Although our subject is the 1940s, the historical period really begins in September 1939. The day war was declared was marked in Cumnor by the passage of a long military convoy passing through the village from the Farmoor road towards Abingdon. Cumnor was on an important convoy route. A few days later the evacuees arrived. The children, from London's East End, in the charge of a teacher Mr.Nurse, were brought in double-decker buses to the village hall, where they were assigned to families who had space for them. 'We didn't get any evacuees because there were already five of us children at home'. Next weekend the parents came down to visit. 'I remember the parents left Sunday lunch and went off to the pub. That caused some bad feeling'.
The arrival of these London children did not cause any real antagonism. 'They brought new life to the village. In school they were drawing with charcoal and painting. We'd never had art lessons before. Some of them, including the Pipkin twins, joined our church choir -some of them had fine voices and sang solos. They put on concerts; there was lots of talent'. Peter Broadis had joined the choir when he was eight, his solo audition winning the approval of the Rev.D.Buston.
If there was any rivalry between the London and village boys, it appeared on the sports field, which was on the site now occupied by Robsart Place. 'Many of them had watched professional footballers, which we hadn't, but when it came down to playing there was not that much between us'. 'John was our best player'.
The chief problem arising from the evacuees was the shortage of school places in Cumnor. The village hall was brought into use and an alternating timetable was introduced - those taught in the school by Cumnor's teachers in the morning went to the village hall in the afternoon to be taught by London teachers. The following week the pattern was reversed. A kitchen extension to the village hall provided school dinners there.
'After the evacuees left, we had a family from Canterbury. The father ran a fish and chip shop there and came down to us at week-ends. When they went home we had six convalescing soldiers billeted on us'.
Cumnor School, where pupils left at 11 to go to Botley secondary school or to selective schools in Oxford, was not well appointed. 'The worst memory 1 have of Cumnor then is the school toilets across the playground. Buckets, which sometimes overflowed'. 'Mr Bowden was the caretaker and he would light the 'tortoise' stoves. They gave out terrible fumes'. 'I remember the main hall was divided into three classes, two divided by a wooden partition, the other by a curtain. Looking at the hall recently 1 was amazed at how we all managed to squeeze in !'
The village school was led by Mr.Stevens, a teacher whose dedicated work, in and out of school, earned him the highest respect. 'We thought the world of Sam Stevens, even though he caned us at school. We bore no grudge. He was brilliant. If he were in the village today, there'd be no trouble'.
Boys however would be boys.'I was annoyed by the pupil behind me. 1 dipped my pen in the inkwell and flipped it backwards. The ink went over his book and 1 was caned three times on the hand'. 'We'd make a ball of blotting paper, soak it in the inkwell and catapult it with a ruler to try and make it stick on the wall'. 'Mr.Stevens' initials were pricked out in young radishes in the school garden (now the churchyard extension) but a lot of them disappeared. So did quite a lot of lettuce !
Mr.Stevens was much involved with the Boys Brigade, which had started some ten years before, and the club in the old stables at the vicarage. There were activities every evening of the week. Mr Meadows was the P.T. instructor, ex-Army - he could walk down the village hall, up onto the stage, across it and down again, all on his hands! Mr.Drewitt, ex-Navy, taught boxing. There was a woodwork evening, a band, table-tennis, and a Bible class that was also well-attended. There was an annual summer camp, the first one b'eing in Oxford. 'At Blockley, Spencer Churchill's estate, there was a lake for swimming. American soldiers stationed there organised races and bet on the finishes. We were at camp at Weston-super-Mare when V.J. Day came and we were confined to camp'.
One didn't get away often. Petrol rationing saw to that. But occasionally
Mr.Stevens would take a table tennis team to an away game in his car. 'I recall
the registration was BRX 750'. 'Mr.Stevens' last wish, when he died in 1956, was
that his coffin should be carried by four of his former boy pupils'. John Cox,
Cyril Buckingham, Cedric Tyrrell and Norman Brown performed the task. He was
buried close to the playground wall of the old school.
There were other pastimes. 'We didn't go into Oxford much. We sometimes went
to the Majestic (now MFI) but you had to take your gasmask or they wouldn't let
you in !'. 'Fred Baker - he ran the village shop. He started old tyme dancing in
about 1945. To go to a Fred Baker dance was really something'. There was a
Whist Drive on Monday nights. 'There was a Mrs Johnson who was a very keen
player. People got cross when 1 played the wrong card so 1 didn't go again'.
'There'd be a big Whist Drive just before Christmas, with big prizes -
admission was 2s 6d for 24 hands and there wascoffee, tea, sandwiches, sausages,
rolls and cake in the interval'.
Parties were often held then. The W.l. Christmas Party is remembered as a cracking affair'.John and Eveline Gee at Denmans Farm gave a party for their farm workers. Concerts were put on by the evacuees, and when the Baldwins Instrument Company moved their whole factory for making aircraft from Dartford in Kent to the Faringdon Road at Cumnor (it went back after the war), the staff put on concerts.Margaret Roberts was their pianist.
