Your Oxford
Get involved: send your photos, videos, news & views by texting 'OXFORD NEWS' to 80360 or email »
Country life in the 1920s
12:10pm Thursday 8th February 2007
Nowadays, the poor of Oxfordshire are concentrated in its towns, particularly Oxford and Banbury. But only a generation ago, it was the villages that were poor and backward, with no electricity or sewerage, writes Maggie Hartford.
In Carrier's Cart To Oxford (Wychwood Press, £10), Mildred Masheder describes her 1920s childhood in Elsfield. It was just a couple of miles from Oxford, but a completely different world.
As a farmer's daughter, she was a cut above the rest of the village children, but was allowed to roam free with them, playing elaborate games in the fields, woods and farm buildings. Even so, trips away from the village were a rare treat, and it is difficult for us now to understand how isolated the villagers were.
Since her father could afford the fee to send her to Milham Ford School, plus a bicycle, she was separated from her childhood friends. She says: "My step up this ladder was greatly marred for me by the fact that I was alienated from my former playmates.
"A gap of nearly 70 years went by before I contacted them to help me with this book and so an old wound was finally healed."
The book is available from the Wychwood Press, Alder House, Market Street, Charlbury, OX7 3PH, tel 01689 870437, or from the author at 75 Belsize Lane, London, NW3 5AU, or by email from sales @positivechildhood.net.
Editor's choice
Life is too short for boring wine
Just the other week I drove to Stroud to help a fellow wine-writer taste her way though dozens of the UK’s top-selling wine brands.
Nando's, George Street, Oxford
Before last week, my one experience of Nando’s had been a rather nasty meal at its Cowley Road operation shortly after it opened six or seven years ago in what had previously been the Prince of Wales pub. The sweet taste of the glutinous coleslaw remains with me to this day. As can be imagined, then, I didn’t exactly rush to sample the second Oxford branch when it opened at the beginning of the year at the west end of George Street, where the Opium Den used to be.
Preview: Sleeping Beauty, Oxford Playhouse
Please mind the dragon, I was urged. I was grateful for the warning, even though the slinky green creature, which comes complete with a crimson mouth and the brightest of white teeth, was a bit difficult to miss. By chance, the dragon is resting on a piece of floor that is familiar with bright colours — a printing press sat there until recently, turning out brochures and book covers in all the colours of the rainbow.
Professor Bumm's Story Machine: Wytham Village Hall
This is a great show for children of all ages, even those drawing their pension! In the Village Hall at Wytham The Story Machine had the audience in stitches. Professor Ivor Bumm and his assistant Dr Willy Whee were there to present their new invention – a machine that could tell any story, with special brilliant effects and a cast of hundreds of androids.
Jim key to U's boss search
JIM Smith will be instrumental in the appointment of Oxford United's new manager.
In this section
Sponsored Links
Local Advertisers
Local Information
Enter your postcode, town or place name
