Glimpses of Village Life, 1850-1930

Hook Norton Local History Group

Some of the ways in which village life changed after 1850 have been well captured in the following series of short articles by James Tobin which have been appearing in the Hook Norton Newsletter since 2017. They have been enlivened by the memories of Geoff Hillman, who was born in the village in 1919. Together, they show how by the 1920s technological change had already created a new and distinctive way of living, at least for the fortunate, even though far greater changes lay ahead.

1. The Early Years of Post Office Services 2. The Village Carrier 3. The First Street Lighting 4. Hook Norton Electricity Supply Co. 5. The Original Hook Norton telephone numbers 6. Popular Hook Norton Surnames 7. Early Brewing and Pubs in Hook Norton 8. Hook Norton Brass Band, 1886 to 1962 9. The Bazaar: the beginnings of the village shop 10. Supplying Petrol for Motor Vehicles 11. Hook Norton Pubs in Verse

1 www.hook-norton.org.uk/history Hook Norton Local History Group

1 The Early Years of Post Office Services

In an age of the mobile phone and internet, it is hard to imagine that messaging once involved walking with a hand-written paper communication the five miles from Hook Norton to Chipping Norton, where it would then be sent onwards by mail coach. That is how it was in the 1850s. Samuel French was the postman to Chipping Norton around this time and typically he walked the mail in from town at 10 am and took the Hook Norton mail out at 5pm. This pattern continued for many years until November 1880 when a second delivery of mail started as the result of a petition signed by every Hook Norton resident.

A major improvement in village communication with the outside world occurred in September 1872 when the telegraph service was established in the High Street Post Office. This offered a messaging service where 20 words would cost the sender one shilling (5p). At this time the Typical foot postman (Courtesy: Village Museum) Post Office opened 8am to 7pm on weekdays and 8 to

10am on Sundays.

By 1883 the office also ran a savings bank, and later an annuity and insurance office. With the opening of the Banbury to Cheltenham Railway in 1887 the mail could now arrive by rail from Banbury, which offered three post times. To accommodate letter-writers, a wall letter box was located at East End which was cleared at 1.45, 4.30 and 7.25pm. Eventually, additional post boxes were located around the village.

By 1911, a telephone call office Village Post Office when in Chapel Street was made available from where calls (Courtesy: Village Museum) could be made to places within a limited

2 www.hook-norton.org.uk/history Hook Norton Local History Group distance. Once in operation, concerns were raised about the lack of privacy provided by the telephone call office. This led to the installation of call boxes in the village and three were provided, one located adjacent to the post office in Chapel Street and the others near the Wheatsheaf and Pear Tree pubs. Eventually individual telephones were installed around the village linked to a switchboard in the post office.

The main locations of the early village post offices were in Chapel Street opposite Redlands Farmhouse, and later in the High Street on the corner with Queen Street. However, it is thought there may have been an earlier location as yet unidentified. Some early sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses include:

1854 Daniel Warmington, 1883 John C. Harris, 1899 Fanny Harris, 1920 Jane Spatcher, 1924 Alec Miles, 1930s (?) Mrs Cox, 1940s (?) Cyril Heath. Village Post Office when in the High Street

(Courtesy: Village Museum) © James Tobin

(with thanks to Geoff Hillman)

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2 The Village Carrier

In the nineteenth century, the average villager generally did not need to shop outside the village as most goods were available to them in the shops here at that time. But if they wanted to cast farther afield, before the arrival of the railway the Village Carrier provided the only way most folk could get themselves into town, or enable them to get items from the town.

Two typical carriers

(Courtesy: Village Museum) The carriers provided a valuable service that included acting as a shopping agent, delivering bulky parcels from town to remote country locations, providing a primitive country bus, and delivering produce to town for sale to provision merchants. Geoff Hillman well remembers how the shopping service worked:

Supposing, for example, we needed a new frying pan and could not get what we wanted in the village, the carrier would obtain one for us while in town. He would have an arrangement with, say, Nathans in the Market Place in Banbury (where 'A- Plan' is currently) whereby he would bring back a choice of pans from which we could choose. He would then return the unwanted items on his next trip. We would, of course, pay the carrier, plus a small amount for the service, and he in turn paid Nathans.