In 1942 a lodger from the firm took Laurence down to Dartford for a weekend: 'I remember standing at the window one night, amazed at the flames and smoke rising over the Docklands'. On the worst nights of the Blitz the glow could be seen on the horizon from Cumnor.
In Cumnor one saw little evidence of the Blitz. John's aunt took a group on a day visit to London zoo; it had been hit by 33 bombs and the lions's den was still burning. Rosebay willowherb, 'fireweed', was growing on bombed building sites.
Occasional outings were organised. Sunday School outings went to Oxford or nearby, ending with tea under a tarpaulin at 'Sheepy' May's Bradley Farm. A choir outing was punting on the Cherwell, with the Rev.Buston taking a picnic hamper of whatever rationing allowed.
By the end of the war there was a cinema every Monday night in the village hall, with a newsreel, film and a serial called 'The Scarlet Man'. It was run by Mr.Hopkins of Cowley, who also made black and silent films of weddings, which could be shown the next Monday night.
One of the favourite pastimes for boys was making and driving wheeled
trolleys. They would make a train, the rear passenger in each trolley holding
onto or linking with the trolley behind. The train would go downhill from the
corner of Forster Lane to the High Street and round to the village pond. Another
attraction was the crossroads quarry where American forces dumped their rubbish.
'It was surprising what you could find . My mother made us a ridge tent from
some barrage balloon fabric we picked up there'.
Though the Boys' Brigade was always their first loyalty, there were other
activities, during and after the war, to engage their interest. 'There was a
Pig Club, and also a Young Farmers' Club, open to all, where you had to stand up
and speak. 1 remember June Parker won a speaking prize - she married an American
and went to the States'. 'Also there was the Young People's Fellowship, run by
the church. We got thrown out of that and went to the chapel'. There was a
separate girls' club at the chapel.
After leaving school, boys began to take a keener interest in girls. Dances were the chief social occasions for meetings, especially after the war. Oxford Town Hall and the Carfax Assembly Rooms were the best venues. 'Harry Davidson's orchestra was our favourite. When he came we'd take a taxi into Oxford - the girls couldn't cycle in their best dresses'. 'We learnt to dance at the Village Hall, at dances arranged by Fred Baker. A Mr. and Mrs Scroggs.from Wootton demonstrated the steps. It was mostly old tyme. The Lancers was the most popular'.
'Our girlfriends were local girls. After a dance the favourite stroll was down the Leys to Bablockhythe. That's where 1 took my wife in 1949 on our first date - after a cricket match. It was her 19th birthday'. Cumnor Hurst with its Seven Sisters was another rnuch-visited spot.
Who were the remembered figures in village life, apart from Mr.Stevens and the vicar? Mr.J.Thomas of Leys House, Justice of the Peace and county councillor, was prominent, as was Howard Cornish, a county councillor who farmed at Eaton. 'Mrs Hedges who lived at 9 Abingdon Road did the washing for Mr. Thomas. We used to take the wicker laundry hamper on the top of a bike to his house and bring back another one'. 'Betty Thomett was the district nurse and she was always helpful, even when you got just a small cut or graize. One day 1 trod on a piece of wood and a long nail went right through my foot. 'Not iodine, 1 cried'. 'It's alright, she said, this is the iodine that doesn't hurt'. She poured it on - and didn't 1 yell'. Harry and Hilda Webb are recalled at Burnt House Farm because they always provided the paper boy with a cup of tea and a scone on the day paper money was collected.
Miss Jervois lived at New Curmnor Place. 'She was lady of the village then'. 'Spider' Webb was her chauffeur and gardener. She made her garden available for fetes at which schoolchildren danced the maypole. She gave out toffees afterwards. 'I ruined the maypole once. 1 accidentally knocked off a girl's bonnet and stopped to try and pick it up'.
The war of course intruded into village life in many ways. For boys it provided occasional excitement. 'When we knew of a plane crash, we'd cycle there'. 'If you found pieces of perspex, you could use a file and red hot poker to make a ring'. In 1944 a Hampden bomber crashed close to Wootton church. A Wellington crashed nearer the airfield. At the end of the war Wilf Buckingham, in the R.A.F. Regiment, was searching a captured German installation when he came across a Luftwaffe photograph of Abingdon airfield, with the targets marked.
'In 1943 a Spitfire which we watched doing acrobatics over Bradley Farm went into a nose-dive. We found out later that it hit a field by Bradley Cottages, near the holly tree. Many people were upset by that. My younger brother couldn't eat for two days'. A Horsa glider hit a pylon at Bessels Leigh but a wide area was quickly sealed off. A Whitley bomber came down at Cumnor Hurst. The true horror of the events was masked from the young viewers.
One evening there was a fire at Cutts End. When Lawrence Bennett left his bike at the entrance, it was run over by the fire engine. 'It was the boy's fault', Mr.Griffiths, the Fire Officer, told his father, Jimmy Bennett.
