2. GODSON nee ASKEW.

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Marie Godson nee Askew's mother was born in Cropredy at 3 Red Lion Street, the daughter of William Smith. The Smith's had been in the village as Cordwainers for several generations.

Marie told me about her family and how she came to Cropredy, over several visits. Any inaccuracies are due to misunderstandings on my part. Mrs Godson very kindly allowed me to visit her and put up with endless questions from me without ever showing annoyance. She greeted each occasion with seeming pleasure so that it was always something of a treat to enter her sunny room. There she sat, a frail lady, never I imagine very robust, but always as neat and ladylike as possible in her quiet open manner. At first all we spoke about were snippets of the past, but later she spoke at length. The story is now hers with a few additions from me to connect the loose threads.

When mother was small she went to stay with her cousin Sally Smith, whose father George farmed Springfield, or Station Farm, as it was called then. Later they too went to Wardington. Mother used to tell of mountains of butter in the kitchen. George was a "great man for the chapel" and was treasurer when they built the last 1881 one chapel. His son George was a surveyor and Sally who later became Mrs Hopkins went to live at Adderbury, but kept up her connection with the Cropredy chapel.

Our mother's father died when she was three and her mother married again. Her first husband had been her cousin William Smith. Her second husband was a very kind man. He was a coal merchant. An aunt Mullis had a shop in Harbury and there with another aunt they would look after Henrietta from time to time.

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Mother was a qualified dressmaker. She had gone to Leamington Spa to an establishment with a lot of other girls. At the same place as Joseph Arch's daughter, who was in the same room. There she learnt her business. There were trains to Leamington and London then from Cropredy or Harbury. I don't know how she came to Harbury to marry or where she met father, George Askew. (See Appendix Four).

Mother wasn't like her other sisters. She was very gentle, never complaining. She was a large lady though she had tiny hands. They had a hard job finding a wedding ring small enough. Father came from Northend. He died aged 92, although he had been ill for so long. He was born at the bottom of the Dasset Hills. He trained to be a tailor in Birmingham. He and mother lived at Sunnyside on the South Parade in Harbury. He worked at Knights the tailors. They had seven children and I was born there in August 1892. Father's employer went out of business so we had to move. We had a big garden and the raspberries had to be picked with stalks on, packed and sent off to Leamington Spa. We had plums and all kinds of fruit. The house I remember had a cellar.

When the Knights closed the tailoring business the family had to leave Harbury for Leicestershire. I was two when we went to Ibstock. This was hard on mother for she missed her large vegetable garden and orchard.

Ibstock was a mining town. It was during the strikes and afterwards you heard great crowds of them clattering down the stony streets to work. Men and small boys off down the mines in the dark mornings.

The house had no garden and we had little work, although the tailor who answered father's advert with a nice letter saying to come. Dr. Pirie begged dad not to let Mrs Askew go into Leicestershire. After it was all arranged a letter came from Stratford-on-Avon with a post, but it was too late.

It was hard to find fruit at Ibstock. At Harbury she would send quarts of raspberries at a time for desserts. There are two kinds, red and yellow, and the stork as I said must be left on.

We were quite frightened by the miners at first. Well they quarreled a lot and we had led quiet village lives. Their roads were rough, not made up. Poor mother and hardly any garden.

During the strikes, we lived through three, I remember of course managing a tailor's shop when no one could afford to come in. The employer had a woman who was very extravagant, so father often lost out on his wages.

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Oh yes! Well when we took the job the employer wrote such a nice letter. He was a nice man, but if only we had gone to Stratford!

We had four in five years, well mother did. One was very high spirited. She was the one who married a labour man. He was in the minors union and she spoke a lot, but it spoiled her you know.

Two of my sisters lived to be 93 and 94. We lost a brother when we were little. Three of them, two sisters and this brother had scarlet fever. He died but they recovered. I had an older brother who loved reading. He was no sportsman but loved reading.

During the strikes we had to live on vegetables and what we could get. My uncle always said "You are lucky as your mother can always make something out of nothing". Maybe but I remember often feeling I could have gone on eating longer, but there was nothing left. Even so we weren't as bad as a lot had it.

