutting across the flat fields and piling up more snow.
Some drifts were so high that only the cab of a tractor was visible.
The tanker was stuck many times and had to be pulled out of drifts by recovery vehicles.
Drivers walked to Faringdon from Stanford in the Vale to stay overnight, but the next day had difficulty in finding the tankers because they were completely covered in snow.
The farms on the run were Challow Hill Farm; Oldfield Farm, Baulking; Stanford House Farm; Cold Harbour Farm, Hatford; Manor Farm, Lyford.
These were the first farms in the area to have tanker collection. Tanker collection in Faringdon area did not start properly until 1964. Until that date, milk collection in churns was delivered to Express Dairy and White Horse dairy, both in Park Road. Cadel bros, based in Sandshill did the churn haulage.
John Banks
Witney
Many in Faringdon and beyond will remember Miss AJ Towns who was head of the County Grammar School for Girls from 1957-1976. The school was situated where the Faringdon Junior School stands today. Miss Towns, who was originally from Suffolk, arrived at the Elms to take the reins of a school that had a good reputation and attracted girls from the whole region.
Two people who remember her well and still know her are Fred and Freda Hunt of Faringdon. Freda was housekeeper for Miss Towns, the whole time she was in Faringdon and the couple lived in a flat at the school, along with their son Ivor.
Freda recalls a time when she made pupils stay behind on the last day of term to clean the floor where ink had been spilt from the inkwells when desks were turned upside down. She knew every one of the 600 girls by name and when she went into the playground a hush descended. On another occasion on discovering that the chains from the toilets were missing she had them replaced with rope as the girls were using the chains to make belts. She had a reputation for being strict, but was always firm and fair and instilled a sense of what was right and what was wrong in her pupils.
She retired in 1976 soon after the school amalgamated into a comprehensive with Tollington to form the current Community College. Miss Towns moved back to Suffolk, near Woodbridge, where she occupied herself with her passions for bird watching and travelling.
This article appeared in Faringdon Folly, January 2009
My name is Tricia Stayne,( now Elms) I was at The Elms when Anstace Moore was headmistress, from 1943- 1951. I remember Miss Moore's deep spirituality and humility, in assembly she would always kneel on the floor to pray on the platform in front of the whole school her sincerity was clear, it inspired all the staff and the girls. her strength came from God. Yes, at times she was 'formidable' teachers have to be in charge, but my main memories are of her compassion and understanding.
I was a teenager with excess physical energy needing an outlet so I was often up trees or on the games field at the wrong time, somehow while holding my absolute respect and drawing the best from me, Miss Moore never squashed me or made me feel falsely guilty. She once said to my concerned parents "There is nothing Pat does that I have not also done when I was at school" She always had faith in me, expected more from me, but totally honoured the person I was, as I was. She seemed to draw the best from each situation;
on one occasion I had to spend a day in her office as a punishment for over exuberance in a maths lesson. I worked hard all day under the eagle eye, at four -o -clock I was given a piece of chocolate cake and lemonade acompanied by a 'Don't do it again' smile. Her pschychology was perhaps ahead of her time.
Anstace work in the juvenile court and for young disadvantaged people was outstanding, her sense of justice and persuit of justice was a wonderful example to us all, she was able to combine the ability to 'see it' from the point of view of the family with difficulties while at the same time applying the official helps and support in the best possible way.
Miss Grizel Bell came as PE teacher during my time at The Elms. Sometimes in ones life the right person arrives for you at the right time. Grizel inspired me with her discipline and teaching ability, Yes, but she also had this 'something' that Anstace had, an empathy with the child, a humanity that built you up, corrected calmly while at the same time, encouraged progress.
Subsequently, I, who was initially not an enthusiastic acedemic pupil at all, gained my teachers diploma at Bedford PE college and have enjoyed my teaching career.
There is so much more I could say, I'd love to get in touch with Valerie Barker,Gwen Large, Betty Sanger, Mollie Miles who was head girl and of course Grizel Bell.
I did visit Anstace and Miss (Mary?) Craig once in Torrington Devon, near Newton Abbot which is where I am now.
But it's not just happy memories of THE ELMS, but of a school that gathered up my abilities without damping my energies and individuality.
