A Vanished Past, Horley Oxfordshire a glimpse of _­­the village and people. Vol.1

The photograph on the front cover of Horley from the Wroxton Hill is by Clare Marchant

Contents

• Introduction [ featured in a separate post ] and Contributors
• A map of Horley in relation to Banbury and other north Oxfordshire villages
• Change [ featured in a separate post ]
• People in alphabetical family surname order:  Allington to Meadows

The Contributors

People have been very generous with their photographs – taking time to search them out from lofts, boxes and cupboards – often bringing back happy times, but also difficult or tragic times and half-forgotten events. Not everyone would have chosen to share these records of their lives. For me it put together parts of a jigsaw about a way of life that no longer exists, and puts flesh on the ghosts of my memories.

I have a long list of people to thank: You will see that I give many people a formal title – which is because that was how they were known in the 1940s-1960s – first names were only used between very close friends – usually those that had been to school together.

The late – Mrs Gladys Barcock,  Honor (Morgan) Berry,  Mrs Florrie Dunwoody, Miss Joan Pearson, Mr Robert Pearson, Mrs Mary (Astell) Riley, Mr Eric Turner

A – Edward Allington, Eileen (Barcock) Alexander

B – Carol (Dunwoody) Baker, Alice (Saunders) Bowmaker for allowing free range of John Saunders’ photographs, Maureen (Eeles) Banks, Ann (Saunders) Barrett, Roy Bayliss, Mrs Kathleen Betteridge for information and photographs of the Maybury family, Mrs Harry Bishop, Jane (Tustian) Blake of Hanwell, Christopher Blythe and Richard Blythe, Betty (Hirons) Burns and her daughter Marolyn Burns.

C – Mary (Bayliss) Callow, Gwenda Cliff (for information about the Roylance family), Charles Cozens, Eleanor Cozens,

D – Barry Dunwoody

G – Reg and Elizabeth Green, William Griffin for material about the Bagnall family, William Gunn

H – Stanley and Wendy Hamer, Peter Hart of Hornton, Pat (Shawyer) Hassan-Jan, Doreen (Green) Hemmings, Victor and Joy Hillman, Shân (Morgan) Hoy, Mrs Dorothy Humphris for material about the Viggers and Hamer family

J – Mary (Hemmings) Jarvis, Alison (Jelfs) Intravia, Hazel (Jelfs) Collaby, Martyn Jelfs, Jane (Kay) Jones,

K – Channy Kennard for material about the Maul family, Anthony Meadows, Stephen Oliver for material about the Howe and Oliver family

P – Mike Patching, Hugh and Anna Pearson, John Plumbe for Allington photographs, Monica (Simmonds) Powell, Anthony Pratt

R – Rose (Kettle) Rawlings, Joan Robinson

S – Mrs Barbara Standish, Brian Standish, Mrs Stanley, David Stanley, Roger Sumner,

T- Daphne (Bullock) Thomas, Linda (Rose) Twistleton, Christine Upton for material about Horley Children’s Home

V – Phillipa (Varney) Walker, Timothy Varney

Other sources

• Mrs Audrey Turner custodian of the two Womens Institute Scrapbooks of 1965 and 1985
• The Trustees of the Michael Hardinge Trust, for some of the school photographs
• Clive Wrench and the Horley Cricket Club
• Daniel Batchelor for permission to use photographs of the Hornton Quarries
• David Seccull for permission to use photographs from Wroxton, The Village and its People in Photographs. 1993. Out of print.
• Richard Milward for permission to use Richard R Jones’ watercolour of Horley.
• The Oxfordshire County Council
• The Banbury Museum
• The Rector of the Ironstone Benefices and Horley PCC

Who is missing?

There are people for whom I have been unable to trace any photographic record: William and Sarah Saul, the Misses Barrett, Dorothy Varney and her mother Laura, May Cripps and others from Horley Home, Mrs West, Edwin Walden, Mr and Mrs Percy Matthews and their son Billy, Mrs Lizzie and Miss Bessie Chapman of Park House, the Baillies of The Manor, Mr William Astell of Bramshill Park Farm, Mr and Mrs Partridge of Brook Cottage, the Misses Godson of Horley Cottage, Mr Tom Allington, The Clarks and their son Paul, Mr William and Mrs Hicks Snr, Mrs Campbell of the Firs, Mr and Mrs Turner, and others who peopled our life between 1941 and 1965.

If you have a photograph of any of them, or know someone who may, please let me know. My email address is at the front of this book. ( marchantclare@hotmail.com )

On the other hand there has been a huge treasure trove of photographs of people that might otherwise have remained ghostly images in the mind: including one of Mrs Herbert, another of Mrs Edwin Walden, and one of Fanny Walden, all strong characters in our childhood, who seemed to come from a different age.

I am grateful that my sisters Shân and Honor allowed me to plunder their earlier writing about Horley life which they had written for their children. I was lucky to have ready access to Honor’s quite remarkable and detailed memory. She was deeply interested in this volume about people, and I grieve that she died just before its completion. I owe a debt to my parents, Glyn and Elma Morgan, Horley’s Vicar and his wife during the period of this book. I hope something of their affection for Horley and its people emerges and that I reveal something of the active part they played in village life.

It is only now I fully understand why writers always thank their partners for their contribution. Harold has been exceptionally patient and tolerant: papers have covered the floors and tables, meals have been forgotten, of my alternating fury and despair when a computer virus destroyed material (thank you to everyone who went up into their lofts again) and things have been neglected or forgotten. He must now consider he knows as much about Horley and Horley people as anyone who lived there. He has checked what I have written, offered insights and made helpful comments. Thank you Harold for supporting this absorbing and time-consuming work.

Clare Marchant, June 2015

The is an extract from A Vanished Past Volume 1, each Volume is £15 +P&P  or you can buy both for £33 incl. p&p.

They are available directly from Clare , Shaftesbury House, 15 Circus Street, Greenwich, London SE10 8SN or marchantclare@hotmail or call on 020 8858 8529. Cheques payable to Clare Marchant.

Clare Marchant was born in Horley Vicarage, Oxfordshire in 1941 and spent her formative years there until 1965. She now lives in Greenwich, London

First published in 2015. All rights reserved. The rights of Clare Marchant to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the consent of © Clare Marchant.  Copyright for each image rests with the contributor.