Mother never complained and her only criticism was "Arn't they funny!" She and dad managed a gentleman's outfitters shop in Ibstock. It was a grim place all coal mining, but they would do anything for anyone, not mean. No. Not mean at all them-a-days. If one of their fellows got hurt they tried to set them up with a shop or a trade. Mother was kind to tramps. She listened to their tales of woe. Some used to laugh at her but she never took offence.

Father was always suffering from indigestion and used to suck these sweets. He insisted on meals to the minute. He was gray with pain sometimes. He should never have taken mother there. Winifred my sister lived with us at Cropredy, but she got very irritable as old people do.

Elections were such a big thing in Ibstock, so when I came to Cropredy I was quite surprised they were nothing. Then at Christmas they had three bands playing at Ibstock. The Chapel, Church and the Silver Bands. One of my nephews has the silver cornet which he uses in a band, that was once my brother's when he played in a band. When I was a little girl going to a Sunday school anniversary with about 400 children, I remember the flute come over the top so beautiful. Flutes were common then. I went to the Baptist chapel with my friends. Mother allowed it as long as I went somewhere.I used to come over to Cropredy for my holidays. I had three cousins at the Woodyard, Elsie, Annie and Frank Sumner. Their mother, Mrs May Sumner was mother's sister. I also went to stay with Hilda Bonham, another cousin, and once stayed for four months. That's how I met Gardner Godson. My sisters would also come here for their holidays and we all sent back postcards.

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1909: Dear Mother, we received the letter quite safely. Thank you very much. We will come home on Monday. Did they tell Harbury people we were going over. We went to Banbury yesterday morning and drove over to Middleton arrived home about 8 0'clock. We shall be able to tell you better when we see you. They seemed pleased we are going to stay over Sunday. Hilda want to come back with us but I don't know if she will or not, we will let you know. Aunt can't make enough of us she would like to see you again. Hope you are both well. Are you very busy. From Con and Maria. (Hilda Bonham's mother had recently died at 3 Red Lion Street).

1910: Dear Mother. If you can manage without us we shall be home on Monday or Tuesday. Richard wants us to stay three months, they would soon be tired of me wouldn't they? We saw Mr and Mrs Hopkins yesterday and they are nice. Write and tell me if you can manage. Hope Win is better. Marie.

We have been out every day. Are going to Shotswell to-day. Northend tomorrow and Bourton if it...

1915: Have just arrived safe. Just managed to miss the 3 train and all the shop was closed in Leamington. I saw lots of lame soldiers wonder if one was Albert. They are all well and wanted to know why you didn't come. Win.

I got up at five yesterday morning and rode into Banbury to see a flying machine. I think they are very ugly. Uncle is just going to take us to look through a big house. I shall like that. Love W and A.

The old home in Red Lion Street. That had a room on the right of the hall which auntie Hannah had and her companion. I think her companion did a lot of the work. The next room behind (on the right) was the dairy and beside that door at the end of the hall was a door leading into the garden. Behind the living room (on the left) was a room with the kitchen beyond up steps. The kitchen was very big with a couple of bedrooms over. The orchard had a lot of beautiful apple trees. We loved them and they were carefully stored in the attic. No, no one slept up there.

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Hilda's brother Harold had dreadful asthma, and they burnt things to help. He never laid down. A clever lad he won a scholarship and went on to get a degree. He became a headmaster. Mr Bonham married again and lived on the Green. Una and Violet Bonham two of their step sisters. I liked Violet. She had a very good voice. She went to live in Chacombe. When they decided to go to Australia, they collected for them at the Methodist Chapel. When the boat called in anywhere the Methodists went to meet them.

When Hilda Bonham, Elsie, Annie and I used to go on a Sunday for a walk up to the crab tree outside Hill farm gate, then Harold used to follow us. Hilda used to say, "Go away you hateful brother!" Of course she was very fond of him. Hilda was married but had no children and died young. Only 33 (d.1928). After she was married they moved to a place near Ibstock. They had a grocery shop one of a chain, like the Maypole shops only another name. We used to cycle over and stay the night. I always remember the four months I stayed at her house in Red Lion Street When her mother Mrs Bonham died in I909 Hilda was only about 14. We tried to take her back with us to Ibstock.