I am so happy to find this opportunity of expressing my appreciation.
tricia.elms@googlemail.com
23 Gloucester Street is the house referred to in Rossalyn's mail - formerly Mansell House it is now Foster House (Dr Foster above the door). It has 3 floors and 2 spiral staircases, a cellar and a cottage in the back garden which was converted into a garage (would be intrigued to know what it must have looked like as we are pretty sure it was a stable or small barn for a carriage, or such like).
All we know is that it was formely lived in by the Starr family and a former manager of Lloyds Bank. I do have a photograph (a copy from the Oxfordshire photographic archive) that shows the house with some signage hanging above the door but it is impossible to make out what it says.
I have emailed Rossalyn but would be grateful if anyone could recall other information about the house.
Many thanks Alice Chenneour Randall
Miss Moore was head mistress from 1930 until 1956. She was viewed as a forceful, formidable woman, with a late Victorian character. The grammar school for girls grew from 60 to 500 pupils while she was head mistress.
'Her high moral and academic standards influenced all who worked with her and many old girls and staff will always remember with gratitude the training they received under her leadership'
Miss Moore was awarded the OBE in 1953.
Read the full obituary from Wiltshire Gazette, 27/10/1983(571kb Word document)
If you can name some of the teachers in the photograph, please get in touch with this website.
Newspaper cutting kindly provided by Elisabeth and John Holding
As recalled in 2008 by Elisabeth (Betty) Holding, née Weber.
We moved to Faringdon in the spring of 1937 from Portishead, Bristol, and stayed in 2 The Grove (Grove House), Church Street for the next five years. The house was part of Lord Berners' estate; we looked down to the woods where it was said that he had his piano taken so that he could compose with the birds singing to inspire him. Grove House was probably built in the late 17th century as a beautiful Dutch Medlar tree in the garden was reputed to be about 250 years old. Doctor Pullen, our family doctor, had been the previous tenant of the house.
The original house had been divided into four parts of which we occupied the main one. There was a flat above rented by Mr and Mrs Hewitt with an entrance next to our door, then to the west a small house where Mr and Miss Beechy lived; they had worked for Lord Berners. On the east side another smaller house was rented by Mr and Mrs Ford. Mrs White lived at Bleak House at the corner of Coach Lane.
At the end of our long garden was a tennis court bounded on the south side by the Police Station; Enid and Gwenda Burbage lived there and we often played together. To the east of the court was Coach Lane and to the west was the field of Church Farm House, a small private school run by the Misses Downes, and then the big yard of the Bull Inn. Mr Beechy and the Hewitts had garden plots with entrances from Coach Lane and accessed by a gate which is still in the wall today as it was then.
Grove House has enormous cellars which served as an air raid shelter although I don't think we ever needed to use them for that purpose; neither did my parents store wine so the cellars had little use by the family.
During the early years of the war various different friends of Mr and Mrs Hewitt stayed in the flat. One of these friends in early 1940 was the Hampshire family. Susan, subsequently a well known actress, was then two years old. Her older sisters played with my sisters and my brother, who was at Oxford, allowed Susan to sit at his table when he was studying and draw pictures with crayons. Perhaps all that Latin and Greek caused her dyslexia.
We went to school at The Elms and on most days came home for dinner in the middle of the day. It was on these mid-day journeys that we saw the monthly livestock markets. The hurdled pens in the market square were noisy with sheep, pigs and calves. The cattle were sold from the big steel gated pens at the corner of Coach Lane opposite Bleak House.
On Armistice Day in 1937 and probably 1938 all the school children walked in crocodile formation to the market square for the two minute silence; we all stood quietly while speeches were made and the last post sounded.
The square had Lloyds Bank on the London Road corner. Bridget Horton, the bank manager's daughter often walked to and from from school with us. There were Hogans the confectioner and baker, and Liddiards the ironmonger and farm supply shop. There was a butcher on the corner of Church Street. Opposite the butcher was the Vicarage where the Rev Shewell was vicar. Lower down the road was the saddler Mr Burgess; his elderly mother lived in Church Street. I think his premises have now become a café.
We used to buy a lot of vegetables from the head gardener at Faringdon House. When there was a surplus he must have been permitted to sell it to residents of the town. Our groceries mostly came from the little shop on the corner of Coach Lane and London Road, run by the Miss Bedfords. I remember how at Christmas, with the last order would come a big box of chocolates, as a thank you for our custom. At first our milk was delivered in a horse and cart; the farmer dipped a measure into a large churn and filled large jugs. Later we bought it from Admiral Clifton Brown's farm where the cows were tuberculin-tested and the milk came in waxed cartons.