4 www.hook-norton.org.uk/history Hook Norton Local History Group

In its heyday Hook Norton had up to three horse-drawn carriers' carts covering routes to Banbury and Chipping Norton. Carriers left Hook Norton for Banbury in the morning on a Monday, Thursday and Saturday, and to Chipping Norton on a Wednesday. At Banbury they would stable at one of the inns before returning in the afternoon. Recorded in 1854 were three carriers on the Banbury run: David Whitfield and Robert Borsbery to the Waggon & Horses (now the Banbury Cross), and Matthew Wyton to the Buck & Bell (now the White Horse) on North Bar). Whitfield and Borsbery also did the Wednesday run to Chipping Norton. This pattern of service to Banbury would continue, albeit with other operators and stabling inns, until the Second World War. As yet, no photographs have emerged showing any Hook Norton carrier carts but the cart used by Gilks of Wigginton shown above is thought to be typical of the type used.

Some details of operators, routes and termini in selected years:

Competition to the carrier arrived in 1887 with the opening of the Banbury to Cheltenham Railway, offering four trains each day to both Banbury and Chipping Norton. By 1911 the carriers’ service to Chipping Norton had finished, and there were only two carriers to Banbury left: George Mobley and Walter (later Charles) Wyton. In 1919 the Midland Red began to run a bus service to and from these destinations, and eventually the horse-drawn cart was replaced by the motor vehicle. Mobley’s two-cylinder Albion is shown above, while Wyton apparently ran an old

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Ford van. In 1939 Frederick Wyton was the only remaining carrier running the service to Banbury, and seemingly this had finished by the end of the war.

So ended the era of the Village Carrier.

6 www.hook-norton.org.uk/history Hook Norton Local History Group

3 The First Street Lighting

(Courtesy: Village Museum)

Nowadays we take it for granted that street lights will automatically come on when it gets dark and then go off again later when it gets light. Such automation would have been but a dream when the streets of Hook Norton were first lit in the winter of 1898/99.

Local authorities had been given the power to provide lighting in public places by the Lighting and Watching Act of 1833, but it was not until 1897 that anything was done in Hook Norton. On November 29th James W. Harris first proposed that our streets should be lit, resulting in the creation of a Village Lighting committee that was authorised to make decisions on such things as funding, installation and maintenance of the scheme.

The original proposal was for the installation of 28 lamps, each rated at 100 candle power brightness (roughly equivalent to a standard 80 watt light bulb). In the end only an initial 14 were ordered from J. Mawle & Sons of Banbury in November 1898, on condition they erect the lamps as well as supply them.

The sites chosen pretty much followed the main road through the village from east to west, the first lamp being on East End corner near to East End Farmhouse

7 www.hook-norton.org.uk/history Hook Norton Local History Group and the last on the triangle by the Pear Tree pub. As the map shows, also included were lamps at Down End near the tite, Down Town near the bridge, plus Brick Hill and the Wheatsheaf, and eight others.

Locations of the original 14 street lamps in Hook Norton

The lamp standards were painted with a chocolate brown colour at the base, with a white upper section. Tenders were invited for lighting and maintaining the lamps as well as providing the oil to fuel them. George Hone was eventually appointed Lamplighter at 1/- (5p) per night and also he was to provide the oil at 6d per gallon. Included in the tender was the agreement to light and extinguish the lamps daily at certain times as well as cleaning and replacing glasses where required. George Hone's rate was later increased to 1/6d per night provided he used his own truck!