When we visited Cropredy one of the places we went to was up to Clattercote Pool for picnics. We would have the boat out on the Pool. Go out in it. On the way up or down we passed through the Lawn Farm, or went past the Lawn Cottages. The place I liked to go to was Mrs Dunn's at the cottages. She baked these cakes in little stone pots in a bread oven. It was outside in a sort of wash-house place. They were delicious, ask Ivy (Cherry). I was very friendly with Ivy's sister Dora on my visits. Dora Dunn.

I was the eldest of these cousins that we came to stay with. Annie Sumner, I found out later, used to plan for me to come and stay so that I would see Gardner Godson. Frank, her brother, and Gardner who lived next door, were great friends. Frank and Gardner grew up together. When Frank had measles as a boy Gardner wasn't allowed in, but he went and Frank lowered a string out of the window and Gardner tied on it a bundle, and he drew it up.

I was only 16 when I first met him and he was l8. So I was walking out then with Gardner when I came every year for my holidays. We had a great time together with my cousins. One day Hilda took their trap and we went off together. We were gone so long Gardner was sent to find us on his pony! We often went in the trap it was lovely.

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We had a cousin William Smith and Gardner and I used to cycle over to see him and meet him halfway. He had this house on the road to Little Bourton. One day he said to me, "Give me a sixpence" so I did. "Now," he said "if I die the house is yours!" Well we laughed and thought it was just a joke, but since I think he meant it. William was a preacher in Banbury. He came out to Ibstock once to preach. His nickname was Smiler.

Gardner volunteered and although he wanted to join one group he was too big and had to go in the artillery. We didn't contact much during the war, then afterwards only occasionally.

My cousin Elsie Sumner married William Dunn and moved to I Chapel Row. She had a dressmaker's business. Elsie was a good living girl. She loved to read you know. They had a child that died, perhaps it was a blessing it did. Afterwards she had two strong boys. Hers was a difficult life and she died aged only 37 in 1930. William's mother was the marvellous cake maker. Frank Sumner married Mabel Ellen Dunn from Great Bourton and they had one daughter Connie. When she grew up she kept the post office at the Woodyard. It was Gardner that suggested it. They wanted someone, so Gardner said to Frank, "Why not try for the post office for Connie?" I don't think he'd think about it. Easy going. Had everything done for him. Oh I spent my holidays there. When we lived at Station House I used to come past the Sumners every day and going home at night I always called in. Connie was a baby then, a nice chubby baby. I sometimes was able to bath her. Mr Sumner died suddenly you know. Richard Sumner, Frank's father and it gave Mrs Sumner a shock. Sumner and Neal were partners. I liked Mr Neal a lot, he was a real nice man.

I was the youngest at home. We all married except Constance. She looked after mother. We helped in the shop and when mother was 70 Gardner asked me to marry him. I felt I couldn't as it wasn't the right time to leave them. However Constance and a niece came in and helped with the shop. So I didn't marry until I was 40 years old and then with the work it was too late to have children. The rest of my family are all dead now, though I have many nieces and nephews.

Mrs Godson never liked me to take a day off to go and see my parents. She couldn't see why I needed to go. I did go however. When mother was ill she did not even enquire how she was, nor after she died. Never said a word.

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I was not used to such work and found it very hard. The first fortnight I was allowed a holiday, but all my thing's were thrown in anyhow and of course I had no-one to help me. My friends were at Ibstock.

Gardner had the Station House made right for us. He had it done up with a new roof and then he said, "I have a house ready for you to come to." I often think of those slates, ever such big ones, 50 odd years since they were put on. Up to now they've been no trouble at all. He put the pebbledash on the house and had new windows at the top. Its such a nice house you feel ever so comfortable in there.