One very cold winter, perhaps 1938, the lake at Faringdon House froze and we went from school to learn to skate. How we all acquired skates I cannot recall but I remember we took chairs to help us balance by pushing them in front of us. The netball court at The Elms was also icy, so the girls could slide at break times. Would health and safety regulations allow such hazardous activity today?
When Grey Owl same to give a talk in Oxford with his beaver, a large party went in a bus from school but my sister and I went with Miss Moore, the Head Mistress, in her car as we were the youngest and might have been travel-sick having never been in a bus before.
When the war came things changed. The school grew in size as many girls from the London area and other cities moved into the comparative safety of central England with their families. Shrivenham and Watchfield became important bases, so a bus brought girls into Faringdon from there each day. West Ham High School was evacuated to Faringdon and we had an evacuee from there to live with us. One of the Elementary Schools must have also come to the town as Mr and Mrs Walton, the headmaster and his wife, stayed with us until they found more suitable lodgings.
From our house we looked north straight down to Witney and Brize Norton and could frequently see the yellow training planes learning to fly low over the hedges and fields, I was told that they were Harvards and Oxfords. The pilots of the versatile Tiger Moth biplanes practised loops and spins. There must have been many losses of pilots as planes occasionally failed to negotiate higher hedges and trees. Spirals of smoke were seen on several occasions and once when we were in an punt hired from the Swan Hotel at Radcot, a plane came over us very low and must have circled round to impress my older sister and her friend, but he failed to make it and crashed into the field beside us. My father and mother rushed to try and help him but the plane first exploded and then was engulfed in flames before they could do anything to help. I can still see his smiling face as he turned to wave. No counsellors then to help with the trauma!
The field below the house, where there are still the old iron railings and a little iron gate, was used for bayonet practice. I cannot remember where the soldiers were stationed but a lot of training was done in the fields around Faringdon. My mother was one of the helpers in the canteen; some of the soldiers came to spend time off in our garden and have tea with us; I wonder what became of them. In about 1941 Italian and German prisoners of war who worked on local farms were dropped off and later picked up by two open lorries which parked outside Grove House. The Italians were in one lorry and the Germans in another. In the winter afternoons they were coming back to the lorries when we came from school. The Italians would say "hello" , smile and wave; the Germans were solemn and quiet.
The Women's Institute was very active. My mother learned to bottle surplus fruit sealing the tops with mutton fat, she preserved eggs from our own hens in waterglass and sliced green beans were preserved in layers of salt. My father's war effort was fire watching in Swindon as his office was there. My three elder brothers were all called up. The eldest who had been articled for chartered accounting in Bristol joined the navy as soon as he had finished his final examinations. My second brother after two years at Oxford, during which he was with the Faringdon Home Guard in vacations, went into the army. The youngest of the three who was a reporter on the North Wilts Herald went into the air force. My mother used to spend each Sunday afternoon writing to them. I can recall their service numbers with which she addressed the envelopes.
In 1942 we moved to Cardiff, encountered air raids and a very different face of war.
I have very fond memories of Faringdon. My family moved there in 1970 when I was 5 years old and we stayed until December 1977. During this time, my family were going through quite a few traumas, but nevertheless, my childhood memories are mostly good!
I went to the Infants School, then onto the Junior School which I'm now horrified to find is a housing estate. I loved my time at this school and still remember all my teachers very well - Mrs. Walters, Mrs. Sandal, Mr Gregson, Mr. Brown (my favourite!) and the eccentric Mr. Potter!! I believe I had an excellent education there and threw myself wholeheartedly into school life. I lived in Gravel Walk and our house backed onto a large field - which had once been allotments. This too is now a housing estate! But the good times we had there, us kids, roaming about, making camps and getting up to all sorts of mischief! Such a shame the children of today cannot do the same. We kids often used to take off for the day up to Badbury Woods - our parents simply telling us to be back for tea! Another play area was the large sports field (can't remember the name of the road it's off), but I also used to go to Judo classes in the hut there which I was somewhat fanatical about at the time! I remember Bonfire night very well as we all used to wander down to Faringdon House to watch what I remember being a fantastic firework display - I can still taste the burnt sausages and tomato soup!
I also remember the 1977 Silver Jubilee celebrations and we had a big street party in the Market Square which was attended by none other than Gareth Hunt from the New Avengers - all terribly exciting at the time!! Perhaps these brief memories may be familiar to some of you??