Lighting up time was initially set at one hour after sunset and extinguished typically at 9.30pm, with a proviso that lamps would not be lit if there was a full moon. During the summer months the lamps and glass were to be removed, cleaned and stored in the old engine house, which was near the bus shelter opposite the church.

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Diagram showing the parts of an oil lamp and pictures of an oil lamp configured for the lighting season and also the same one with lamp and glass removed for the summer.

To fund the scheme land and property rates were set to yield around an extra £50 per year. Every year tenders were put out for Lamp Lighter, the buying of oil, plus things like repainting the lamps. The rate was also reviewed on an annual basis.

Inevitably there was the occasional damage to the lamps, such as when, in January 1901, Mr R.H. Collett's horses and wagon broke the lamp at Scotland End. He was of course charged the £2-8-0 for the repair. Two more incidents are recorded later on: Mr A. Timms’s horse and cart damaged the lamp on Mobbs corner, and Mr Harvey's horse and wagon from Rollright damaged the one in the Nettings near the police house. In September 1909 the lamp in Mobbs Lane was moved to stop boys using it to get over the wall into Mr Grove's orchard!

Thomas Harvey became Lamp Lighter in October 1903 at a rate of 2/- (10p) per night for the 23 lamps now in place around the village. His tenure was short-lived as he left for a job in the war office in the December, so at short notice Thomas Pargeter stepped in to cover the rest of the season and indeed would carry on in the job for the next ten years. Frederick Borsberry took over as lamp attendant in September 1913 but by February 1914 he had resigned, and we find Charles Wyton in the job and then from September it was Thomas Cox. The First World War found the streets in darkness once more to comply with blackout requirements, although those lamps outside places of worship were lit.

In the late 1920s electricity came to the village and in 1931 the poles being erected would eventually be used for electric lighting. In April 1934 sites for eighteen electric street lamps were agreed and these would be lit during the coming winter

9 www.hook-norton.org.uk/history Hook Norton Local History Group months. Each electric lamp was wired through a Venner time switch which was set according to when the lamps were required to be automatically switched on and off. The switch had a clockwork mechanism that had to be wound every two weeks, but at least this was easier than the old days of lighting and extinguishing each lamp nightly!

Finally, in 1934 the old lamp standards were disposed of. Mr Weston, the blacksmith, paid 2/6d each for them and the 26 old oil lamps were sold to a Mr J. South for 25/-. So ended the era of oil street lighting in Hook Norton.

Sources Hook Norton Parish Council meeting records, Hook Norton Village Museum.

The notes of the late Percy Hackling, Hook Norton Village Museum.

Photographs and illustrations from the Tobin Family collection.

10 www.hook-norton.org.uk/history Hook Norton Local History Group

4 Hook Norton Electricity Supply Co.

Hook Norton Electricity Supply Company, in Queen Street

(Courtesy: Village Museum)

Up to the 1920s the only options for villagers to light their homes and businesses was to use either oil lamps or candles. Then in 1925 another option presented itself when the Parish Council (PC) began to receive offers to provide the village with electricity.

The first of these offers came in September 1925 from the Banbury & District Electric Supply Co., Ltd but the favoured one came in February 1926 from the Chipping Norton Electric Supply Co. (CNESC). Their Charlie Hewitt and colleagues had made a preliminary study of the village and then met with the PC to discuss a proposed scheme for providing the village with electricity for both lighting and power. Apparently their scheme impressed the PC so much that they gave permission for them to take things further and apply for the necessary approvals from the Electricity Commissioners. This eventually led to the establishment of the Hook Norton Electricity Supply Co. (HNESC).

A site for the building required to house the necessary electricity generator and batteries was found in the Shearing Close near the top of Queen's street and this was purchased from the local farmer. Involved in the project were J. G. Jackson,

11 www.hook-norton.org.uk/history Hook Norton Local History Group electrical engineer, C. G. Hewett, electrician, B. Knight, builder, and two local labourers.