There was a fireplace with oven beside it. There was also a kitchen. Once I remember I had a nasty cold and Gardner would have the doctor. I didn't want him. However he insisted I had him. As soon as he got in he said, "Oh you've got a better fireplace than I've got." It was a nice one. More of a Yorkie affair and all shut off. You could shut it off. Very good that was. It had one of these big chimneys. A piece on the side like in the Copes Cottages. Ooh! Once when they swept it they hadn't got the proper sheet and he didn't charge me, he made such a mess. All open inside the chimney.

The other living room, to the right of the front door, had a red brick fireplace. That was a big room. Our furniture was lost in it. We had a brown floor that had to be polished. Those floors made my feet ache. I was poorly there. My feet have always ached, poor tender things! We had an old carpet. We thought we'd go and get the cheapest and Chapmans must have used it for ages. Full of dust it were, but my feet got better. I think it was the composition floors. Anyway he didn't want to spend the money just then. He'd have been better off if we had, I think.

Station House had three bedrooms, they've made one as a bathroom now. A nice house. It had a good stairs. From up there you could see the trains you know and I liked to see them coming down the Bourton Hill on the road.

We put the veranda onto the front of the house. We had to cut a pear tree down to do so. Under the pebbledash upstairs the walls were brick because of the raised roof. The downstairs windows were much older. No downstairs windows facing north, all south. Lovely to live in. The garden would have grown a lot but we neither of us had time to garden. It did grow a lot of strawberries.

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When we lived at Station House Mrs Cook came over the road to help me in the evenings. Baking the pastry for the next day. She was a great help. At home Mrs Cook had her mother Mrs Smith completely crippled with arthritis, so that her head was right over. Her father, Mr Smith, was also badly crippled with it and now Mrs Cook is the same. She'd worked so hard for everyone most of her life.

We were at Station House the first three years and then during the war, we didn't like walking up to the Bakehouse in the middle of the night with planes going over. We moved to the middle cottage of Cope's Row. They are altogether different now from that photograph, and the shutters had gone. We lived there for several years just to be nearer the Bakehouse. We had a little bit done up to make it more private. They weren't a bit private, no (No landing or proper division between the two bedrooms). There was nothing between them like now, yet there were families brought up there you know. Yes a bit cramped. Downstairs there was a living room and a pantry. It did have flowers up the front wall. They were hollyhocks! Later we moved back to Station House.

I noticed the difference when I came to live here, of the mining country and around Cropredy. In that mining country the miner's were loud, at least they seemed that, yet they were very generous to each other, worked as a community. When I carne back here I found that people did not all help each other. The houses seemed poor places. A lot of the cottages were dark and only two bedrooms. Poor places really. When there was little work they often fell behind with their bread bills.

In Gardner's father's time he never stopped giving them bread. He never let any starve so his small profit of a penny or tuppence was soon lost. He lost the rest as well, as often as not then. So many were poor. He died poorish himself, yet he worked all those years hard at it with only his house and a bit left to show for it. They had never let anyone go without bread. Before then there were, as I said, a great many very poor families in Cropredy. Mr Godson would never leave them short. He made tiny loaves for the kids with the bread left over. The Alley (Alcan at Banbury) saved this village, pulled it back on its feet.

Mrs Rhoda Godson, Gardner's mother had auburn hair. She was very attractive. She had a cap on always to keep off the flour. Well I shouldn't say cap. She wore a big straw hat and one of the vicar's daughters used to tease her over it. The flour got onto her chest.

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When Gardner married me, when we were first married, she never came over to see us. He was her only son. His father, William, did and he explained, "She's too upset to see her son go." She had ruled them, the two men.

When she became ill I nursed her. We were just lodgers when Mr and Mrs Godson were alive. While we were living out and Mrs Godson was ill I used to come up. She was in the small room downstairs. I can't remember if it had a fireplace...I do know I slept in there with her. Then when we were living at Godson's, she never aired the place properly and the feather beds, they only had a bit of an air with bricks put in the bread oven and then wrapped in bits of old woollen blankets, and we got so damp in them. I remember my chin being all wet underneath, it's a wonder we didn't get ill really. I nursed her. On the last day she asked for her hair to be combed and made nice. Then she said a prayer and died. We looked after both parents until they died. Mrs Godson thought we would send them into hospital but we didn't.

