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Harold Clack

Harold Clack was born in 1912 in the High Street cottage that once stood opposite 23a. His father Joseph lived there but was born in Northmoor; he married Emma the daughter of John Sherwood who 'owned' the cottage previously. Harold had wanted to preserve the old cottage but the architects were slow and the Council ordered its demolition on a time limit. He and his wife remember Mr Rayson coming earlier to inspect the cottage and, taking the wallpaper from a 'secret' door, going into the attic. It contained a four-poster bed with hangings which crumbled on touch, strings of onions which turned to powder, an empty chest like a coffin, and an old harp, which fell down the stairway, frightening Mrs Clack. Mrs Clack recalls that she was always rather frightened in the old cottage after the death of her mother-in-law, whose bedroom she was reluctant to enter.

He remembers 'Nevvy' Capel who lived in the first of the 'Bear Cottages', had a patch over one eye, and grew beautiful roses. ‘ 'Shep' Pike was the roadman, funny old chap. He called me over one day and said 'No me and wet feet: 2s 6d from Freeman, Hardy & Willis:' Galoshes! He'd go in the shop and ask for cigarettes. During the war he brought us half a dozen sparrows - we tried to cook them but couldn't face them. Bob James was at the 'Vine'. We lads used to upset him something terrible. He used to get everything from the back and we'd ask for one thing at a time. 'Bertie Buck' lived at Pond Farm. His dad was George, who used to get as drunk as a sack. Always talking to himself: 'Another drink? We'll have one more, won't us. Good health then, George.' He carried a lantern and talked to himself all the way home.’

‘Herbie Lambourne (Beulah's brother, at Leys Road) had a motorbike in 1925. He took his dad for a ride and, after calling at a pub, was talking to him all the way home and, when he turned round, he wasn't there. He hadn't got on again.’

He remembers Holloway being chucked out next door, his furniture in the street, as a result of the Chawley Works strike in about 1922. Saunders in the first of the cottage row was also ejected, his furniture put out in the street and the children standing there crying.

Jemima Saunders lived in 'the untidiest cottage you could imagine' but she sat in there with a pillowslip over her lap doing beautiful smocking. She made children's romper suits, 'done so beautiful and clean'. Two Miss Lismore's lived at 1 High Street after the Frewins. They owned a china shop in George Street, Oxford and were well-off. They had servants and, with the Jervois sisters, were the village aristocracy. At the corner of the Oxford Road 'Captain Cook' daily put out the signs of the weather to be expected. 'Cakey' Harper pushed his cart from Abingdon, wearing a bowler hat, to sell lardy cakes etc in the village.

The far end of Church House in the 1920s was a reading room for boys. It was managed by Jimmy Bennett, who was also caretaker of the new village hall, and then lived in one of the Poor Trustees cottages in Leys Road. The Women's Institute, formed in about 1924, had a cricket team. 'Nin' Jeffs, the adopted daughter of John Haynes, 'bowled like a man'. Harold joined the Boys Brigade when it was started in about 1924 by Mr Lowe and Mr Dean of Mansfield College, through the Congregational Church. Meetings were held in the fields by Lower Whitley.

Mr Busby of the 'Bear and Ragged Staff' had College Farm in the 1920s, and, after him, Dick Walker, an ex-serviceman and son of Percy Walker. Later Ernie Eden took it over. In World War I German P.O.W.s ran a team of horses there that worked on various farms. I remember lining up at school to watch the German prisoners go home after the war.

'I worked on a farm as a boy - at 3d an hour, taking cows down at 4.30 am and helping to milk them'.  It was at New Farm, he ran a milk round.

We used as lads to cycle into Oxford to go to the George Street Cinema - silent films, Tom Mix cowboys. We left our bikes at the 'Druid's Head' where one of the Steptoe daughters was barmaid. All good-looking girls, on the way home we'd stop at Haynes fish and chip shop in the Botley Road on the corner of Ferry Hinksey Road. The first 'talkie' film I ever seen was 'Sunny Boy' - I walked to the cinema to see that. Went to New Theatre variety shows. We used to go for miles on our bikes as 16 year olds. 1 went with Sydney Wastie, Fred Messenger, Willoughby and others. The roads in my youth had cobble stones; a steam engine used to roll them in. We used to spin tops and play with hoops (made by the blacksmith) in the road. Mr Cooper was the blacksmith at the 'Vine'.

For chapel outings,, 'Sheppy' May of Bradley Farm would take two cartloads to Marcham - went into the park and played games there. Big day out, all the way to Marcham: We were singing all the way back 'I'm forever blowing bubbles', and so on. The yearly fair was called the 'Cumnor Rouser'. We'd watch the horses and caravans arriving. Jimmy Bennett played the concertina in the building at the back. He lived in one of the Bear cottages.’


Mr & Mrs Frewin had the first Post Office. Then it moved to the Oxford Road where Marky Lambourne had a tub trap. John Hale was next door, then a stile. Miss Hicks, the grocery came after that. Then Bateman, Blencoe, Mrs Hickman, Miss Chadwick. Bob Webb had a blacksmith's shop in the High Street, past 46, where the first bungalow is. His father was Jim Webb. Allington, who made milk floats etc, was on the right side down at the bottom of Cumnor Hill. Percy Bennett's refreshment rooms were near there on the corner of the Eynsham Road where the buses turned round. It was a shed.

Mr Hicks brought bread from Appleton in a horse van. His round ended at the bottom of Leys Road, where people would wait. He used to stop and play dominoes in the 'Vine' and was sometimes very late. Surman was a baker in Botley; he had a horse and van.

We kept two or three pigs. Ralph Grimes came from Henwood to dress them, There was a Cumnor Pig Club which met occasionally. Used to put the killed pig on a fire to burn off the hair. They'd cut off the feet - kids liked to chew them. The meat was salted down. Before Grimes it was Minky Evans.

In those days we always had Empire Day. The fox hounds used to meet once a year by the Lion Tree. We took the 'Daily Herald' some of the time. Fred from Kennington brought the papers on a bike - he was 'three sheets to the wind' when he got here.

I remember the hunger marchers during the General Strike. Some camped on Cumnor meadow. Some stayed in Oxford and got jobs. We went on our bikes to see them. I remember at the fish and chip shop we saw a lorry load of margarine, at night, stopped, on its way to Wales for the unemployed.

Cumnor, it was all right in those days. You had to behave yourself. The worst thing about the old days was the toilets at the bottom of the garden and drawing water from the well. Our piped water was not put in till about 1948. Mrs Clack says that 'Cumnor is a completely different village now. You used to know everyone in the old days. They call them 'the good old days' but they weren't, you know.'


Recorded by John Hanson 13 June 1990


 

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