Tag Archives: Horley Books

A Vanished Past – What’s in the Volumes?

A Vanished Past; Horley Families, Homes and Gardens

Life as lived in a North Oxfordshire village in the mid-twentieth century is depicted with skill and honesty, and illustrated by absorbingly interesting photographs. The residents give remarkably honest insights into their lives – their successes, joys and sadness over time.

These were the last days of an agricultural village. It is a story about the structure of village life, and its changes over several decades, seen through the eyes of the residents, drawn together by a sensitive author and illustrated by 500 or so amateur and professional photographs.

The first and second volume in this series concentrate on people;

Horley Clare Marchant Vol 1Volume 1 (in print)

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

Horley Clare Marchant Vol 2

  • Volume 2 (in print)
  • People in alphabetical family surname order: Morgan to Yates
  • People of Lane Close
  • Homes & Gardens
  • Our animals
  • Getting about
  • Water and sewage
  • Services: post, papers, deliveries, mobile library, police and the  shop

Volume 3 will be about Work and Leisure.   Volume 4 will include chapters on the School, Chapel, Church and Wartime as well as memorable views of the village and countryside:

  • Leisure: including walks, wheels, swimming, Brownies, clubs, May Days, Coronation Day 1953, fêtes, cricket and football, hunting, the Banbury Fair and fireworks
  • Farming
  • The Ironstone
  • Women and work
  • Working from home
  • The School
  • The Church and Vicarage
  • The Methodist Chapel
  • World War I
  • World War II
  • Men who were called up
  • National Service
  • The Home Guard
  • Wartime in Horley
  • Our environment – village and countryside

Clare Marchant, June 2015

Clare MarchantThese table of contents are extract from volumes of A Vanished Past, each Volume is £15 +P&P  or you can buy both Volumes 1 & 2 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.

A Vanished Past: Horley – Clare Marchant

Dear Horley Views, I was born and lived in Horley for the first 25 years of my life – and along with other people of that time, have indelible memories of village life then – so I have tried to capture some thing of it and I have just published two books providing some vivid glimpses of Horley in the mid twentieth century, when major changes happened in the village. They are both about 200 pages long and have just over 250 photographs each from nearly 50 contributors, with  text. It seems the sort of thing that you might like to put out on Horley Views. I attach a  Flyer for A Vanished Past Volume 1 & 2 It gives only brief details so do let me know what you advise.      Kind regards, Clare Marchant

A Vanishing Past; Horley Families, Homes and Gardens

Life as lived in a North Oxfordshire village in the mid-twentieth century is depicted with skill and honesty, and illustrated by absorbingly interesting photographs. The residents give remarkably honest insights into their lives – their successes, joys and sadness over time.

These were the last days of an agricultural village. It is a story about the structure of village life, and its changes over several decades, seen through the eyes of the residents, drawn together by a sensitive author and illustrated by 500 or so amateur and professional photographs.

Vanished Past Volume 1A Vanished Past Volume 2

Volumes 1 is entirely about families (Allington-Meadows).

Volume 2 is about families (Morgan to Yates), as well as our homes and gardens, getting about, and the coming of water and electricity.

Volumes 3 and 4 will be published in the coming year. Volume 3 is about Work and Leisure.   Volume 4 includes chapters on the School, Chapel, Church and Wartime as well as memorable views of the village and countryside.

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

PS: Having spoken to Clare she has agreed to provide us with some “peeks into the books” and some photos. This content will be added in separate posts and shown on the Horley’s History page. We hope this inspires other to share their memories, stories and photo’s of Horley.