Gardner never ought to have gone into baking. He wasn't going to be a baker, but his father became ill and he had to go and help out. The reason was because there was no pensions in those days and he had to support his father. He had worked at Cherry's for a time with Thomas Cherry, Roland's brother. Tom was a preacher and went to Australia. They came back in later years and whenever he was in Cropredy he called to see us. I missed his visits a lot. Mr Godson took that Bakery on for 60 odd years I think. Yes. He was a nice old gentleman, Mr William Godson. Mrs could be nice but she could be moody, yes. Rhoda Godson had a hard time. The business was going down a lot. They would not let us pull it up. Any suggestion was enough to make her keep silent for days. Mind she was cheerful to others, but to me, NO! I was always silent about pain and kept upsets to myself. I just could not answer her back.

The Bakehouse rooms faced Church Lane on the north side. There was a living room beside the small room or old parlour. The pantry was off the living room at the front. It had a hatch to serve cakes from, to the covered way in. The kitchen you went OUT the back to, it was behind the inglenook and stairs wall and there was no way through that stone wall. A nice kitchen, big but unconnected. Upstairs all the bedrooms led off one another. At the end was a door into the flour loft.

Outside was a stone barn. We had a metal ladder and stored all sorts in the loft. We had pigs and there were hens in an incubator. Godsons had hens and all sorts, so that no day could you have a rest. We had to give that up.

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They kept the field in Bourton, well Godsons came down from Bourton. Prestidges and Gardner were at the same school together at Cropredy. They have the field now and have called it the Gardner Godson field. It lies on the right going up the hill on the right. One of my earliest happy memories was haymaking there. It used to have some big elms on the lane side. Godson's rented all the land beside the old vicarage garden. They also rented some fields up the Claydon road from Sumner's, which were once belonging to the Smith's (The Coxes Butts).

Their last horse they called Prince. Sometimes he was led through the gate by Mr Hickman's into the garden that Godson's rented from Anker's for years.

The Church Rooms was given to the village by Mr John Allitt, who owned the Bakehouse. He had it built for the village people for a reading room and Church Sunday school. He owned the bakehouse and then when he was living at Home Farm he sold it to Mr William Godson. Mr Allitt had been the butcher and baker. The oven and house had not been used there for a while, or at least the house had been shut up since the death of their only daughter. A condition of purchase was the Godson's had to promise to cook the Sunday dinners. When we were baking the Sunday dinners I don't remember charging. They brought the joint and the gravy with their Yorkshire batter in a jug. After the bake the whole oven had to be mopped out with a long mop which had to be twirled around in a certain way. It needed good strong arms to be able to do it. I could manage it which surprised everybody.

Mr Godson used to do some butchering. He kept sheep, pigs and poultry when I came. I do remember he had no day of rest. When Gardner took over he gave that up. I was glad to get rid of the pigs squealing. I loved pigs but oh dear...!

Where these bungalows are at Plantations, Gardner bought as an orchard. He had plans to build his own Bakehouse. His parent's treated him shabby. He didn't build it for they willed the money out of the family to the Chapel, leaving him to start all from scratch.

Gardner used to make the dough overnight for his father. No electric then. Oh dear no. They didn't want him to. No. Old people they don't like making a move do they? However they were thankful when he had it. They were ever so pleased. They didn't encourage that. They tried to, but it was his money. We never had anything unless we paid for it. Never. Anyway the cakes weren't so good unless you mixed it by hand. Well its best, I think you can spoil by over mixing. I think so. I loved that oven. Oh the smell of it. It went all over the village.

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Each day we rose at 3am to bake the bread. It was delivered by horse and cart. We used to be returning up Hardwick Hill at tea time after finishing the delivery. I had to have help in the house, because I was constantly busy in the bakery. We made hundreds of cakes, pies and could not make enough. We delivered to Chipping Warden and beyond the Bourtons. Round to Mollington and Claydon but not to Wardington. When Lady Brooks moved from Cropredy she asked Gardner if he would serve her at Chipping Warden if she could get him a round, and she did, she found him a nice round. Oh yes! No rest!