The building comprised a steel frame with asbestos roof and galvanised corrugated iron sides. Electricity was generated using a 48-horsepower Fielding and Platt Diesel Engine which drove a generator producing 240 volts D.C. As a standby for off-peak usage and during engine maintenance periods, 140 Exide wet batteries were also kept charged.

Bank of 140 Exide batteries Fielding & Platt diesel engines (Courtesy: Village Museum)

By 1927 the first three customers were connected: Reuben Green's shop, No 2 High Street, Frank Phipps, butchers, next to the Sun pub, and Mr Colegrave at Belldin (later Priestfield) opposite the church. Eventually there were 65 customers paying 1s/1d (6p) per unit or 1/- (5p) if paid within 7 days.

In July 1928 the HNESC quoted the parish council for lighting the village streets. The proposed scheme to replace the existing oil lamps was for 18 lamps with poles and brackets costing £26, and an operating cost of for 1000 hours at £3 per lamp. The matter was however deferred for twelve months.

By now the Shropshire, Worcestershire and Staffordshire Electric Power Co. (SWSEPC) had completed a power line from their power station in Stourport to a sub-station near Epwell. Their objective was to connect the surrounding villages at 8d (4p) per unit. With such competition nearby, it perhaps came as no surprise that in November 1928 it was announced that the Hook Norton business had been purchased by SWSEPC. So ended the short existence of the Hook Norton Electricity

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Supply Co. The building remained in use, firstly by the SWSEPC, then by the Midlands Electricity Board, as an office and store, before being demolished in the 1970s to make way for houses.

13 www.hook-norton.org.uk/history Hook Norton Local History Group

The Original Hook Norton telephone numbers.

It was around 1911 that the first public telephone was installed; it was located at the village post office run by Mrs Fanny Harris. Later, of course, the telephone was also laid on to private houses and businesses. The chart below shows most of the original fifty numbers listed in the 1930s together with their location:

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Interestingly, some of these numbers are still in use today, albeit with the prefix 01608 737 2. For example the Brewery has the number 01608 737 210, the village shop still uses 45 the number issued to Roy Gaddes, and Reverend Acreman used to have the number 23 that was issued to Reverend Nind.

So this means anyone with the telephone number between 01608 737 200 and 01608 737 299 has one of the original numbers. Now there's an interesting piece of trivia for you!

15 www.hook-norton.org.uk/history Hook Norton Local History Group

6 Popular Hook Norton Surnames Looking through the Parish Register for St Peter's the other day, I thought it would be interesting to analyse Hooky surnames by the number of entries and dates of the baptisms recorded therein. The chart below showing the top twenty is the result. This particular register only covers the period 1550 to 1995 and of course includes only those baptised in the parish church.

I have followed the Register’s system of recording names; for example, Gardner, Gardener and Gardiner are all indexed as one, so the 83 above will be a mix of all three spellings. Despite the shortcomings in the table, it is interesting to see how some current names have such a long history in the village.

16 www.hook-norton.org.uk/history Hook Norton Local History Group

7 Early Brewing and Pubs in Hook Norton.

Today, when there's talk of beer in Hook Norton we naturally think of the ales brewed by our famous brewery here in Scotland End and Turpins on Banbury way.

In 1300 the brewing scene was very different, and we have Margaret Dickins’s history of the village to thank for giving us an insight into this. Then, it seems, the only standard for ale was that it had to be of a certain quality and should not be overpriced. Brewing licences were issued by the manorial court, which was commonly staffed by locals, and elected officials known as tythingmen checked these licences while tasters checked the quality.

Brewing then was very much a cottage industry and the ale produced was made without hops and consisted of barley malt for sugar, which yeast would convert to alcohol, with fruit and herbs added for bitterness and flavour. When a brew was ready for sale the brewer would put up a sign outside to make customers and the taster aware. Such picture signs were a forerunner of the pub signs we see today.