Debbie Loveridge
Hertford
I attended Anglo-American college at Barcote manor in 1970-71.
Anyone remember it? I seem to remember we caused quite a splash in the area. I fondly remember the tea house in central Farindon.
Alan Elliott
I would love to know more about our home- 30 London Street. We bought it from Roger Clarke -it was then an antique shop.Up and down stairs there were 2 42' long rooms. It had been an inn called 'The Star'.
A front window has the outline of an arch and there are stables at the back.1749 is carved over a fireplace.
All three floors have enormous fireplaces. A first floor back room - created by dividing the original long room - which I believe was used by Roger's mother for making curtains - looks much older than the front rooms - and the ceiling and walls are all over the place. The name Charles is scratched on an Elizabethan style window.
I guess the back survived the Civil War but the front had to be rebuilt.
It's a fascinating house. And what was 30A -which we changed back to a separate house?
Margaret Barker
When I joined the school, Miss Moore, the head mistress had been replaced by Miss Towns. There were still remnants of Miss Moores time though - in needlework I had to knit socks - on 4 needles(my mum did them), but making the bloomers to match the summer dresses had been dropped!!
The school was ruled by Miss Bell(PE) and Miss Moore(English)- stern women who stood for no nonsense.
The uniform was a grey bibbed skirt, a blue check blouse, and socks - long ones if it was after 1/10 and short if after 1/4 - no matter what the weather.
The grey felt hat was mandatory. Some girls tried wearing it at a jaunty angle or modifying it by creasing it - but didn't often get passed Miss Bell - who stood at the school gate, and inspected us as we left for the day.
The rumour was that if you walked out of school with nothing on, Miss Bell would say 'and where is your hat?'
I remember we were all told one day in assembly that we should not talk to children from the secondary modern school - of whom my brother was one!
Assembly was every morning - the whole school gathered together for a hymn, a prayer and the giving out of notices. One of the schools musicians would play the piano as we were marched in and out. The majority of the girls sat cross legged on the floor - only the 6th formers and teachers sat on chairs.
An academic school - we had school exams twice yearly, so by the time we got to GCE age, we were well practised in sitting formal exams. The teachers liked the clever girls who were destined for University(the name boards are still on the walls of what is now the Junior School dining room). The rest of us who wanted to be civil servants, bank clerks, secretaries, nurses were not valued in the same way.
Everyone had homework - increasing in amount as you got older- my memory is about 10-12 hours a week at age 15. Woe betide anyone who was late handing it in.
We were allocated text books, in which we wrote our name while it was ours to use. At the end of the school year these were handed in and it was checked that everyone had handed hers in. Subsequently books lasted for years and years.
A school typical of its time- focusing on exam results rather than the broader, more informal style of education that we have today. It had its merits
Gene Webb
hi,faringdon.found your site today.
i was brought up in faringdon during the fiftees,and early sixties.my mother,kathleen,was the lollypop lady by, i think,levertons shop.this would be about 1960.
i remember saturday morning pictures,scrumping apples from tuckers orchard,keeping out of sargeant readers way if we had been up to mischief.
mayor bill white...the barber...mrs b.in the cafe in the square...mrs allnatt.....just some of the names that come to mind.
marlborough gardens where i grew up....what great days.
thankyou faringdon for many happy childhood memories.....
michael macey.
Mr Robert-Heber Percy used to let the town use the grounds of Faringdon House for a summer fete, as well as open the gardens at Easter Time. When he died in 1983 this stopped almost completely. I think the only remnant of Faringdon House welcoming the community is through the Firework display run by the Rotary every November.
It is a shame that the now owner lives abroad and the property is let to people who appear to take little or no interest in Faringdon.
Faringdon has lost access to an important part of it's history
Name Supplied
Extract from The Peoples War http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/categories/
The only other person I remember in Faringdon was the headmaster of the school I attended. Although I never fell foul of him, I shared the common dread of him. He was old (to me), short, and his remaining hair was light brown. He had a violent temper and struck terror in our hearts by his shouting.
He often used the cane and I remember on one occasion he caned a girl in front of the class after pulling down her knickers. Although I was only seven, I thought this was very wrong but never said anything about it in case I got the same.
I was not sorry to leave Faringdon.
