Mrs Beulah Boyles said she was born 1905 in her mother's home, a cottage opposite New Cumnor Place, still standing and occupied. The Lambourn family has traced its line back to 1663, and in all probability had some connection with the Lambourn of the Amy Robsart story. Beulah was the only child of Herbert Lambourn's marriage with Alice Inness.
She attended Cumnor Village School until 11 years old and later Milham Ford School. "I suppose my friend and I were among the first to go to school in Oxford who weren't 'gentry' ", she reminisced. She trained as a teacher in London and after one teaching post elsewhere returned to the village in 1929 to take up post at Cumnor School as the first trained teacher to be appointed (apart from Mr Brown, the Head). By coincidence another Miss Lambourn from Appleton was also teaching in the school.
At this time the family had moved to one of the 'St. John's' houses in Leys Road, by the Chapel. "There was one outside pump for the water in all four houses. There was a block of 'privies' halfway up the garden and we had to cross two gardens to get there -it wasn't an easy journeys at night! We had paraffin lamps and candles in those days, and when we wanted a bath we had a zinc tub in front of the fire".
Mrs Boyles felt that the village school had done well then as, apart from ESN children, all left able to read, write and do arithmetic even though lessons were conducted with all Standards in one partitioned room. One year seven local children gained scholarships."First time I remember a radio was Derby Day -about 1930 I think. The headmaster brought a crystal set into the school".
Arthur explained how he came to Cumnor : "Herbert Thomas built Leys House in 1921, coming from Great Milton manor. He was a gentleman, with no particular job. 1 think his family was connected with Christopher's Soaps in Bristol. My father came with him as gardener. For a time on leaving school 1 worked for the builders at Leys House. Around 1923 I went to help plant and lay out the new garden at Hustcote. It was a field before. Henry Brooke built it - a very nice family. One of his sons became Lord Brooke and a Home Secretary - we went up to Parliament and had lunch with him. I worked at Hurstcote for 52 years. Dr Arkell (whose family were brewers in Swindon) lived there afterwards and then Brigadier Hill. Gardening was hard work, harder than it is now - not the implements there are now. Everyone did a bit of gardening in those days, to help with the vegetables and so on. The gardeners (Mr Dance at Cutts End, me at Hursteote, Lawson at Thomas's, Jim Webb at Cumnor Place) were always exchanging pieces - no selling. They helped each other out. All worked together".
"Some of the Cumnor/Botley/Wytham shows were held at Cumnor Place, organised by Jim Webb.All sweet peas. Leaves and lawn mowings were used for compost - pig manure was watered down and used to water plants. They used to grow wonderful stuff in those gardens (cottages) - runner beans, potatoes, peas, brussels ... lucky around Cumnor, we had good soil. You had to be gardener and handyman. You had to go driving in those days. My father had the first bungalow in Appleton Road. My father used to breed pigs and keep chickens - all free range in those days. Eggs were 4d each."
Arthur Boyles and Beulah Lambourn married in 1932 and thought she had scored another first by remaining in her teaching post after marriage. They bought land on High Street from Gee's for £50 and built their first house, now adjacent to their later bungalow 19A High Street). They had two sons, Geoffrey and Robert. "The big houses, in the 192Os", Athur explained, " used to make their own electric light. They had paraffin or diesel engines to generate electric light and pump up water. When we built our first house in 1934 electric current had only come up the Oxford Road as far as the church. We asked if it was worth wiring the house but they said no, there was no saying when it would come. It came within two years. For water we dug our own well; we had a rotary pump to pump water into the cistern in the loft. It was very modern in those days, having taps. Gas was laid in the street around 1930 so for two years we had gas lighting and a gas cooker".
"The war came as a surprise to us in 1939", Arthur said. " We were on holiday with my aunt and had to come home early. Home on Thursday; on Friday the evacuees arrived. On Sunday 1 was filling sandbags - everyone had got their radio going listening to war being declared. Dr Arkell's maps of France were taken for the Normandy preparations. On the Sunday (June 6th) we watched the low-flying gliders. One came down at Besselsleigh and the pilot was killed by electric cables." During the Second World War Mrs Boyles was on the Committee with Miss Chadwick (Head of Central Girls School and later a Cumnor resident) which set up the Baby Clinic in Cumnor. During this time shopping was done at Didcock's, a shop in the cottage by the village pond, where all her points and coupons for,food were registered. Mrs Boyles remembered, though, Douglas's carrier's cart (from Standlake) and trips to Oxford for a fare of 4p, as a big highlight when she was very young.