It seems there was considerable rule breaking going on as, according to Dickins, in 1341 “Matilda Coventre, Thomas Tailour and Agnes Couhernde” were fined 6d each for brewing without a licence. Also, tythingmen themselves were find 4d each “for the concealment of brewing”. In 1500 we learn of five brewers of ale in the village – John Clerke, Robert Playsto, Richard Hyde, Agnes Goffe and Elizabeth Fyttes – and Thomas Pufford and John Clyfton as tasters.

The year 1700 saw the introduction of verification and capacity marking of drinking vessels and measures. This is still in place today, of course, with the familiar monarch's crown and capacity mark on glasses, etc. The early mark for Hook Norton vessels was the relevant monarch's crown and a number, either 547 (Banbury) or 113 (Oxford County). Hook Norton did not have its own number allocated.

The Beer House Act of 1830 enabled more individuals to brew and sell beer for home consumption by removing a lot of the red tape involved and introducing a

17 www.hook-norton.org.uk/history Hook Norton Local History Group reduced licence fee. This had a dramatic effect in the country as a whole: in 1830 there were around 1,000 retail brewers, and by 1839 this had risen to 18,000.

When John Harris became established in 1849 as a farmer and maltster, we learn from David Eddershaw that he supplied malted barley to local brewers including The Sun, The Red Lion, The Bell, The Wheatsheaf and The Gate. There were other pubs here at that time, of course, including The Fox & Hounds (where Turpin's Lodge is today), The Old Red Lion in Southrop, The Talbot in Garrett Lane (now Queen’s Street) and The Blackbird in Chapel Street. In fact, according to the late Percy Hackling, there have been no fewer than seventeen different pubs and beer houses in the parish over the years.

According to Mike Brown, by the late nineteenth century most of the old Hook Norton brew pubs were selling their brewing equipment and being taken over by local breweries. The coming of the railway opened up the village to competition: The Bell eventually became a Hunt Edmunds pub, the Wheatsheaf a Hopcraft & Norris and then (Chesham & Brackley) pub, and The Red Lion another Chesham & Brackley pub before it was taken over by Phipps of Northampton. The Sun and The Gate became John Harris (and then Hook Norton Brewery) tied houses, in addition to the Pear Tree and the Railway Hotel, while the remainder, including the Blackbird, closed. Nowadays we have two local breweries: Hook Norton and Turpin’s.

Sources:

Margaret Dickins, A History of Hook Norton, 912-1928 (Banbury, 1928)

Mike Brown, Oxon Brews: The Story of Commercial Brewing in Oxfordshire (Brewery History Society, 2004)

Percy Hackling, Notes held by the Village Museum and James Tobin

David Eddershaw, A Country Brewery: Hook Norton, 1849-1999 (Hook Norton, 1999)

Rob Woolley, Brewed in the Traditional Manner: The Story of Hook Norton Brewery (Brewin Books, 2015)

18 www.hook-norton.org.uk/history Hook Norton Local History Group

8 Hook Norton Brass Band, 1886 to 1962

(Courtesy: Village Museum)

In 1886 a group of villagers and men building the railway formed what became the Hook Norton Brass Band. The Bell Inn was the base for the band, where they used the Club Room for practice, and of course the railway navvies gathered here because James Harris, publican and brewer, was providing some of their food and lodging. James Harris also had a son John who later became bandmaster.

Up to the establishment of the Hook Norton Band, the village had to rely on hiring bands from other areas for its various events, particularly on Club Days. In 1862 it was the Shutford and Bloxham Brass Band, from 1872 to 1875 the Banbury Britannia Brass Band, in 1884 Kay's Brass Band from Banbury, and in 1885 the Shutford Brass Band.

When the village brass band formed in 1886, one of the founders was villager Henry Busby. Music ran in the Busby family as Henry's grandfather Benjamin earlier played the clarinet in St Peter's Church ensemble, which provided the church music until about 1855.