The full story was donated to the People’s War website by M. R. Spurgeon,
RECOLLECTIONS OF FARINGDON
John R. Copland
The Peoples war on BBC website
My family lived in Gloucester Street in the house that had a cottage in the garden. I think in the 1960s. Does anyone remember?
Ive heard that it is now a nursery or private school.My family have memories to add to the social history of the place. There were connections to a pub there and someone called- we think Richard- who was a lodger.
A family member would love to visit the family home and show us around and tell us their memoirs -which could link with yours. There were international connections. I would love to hear from anyone that remembers.
The cottage in the garden as far as we know now has a garage door in it! Sad but true.
Any info my family would love as we are researching our history.
I hope I have got the right area. The cottage had been turned into a garage!!!! and I think the pub was called the Bell.
The family had connections with Canada. The house - my mum remembers had three floors and a basement. One of the staircases she remembers as being spiral- or curved. It was a terraced house. It did not have a number but a name begining with M. Does this help?
I think an aunts surname was Fickle but if she was married that would be her maiden name. Is there any way of searching any records to find who lived there?
My mum tells me they used to visit the Folly.
Rossalyn Emmett emmerossal@btinternt.com
I have so many memories of Faringdon as i grew up here, now living in Canada, i often visit this website,
I went to the infants school on canada lane, then the school near the railway lines, then of course off to Tollington, and i finished 6th form at the elms.... then my first job from finishing school was Ross Foods on Park Rd Industrial estate, right besides Splash, i guess those are no longer there,
i also did a paper round for the Busby;s then taken over by the miserable Marments!!!
i used to love getting sweets at Mrs Alnutts ...and going to the Bargain Centre to see what good cheap stuff i could buy, and i bought my very first record at the electronics shop Larkins
...oooh the memories, walking the dog across to tuckers park, i could go on and on.... but well i miss my old homestead, you never appreciate it til its gone.... so be proud you Faringdonians....
Beverly Morrison (nee Shepherd)
I recall the day in the late forties/fifty when there was great excitement in Canada Lane Junior School.
Workers from Bakers the Builders had been erecting two-inch, galvanised pipe in the infants/girls playground at the front of the school. The day came when the embedded pipe had become set and the swing/climbing bars were ready for the horde of eager children, wanting to engage with this adventure equipment.
In today’s society, it would seem primitive and tame. To the children in that time it was marvellous. There were so many children just hanging from it by their arms and even just touching the pipe was a thrill in itself. Not one child could actually do any form of exercise, what with the crush of small bodies around the new equipment, and the shrill cries of delight from the throng.
There was “Old Tidy” and his minions attempting to gain some semblance of order, I believe they gave up after a while.
I have wondered if there were any photographs of the day, it would be of interest.
On two occasions’ the memory of the day has come to the fore. Once when resting in a clearing, with my back to a tree, glancing up, there above on a branch were a troop of Spider Monkeys, hanging and standing gazing at me. The other was in the film 2001, A Space Odyssey; when the ape creatures gather around, and one touches the black obelisk. I am no way implying we were monkeys or apes; they are the things that triggered the memory of the exercise bars in the old school.
Around that time, the allotments at the back of the school became a school playing field.
Richard Giles, Christchurch, New Zealand.
1970s
I moved to Faringdon in 1969, not long after the demolition of the workhouse (the Spike) in Ferndale Street, formerly Back Street. In those days the cinema was still in Gloucester Street, but had ceased to be a cinema, and as far as I can remember it was a Bingo Hall.
There were around 20 pubs in the town, and the nearest one to us was the Folly Inn, with its famously grumpy landlord, David Avenell, (although I think his mum, Stella, was still the licensee in those days). His taciturn temperament did not deter, however, and the pub was often serving drinks well after closing time with lock-ins going on until the small hours. The police were regular visitors, and I don't mean in their official capacity...
The Police station still flourished in Coach Lane, as did the magistrate's court, and the Rural District Council was housed in Camden House, in the Market Place. The town Council was still a Parish council, then (I think) but I don't remember exactly when this changed. In the early seventies it was certainly a Town Council, and councillors I remember were Bill White, Cecil Blisset, Stanley *****?, Richard Custance, Colin Dyer, Frank Van Tinteren, Evelyn Stoodley (of Amateur Dramatics fame)
The Pines was just being built, and Sands Hill (Now Town End Road/Marines Drive estate) was still a caravan site. There was a handy fish'n'chip shop half way up London Street, Moreton's was still a department store cornucopia of toys, ladies and gents clothing; There was a very good shoe shop, with Woods/Smiths bookshop next door. A little further up the road was Mrs Allnatt's sweetie shop, where children were treated with the same courtesy as adults, were never hurried and where they could still buy such treats as sherbet dabs, liquorice wheels and bootlaces, sweet cigarettes (my favourites) and a host of other children-of-all-ages' delights.