The night of the Coventry raid remains a sharp memory. 'We could see the planes in and out of the clouds -it was moonlight, you could count them - hundreds ! People said 'Some poor devil's going to get it tonight!'
Boys admired the servicemen they knew. 'My sister married John Rowley, a sergeant in the RAF. He was a pilot and observer. We all looked up to him. He was killed at Tobruk'. Mr Willis, a former member of the Boys Brigade, died at Salerno.
There were prisoners-of-war in the parish. Three Italian prisoners were in a cottage at Bradley Farm. 'They worked on the farm but looked after themselves. Mario used to cut our hair. He was very smart and very good to us. They would make hearts out of perspex, baskets from hazel'. Peter Broadis helped with potato picking in Hurst Field, where, at lunch-time, one Italian prisoner squashed a potato into the ground and snarled 'Winston Churchill !' Peter retaliated by twisting a potato apart and shouting 'Mussolini!'
The Home Guard, in which Mr.Thomas was a Major, played its part in preparing local defences. 'My father was in the Home Guard. They used to go to Gee's barn -we reckoned they got apples there. One dark night they heard someone approaching and called out 'Who's there?'. It was the village policeman pushing his bike up the lane'.
'There was a mock invasion of Oxford and a Canadian force was supposed to attack Cumnor, so the village was placed under curfew. 'We're going to show'em', said Sergeant Brogden as the Home Guard got ready. They dug in at the crossroads. Two Canadian tanks came through Bradley Farm, going straight through hedges and doing no end of damage. 1 could see them from our window. They approached the crossroads from the field and the Home Guard jumped out in front of the hedge. A tank's conning tower opened, a hand appeared, and suddenly the Home Guard disappeared in a cloud of smoke. 'We wuz blown up, complained Sgt.Brogden afterwards'. The village Air Raid Wardens were Mr.Stevens and Mr.Wiggins. Mr Wiggins lived in Forster Lane, along Broadis, Bennett and, for a time, Cox, and is remembered for the day when the Germans straffed Stanton Harcourt airfield and he ran down the street warning villagers 'Get in - they'll come over here and get us next !' There were no air raid shelters in Cumnor -well, maybe a few DIY ones.
There was a searchlight on the Chawley Works site. 'The place was all over-grown. There was a steam engine in a shed. We used to ride the old trolleys down the rails'. 'An ack-ack battery was positioned between Chawley and Cumnor, where the by-pass now goes. The barn just past the village pond was full of aircraft - part of the strategic reserve. Tiger moths'. Tiger Moths? 'Yes. Laurence knew and still remembers all the planes. There were some in the College Farm barn too'.
Rationing continued throughout the 1940s. 'We were better off than most people in towns. We lived off the produce of our allotments and gardens. 'Digging for Victory' early in the war, we dug up the soccer field in the field by the Oxford Road to grow potatoes'.
Village life was slower then. The 'Vine' had a rockery in the front court for
there was very little demand for car-parking space. When John Cox's family moved
from Forster Lane to a Bradley cottage, the furniture and belongings were moved
by horse and cart. At harvest time boys would help with the
shire horses (there were 14 at Bradley Farm). 'They always moved quicker when
they knew they were going home. We used to feed them with hay from the loft and
afterwards we dared each other to run underneath them'.
'While we were at school we could get a card to go picking potatoes or mangles for two weeks. 1 worked at May's, Tyrrell's and at Hull's in Appleton. Got 4d an hour'.
The village still lacked some basic services. 'Our houses in Forster Lane had mains water. So did the people in Oxford Road, 'the upper class part of the village', where the residents included Miss Chadwick, headmistress of the Oxford Girls Central School. Many of the cottages in Abingdon Road though had to depend on the well in the garden where the Robsart Stores later stood. 1 recall Mr.Steptoe and Mr.West (his cottage was later enlarged into the Cumnor Hotel) walking down the street with a yoke over their shoulders, carrying two buckets of water'. Improvements came more swiftly after the war's end. In 194617 the Robsart Place estate was built and builders returned to Norreys Road and Bertie Road to complete the development there. Mains services were extended to outlying farms.
John Cox left Botley School at 13, having obtained an apprenticeship at k-e& He later helped his father install the new organ in Curnnor Church which was the parish's World War 11 memorial. John went on to play football for Oxford City and his long association with Curnnor Cricket Club saw him as club President. Peter Broadis left at 15 and went to work briefly at Bradley Farm, with Cyril Buckingham, before taking an apprenticeship at ILCO, the refrigerator firm. For the first three months they were still fulfilling a munitions contract. The apprenticeship lasted five years, with night classes three times a week. Peter ended up as managing director of the firm.
They are happy memories and there are very few regrets. 'Boys today don't
know how to enjoy themselves'. 'We came through a very fortunate generation. Too
young to go to war, we treated life as an adventure. We left school early but
good apprenticeships allowed us to do well. We made our own entertainments and
nobody got into trouble'.