From photographs taken over the years we know the band was an integral part of village life and was always the centre piece on Club Days and at flower

19 www.hook-norton.org.uk/history Hook Norton Local History Group shows, jubilee celebrations, coronations, St Peter's Day, May Day and, of course, Armistice day. In the early days, of course, a brass band was one of the only ways villagers could hear serious music. By 1894 the Hook Norton Brass Band was sufficiently established that it too went on the road playing at events in other villages in the area, including Wroxton, Bloxham, Enstone, Adderbury and Swerford as well as at our own village events.

By the 1920s the band began entering band competitions, perhaps the most prestigious being the Oxfordshire and District contest held in July each year. In 1928 Hook Norton Brass Band, under conductor John Harris, entered two sections, the Waltz section with the test piece ‘Fascination’ and Section 2 with ‘Recollections of Verdi’. The band was placed 4th in each category, not a bad result for a first attempt! In 1929 they were unplaced but in 1931 came third in Section 3 with ‘Echoes of Mendelssohn’.

After the Second World War brass bands generally suffered, since music was now more readily available in the form of the wireless and the gramophone. For Hook Norton Brass Band there were fewer village events at which to perform; the Club Days and St Peter's Tea were long finished by this time. In the 1950s the Band was nevertheless kept busy with remaining events including the flower show and village fetes – and of course the Coronation – and it was always in demand at other local village events. The decade also received its first female members when Joan Reeves and Maureen Bolton joined the line-up, and I'm proud to record that my father Leonard Tobin, after many years playing in the band, became Bandmaster in 1962. The Band of course still thrives to this day.

20 www.hook-norton.org.uk/history Hook Norton Local History Group

9 The Bazaar: the beginnings of the village shop

The Village Shop in 2019

(Courtesy: Village Museum)

The shop known years ago as “The Bazaar” can still be recognised today as the right-hand building (starred above) that is part of the village shop. It would appear to be the village's oldest retail shop having been open continuously for at least the last 128 years.

The first reference found so far to The Bazaar is from 1891 when it was being run by the Cook family. Listed there in that year were sisters Frances, Eva and Laura and brother Edward. An early advertising card headed "The Misses Cook" boasts, "The Bazaar Hook Norton has a choice stock of novelties in all departments for the approaching season". They also sold photo postcards and were agents for Bennett's dyers and cleaners as well as running a small library. The Cook sisters were milliners, so presumably they also featured hats in their mini-department store.

The Cooks ran the Bazaar at least until 1915 which is when Harry Turnock is first listed here as an ironmonger, having been previously running his business from the Bell pub next door. The image overleaf shows the shop under Harry bedecked with signs and with his horse-drawn delivery cart parked in the Bell tchure. The

21 www.hook-norton.org.uk/history Hook Norton Local History Group

The Bazaar under Harry Turnock

(Courtesy: Village Museum) business had seemingly expanded to include motor car proprietor and motor garage, ironmonger, cycle, hardware, oil, and general household requisites dealer.

The motor garage was located just around the corner from the shop, in the old wheelwright's building at the top of the hill that leads to Down End (on the site of the present Buttercup Cottage. Oil, of course, was used by most of the village to light homes and shops in those days. Harry stocked the Royal Daylight brand, the preferred choice of the Parish Council for the street lighting, which Harry sold to them for 5d (2p) per gallon. Eventually two hand-operated petrol pumps were installed dispensing Red line & Green line petrol. The first car operated was a Model T Ford which Harry’s son Edgar eventually drove. Edgar and the car can be seen on some of the old village photos taking part in the flower show or providing a taxi service as well a wedding car. Harry Turnock also eventually started up a private local bus service and at some point ran a 14-seater Rio bus. Although the Bazaar sign was initially still showing above the shop doorway when Harry Turnock took over (as seen above), it was only ever known as this during the Cook family tenure.

