(In 1956 Mais interviewed a number of Cumnor residents while working on his book 'Our Village Today'. The first was Frank Cheeseman, who in 2000 is still living in Norreys Road, having retired only a couple of years previously from the Parish Council)
Cumnor,' said Frank Cheeseman, Chairman of the Parish Council, with considerable pride. 'is Matthew Arnold country, and we intend to keep it Matthew Arnold country.' He began to quote:
Runs it not here, the track by Chilswell Farm,
Up past the wood, to where the elm-tree crowns
The hill beyond whose ridge the sunsetflames?
'We're not certain about the signal-elm, that lone, sky- pointing tree which affected the poet so deeply, but the track by Chilswell Farm is still a track, Cumnor Hill is still "green- muffled," and the clump of firs still tops the Hurst as everyone in Oxford who lifts up his eyes to the hills knows very well. Those firs are one of Oxford's chief landmarks. 'Cumnor is an integral part of Oxford's green belt, for within the parish boundaries lie not only Cumnor Hill, Hurst Hill and the land round Chilswell, but half Wytham woods and Wytham Hill and the Thames from east of the Evenlode junction to the south of Bablock Hythe.
'We are a very scattered parish, six miles from north to south and four miles from east to west containing a population of over three thousand.
'We are split into three very different types of ward: Dean Court, at the junction of the roads to Eynsham and Faringdon at the foot of Cumnor Hill, Farmoor in the low-lying land on the way to Swinford Bridge, and the old village on top of the hill.
'Dean Court is a relatively new housing estate and at first sight looks like an extension of the city, but the fact is that the residents of Dean Court are practically all country people (don't forget that we're in Berkshire), and they want to keep as far as possible their rural atmosphere. They're agitating, and quite rightly, for their own Village Hall or Community Centre, as they are about a couple of miles from the village.
'Farmoor, which is also about a couple of miles from the village, is a colony that grew up between the two wars and there are still people living in war-time huts which we are demolishing as fast as we can. it's too far for them to climb two miles to join in the village activities, so they keep very much to themselves. They have their own little church, a chapel-of-ease to Cumnor, and they run their own flower show.
'They have trouble down there with cesspits and septic tanks as of course we do in the village itself for the main drainage scheme is still on its way up Cumnor Hill and hasn't yet reached the village. 'A scrap-heap of derelict cars is all that most travellers notice in Farmoor, and it is our object to prevent any further building on either side of the road between Swinford Bridge and Botley.
'Natural development is one thing and inevitable, but we've got to strike a balance by which we preserve natural beauty, personal liberty and a village identity, all of which are in danger of being swamped by over-development. There is the danger of what is called "in-filling," housing estates encroaching too near the open space of Cumnor Hill above North Hinksey.
'In the village we've got an excellent new housing estate at Robsart Place, and there is a good deal of building at the back of the "Bear and Ragged Staff," and at Chawley, but while we're anxious to provide as many houses as are reasonably possible we are equally determined not to lose our green belt or our village atmosphere. It seems to me a grave mistake for workers at Nuffield's and Pressed Steel to live on this side of the city and so add to the already well-nigh insoluble problem of Oxford's traffic getting to and from work. The logical answer is to expand east of Cowley, not west of it.'
'Is there much danger of your losing the green belt? Isn't it earmarked for preservation?'
'That, I'm afraid, is no guarantee. Cumnor Hurst belongs to All Souls. The old brickworks at the top of the hill now used as a storage depot for timber presents something of a problem. Luckily it has been scheduled as a geological phenomenon of some importance as it presents the unusual feature of a strata of clay over which sand is falling and forming. We've got to keep a pretty keen eye open all round to preserve what we want to preserve. 'There's the question of rights-of-way on the hundreds of footpaths. I've walked everyone of them, marked them on the map, written about them, and agreed with the farmers where they can be sign-posted, which is the only fair way in everybody's interest.
'We're trying to keep up interest in the old Cumnor by perpetuating the old names in the new estates, Robsart Place for example. Then there's Songers' Close, taken from Songers' Copse, just below the Five Sisters of Wytham Hill.In old days the main coach-road to Gloucester ran right along the top of Wytham Hill, and as Cassington* was only a chapel-of-ease to Cunmor they had to bring the corpses for burial over the top. 'Songers' Copse is the place where they rested the body and sang their funeral songs.
'Then we have Pinnocks Way to remind us of Blind Pinnocks, which is the site of a famous old coaching inn** much frequented by undergraduates.
'In the Long Leys, on the way down to Bablock Hythe is what is called "Physic" Well which in 1612*** was also much frequented by scholars of Oxford in search of a pick-me-up. It was here that the great cowslip grew that had three hundred heads.
'An old institution that we all very much resent is the toll charged on Swinford Bridge. George II granted this right to the Earl of Abingdon in 1767 and this revenue is free of tax and death duties. It imposes a particularly severe hardship on the Farmoor people who go to Eynsham for their doctor and their shopping. It would require a fabulous sum to buy Lord Abingdon's rights and the County Council can't afford to buy it. It is an anachronism and an anomaly which the whole village deeply resents.'