"I used to go round the village collecting 2d a week from each family", said Beulah, " - it entitled them to treatment at the Radcliffe. Amy Hicks' shop was on the Oxford Road. Her bungalow was beyond and back from it (just past present shops). The Post Office in the 1920s was at the Hales in Oxford Road. Bessie Pike's shop: just going into her living room, just a table with jars of sweets on it. 'Nevvy' Capel had a shield over one eye. He grew two species of red roses and always had one in his buttonhole. Bill Neale, he was landlord of 'The Bear' then. He would come up from the cellar, ash on his cigarette nearly as long as the cigarette, but he never dropped it in the beer. It was served through a hatch, not a wide open counter then. Nothing special happened in Cumnor, no more than anywhere else".
A big function in the Cumnor social calendar in their early years was the Cumnor Rowser (a cricket match between Horspath Village men and the men of Cumnor -apparently farmer Jack Walker had relations in Horspath which brought this about). In her younger days Mrs Boyles herself had a keen interest in sport and played cricket for the Cumnor Ladies' Team on the same field used by Cumnor Cricket Club today. Tennis was played on various courts privately owned by wealthier Cumnor residents. Courts existed behind the Church (New Cumnor Place) and at Hurstcote.
"The one thing I looked forward to", said Arthur keenly, " was playing cricket on Saturday afternoons. Once or twice a year there was a Whist Drive in the old school. Cumnor, it was a good place to live, 'cept there weren't any buses. Richins of Appleton kept a mini-coach, the 'local carrier', at a pub in Appleton and he carried passengers and fetched parcels. Old 'cakey' Harper used to come from Abingdon, pushing a truck and selling cakes. Eadle had a little truck to deliver Sunday papers. He came from Wolvercote. 1 don't remember any daily papers. There's not many of our generation who can argue against it. In 1934, when we had a mixed choir - Mr & Mrs Brown were in it too - we went to a show in London. When we got there some of the fellows decided to go to a football match instead. They followed a crowd, but when they got there it was greyhound racing!"
One choir outing when Beulah was young was particularly recalled when almost all the village children went to Oxford station by horse and cart and then in reserved train carriages to Southampton. On the way home the children took off their shoes and there was a big scramble to get them on again when the train drew into Oxford and one of the Hales never did find her other shoe. Later there were other outings by charabanc. "We went to church twice on Sunday and once to Sunday School. The family went and we all had to trail along. The vicar then was the Reverend Wilkinson and I remember my mother speaking of the previous vicar, 'Bonny' Griffith they used to call him. We used to look up to the vicar. He was most important in those days. The Rev. Wilkinson's son (we thought he was a handsome young man) died from injuries in the Great War." The Rev. Wilkonson was succeeded in 1930 by the Rev. Hall, who was head of Oxford Boys School and vicar of Ramsden. "Mr Brooke sent a car and I drove it to bring him to interview", said Arthur. "He was a nice old man".
The Misses Jervois (whose father possibly held some important post in the colonial service) were recalled as VIP's in the village and had on one occasion entertained royalty at New Cumnor Place. Politically the village was divided, with many finding it expedient to be strong Tory owing to being employed by families in the village and others who worked independently being Liberal.
Mr Boyles' whole working career was spent in the gardens of Hurstcote throughout its various owners. His first employer, Leslie Brooke, instigated the shaping of Johnny Crow in the Garden in connection with his work as a book illustrator and the bird was kept shaped up by Arthur during his years at Hurstcote, where it still remains. Many American tourists visited Hurstcote to see Johnny Grow as Leslie Brooke's books were popular in America. Toads were also introduced into the garden for the purpose of Mr Brooke's book illustrations. There are still numbers of them there. Some of Leslie Brooke's illustrated books were in the possession of Mr Boyles : 'The Golden Goose', 'The Three Bears', 'Johnny Crow's Garden', (all published Fred. Warne & Co.)
Mrs Sybil Brooke (wife of Leslie) was a founder of Cumnor Village Hall (contributions of 1/- a brick being raised from Cumnor residents) and of Cumnor W.I. The Brooks had two sons, one killed in the 1914-18 war and the other, Henry, who became Home Secretary, who entertained Arthur occasionally.
(Based on interviews conducted by Mrs J.Adams in 1980, Bert Tighe in 1989 and John Hanson in 1990)