Roy Gaddes took over the business from Harry Turnock in 1937 and continued to offer the services pretty much as before except he expanded the bus operation. The Gaddes family ran the shop until at least the 1960s when eventually it was taken over and formed the part off the village shop we know today.

22 www.hook-norton.org.uk/history Hook Norton Local History Group

10 Supplying Petrol for Motor Vehicles

High St - 100 years ago High St - Today

(Courtesy: Village Museum)

One of the biggest changes to the look of our High Street in the last hundred years must surely have been the arrival of the motor car. Along with it came the tradesmen that provided the necessary petrol and servicing requirements. Described as a motor car proprietor and motor garage, Harry Turnock was the first such business in the 1920s, operating from his ironmongers’ premises in the High Street. He had his garage in the old Wheelwrights next to 'Corner Cottage', on the site of the present- day Buttercup Cottage (starred below) on the hill leading to Down End.

The old wheelwright’s shop, at the top of Down End

(Courtesy: Village Museum)

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Turnock’s (later Gaddes’s) pumps, High Street

(Courtesy: Village Museum)

By 1924 competition had arrived when Horace Cox established his garage in Chapel Street, although this was advertised as a motor-cycle and cycle agent, repairer and garage. These two expanded by 1931 with Turnock becoming a motor bus proprietor and motor garage, and Cox adding motor cars to his business profile.

At this time Harry Turnock was supplying Red Stripe petrol for 2/- (10p) a gallon. Dispensing petrol in those days was via a hand-turned pump, a gallon at a time. When a gallon had been pumped up from the underground tank into the machine, it was then released into the cars petrol tank by gravity, then the next gallon was raised and so on until the required total had been reached. An unusual feature of the Turnock pumps was that they were set back from the road behind a pathway, so petrol was pumped overhead through metal pipes to reach the roadway then folded back against the shop when not in use. Roy Gaddes took over the Turnock business in 1937 and would eventually build a coach garage in Queen Street. With the coming of the Second World War the village fire brigade acquired a more modern engine in the form of an Austin ATV. As a temporary measure this was housed in Cox's garage so as to be close to the firemen's alert billet at the top of Tite Lane. With the end of hostilities the fire engine

24 www.hook-norton.org.uk/history Hook Norton Local History Group was then housed in the old Turnock garage before finally getting its permanent home in 1953 in Bourne Lane at the junction with The Bourne.

In the 1950s, as the vehicle population grew, more outlets offering petrol came into being. Stan Wise, an ex-Lagonda engineer, established a Wise, Sibford Road National Benzole filling station and garage where

Hill View is now at (Courtesy: Village Museum) the bottom of Sibford Road, and Vera Burbridge added two Fina petrol pumps to her grocery shop in the High Street. R.S. Gaddes meanwhile continued to sell Esso and Esso Extra petrol also in the High Street Burbridge, High Street and, out of

(Courtesy: Village Museum) the village, John Wood set up a filling station and garage at The Firs. So at its peak in the 1950s Hook Norton had up to five outlets selling petrol; nowadays, of course, only The Firs Garage Cox, Chapel Street remains, a mile from the village centre. (Courtesy: Village Museum)

25 www.hook-norton.org.uk/history Hook Norton Local History Group

11 Hook Norton Pubs in Verse. a

A story goes that in the 1930s a vagrant called at the back door of the Sun Pub. "I have no money", he said to the landlord, "but if I can come up with a poem mentioning all the Hook Norton pubs, will you give me a free drink?"

"O.K., you have a deal", replied the landlord.

After a while the vagrant returned and recited the following verse:

The Sun shines brightly in the Morn The Blackbird flies in for his feed of corn The Pear Tree hangs over the oak door And the Lion comes out with a roar There's a Wheatsheaf standing by South Hill And travellers rest at the Hotel on Tank Hill There's a Gate hanging High on the old drovers road And a Bell that rings out atop its own road".

Apparently the vagrant got his pint!

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