The Folly Tower was closed to the public, and two friends and I climbed it one night with the aid of climbing equipment, to wait at the top for the dawn to break, when I took a complete panorama of town photographs (black and white) from its then forbidden heights.
Hilary Taylor
Until the mid 70s The Elms in Gloucester Street, which has now been turned into apartments, was the Faringdon Grammar School for Girls. Under the comprehensive school system it combined with Tollington School and my son, Steven, was one of the first dozen or so boys allowed into the previously ‘boy free zone’.
He was very good about it, as were the other boys, and didn’t complain but in order to ensure a certain amount of privacy when the occasion arose he carved a very smart wooden sign saying “Working Men’s Club’ and suspended it over the door of the boys’ toilet.
The Headmaster, was not amused and suspended Steven for a day.
Word spread about my son’s wickedness and he was approached by the Bourton Working Men’s Club offering to buy the offending sign if he would carve a matching sign saying “Bourton”. For many years Bourton Working Men’s Club graced the club’s entrance as a reminder of my son’s sense of humour and the Headmaster’s lack of it.
Name Supplied
Being a child at this time, my memories are largely about school and sweet shops and later Youth Club!
The headmaster of Faringdon Primary school(where the Infant school is now) was a Mr Tidyman - a man to be wary of!. He was at the school for many years- certainly since WWII and maybe before. I was fortunate that he retired in the early 1950s and a much nicer and more tolerant Mr Harding became head.
Lots of things spring to mind- being wrongly accused of writing on a wall (of a stinky outside WC block) and being made to scrub it clean - I was 5 (and scarred for life you may say), learning to play the recorder, being made to stay in at playtime(age 6) to do some knitting - I still can't knit.
Netball matches, sports days, PE in your knickers(navy!) regular tests- and having to sit in sequence from top to bottom of the class, needlework classes (much good they did me). Last 2 years of primary school - more than 40 children in the class.
Teachers- Mr Gregson (there forever I think), Miss Phillips, Miss Spinage, Mr Mohan( a man!!), Miss Wickham(friend of Mr Mohan!!), Miss Tibbetts(frightening).
Home at this time was in Marlborough St- Malvern house was below the empty shop next to the now Chinese fish and chips. At that time the house had pretty bay window and a small front garden with railings(sad to see it now). I remember standing at this window to watch the Coronation procession go by (I had measles!)
Opposite was Paddons sweet shop(later to become Manners), further down was Miss Fletchers sweet shop, Drew's butcher, Golding Goddards(now White Horse bookshop), a laundrette, as well as cottages- a pretty street!
3d bought packet of spangles - normal amount to spend, while 6d was riches and I could buy a Mars bar.
Russell Spinage (brother of the teacher), ran a number of youth clubs- held in the Old Boys School on the Stanford Road(now dwellings). Ar first I was in the junior girls section. All I can remember we did was to learn country dancing- Virginia Reel, Dashing White Sergeant, Bonnie Breastnot. Russell used to take us to village fetes where we would perform our dances as a fete attraction. We loved it
An innocent age - one single man and 8-10 little girls under the age of 12. Some names I remember- Sheila and Ann Bowls, Ann Goodenough, Gill Purbrick, Jean Allnatt, Mary Buchanan
Russell worked tirelessly for the youth of the town. It was through Russell's Youth Club that we could go dancing (rocknroll, old time, ballroom), play table tennis and snooker, and generally get together.(important for someone who went to a single sex school!) He took us on outings - I remember kayaking on the river at Abingdon and sleeping in a hammock on a boat, walking in the Lake District and a seaside holiday at Teignmouth.
Without Russell we baby boomers would have been lost.
After my time, the Youth Club had to vacate the Old School House(sold for development I believe), and it moved to the Secondary School premises, where it didn't flourish.
However sometime in the 60s early 70s, Russell married and I think had 2 sons, so he had other priorities. Sadly Russell died relatively young (in his early 60s)
Thankyou Russell
Gene Webb