When it was wartime you couldn't make ends meet easily because prices were fixed. For Tuesdays I made pastries, Banbury cakes and cakes of all sorts for sale. I began making the pastry on Monday. Eight pounds of flour divided into four lots and rolled six times each. Some white of egg over then sugar. It would hardly pay but you had to help the people. They were queueing right outside on Tuesdays. Anyone could just walk in when they wanted, as the bakery was open to all. That meant it had to be kept very clean. The flour was delivered by steam lorry at first. It had to back down out of Church Lane. We sold pig food as well and dealt with Hadlands of Banbury and Northampton people. It came from all over, and the sugar and the fat. Tons each week!

We kept the flour upstairs. We dusted the bread with flour and it got into everything. That's why Mrs Godson wore that cap she is wearing on the photograph. I believe the boy in the picture is one of the Cooknell boys they had helping them. One of their first lads. We had Arthur Allibone, only he left during the war. Then we had different ones. Then just as they got into it they moved on or joined up. Yes Brian Boscott he was coming. He wanted to go on a farm and his mother wanted him to stay and come to us. Brain did and was a very good moulder, but he wanted to get on a farm you see. Arthur was a good worker.

Gardner did do meat sometimes though not often in my time. We could have a chicken when we wanted and often had a chicken or rabbit pie. We kept rabbits. We did pig foods of all kinds but then Gardner hadn't the time to sort it out, so he had to employ someone to weigh it. Well it was rationed so there was no gain, in fact we made a loss. We had mice. I'd never seen one until then. We had to have cats to catch them. We had a cat at home as well.

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Standing in the shop all day made my mother's feet swell and mine swell now. The bakery was open until night time. The door unlocked until evening. When Mrs McDougall had Anne, Mrs French was the midwife, she also helped Mrs William Godson. There was always someone who would work for others in Cropredy. Anne used to come to the shop for bread. Her mother used to say, "You could eat off her floor it was so clean," meaning Mrs Godson's.

Whenever the McDougall's had visitors they brought them to the bakery. When she was little, when her mother came with her, she'd be up there over the oven. Her mother was very nice, I had a lot to do with her of course. She was only a little girl when I knew her mother. Mrs McDougall would love it when we were baking and bring all her visitors to the bakehouse. Always. We were their bank. They never had much money on them, no, that sort of people don't. When they went to the post office with a parcel, before they went they came to us for money. Oh yes. We were at it all the time. Paid by cheque. I used to have a cheque, but I said I would rather spend the money. Then they would come for poultry food.

Everyone came to the bakery. Some said in the war, some had more than the others. Bread was on points so they had to play fair. I don't think we ever favoured anyone. We was allowed so much and that was all we could have.

They were up so early and at work all day. Gardner would mix a bag of flour at a time with a mask over his face. He would take the dough out of the electric mixer while it ran. I asked him not to, although he got a shock each time on his arm, he kept on. Well for Gardner it was dreadful. I used to tell him oft-a-time, "It will kill you." In at 3 or 4am each morning. As I said pastry and cakes were baked on Tuesdays and Fridays. Buns were made two or three times a week. I've almost gone to sleep putting egg on them to go in the oven at 6 o'clock. We've had a batch of bread out by then. We worked on until 8 or 9 at nights sometimes a little earlier. You couldn't get nothing out of bread. Puff pastries. I've never bought them. There was plenty of work. I used to make what they called Banbury cakes. Mrs Brown used to say, "Yours are nice. I work at Browns!" (The original Banbury cake shop). I made them as I thought they were nice, I didn't bother about the profit so much and Brown's did.

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I made the W I. cakes for them and for the church choir. Something nice for the church. There used to be a good choir. Also for the bell ringers supper too. They thought more of it then than they do now. Malten loaves and bread. All wholemeal. Gardner asked the customers which did they like. The Hovis? They said "No" they'd rather have the wholemeal and it was a nice fine one. Yes oh yes. The bread went all over the country. It wasn't as good when they changed to the new ovens. He didn't like the new oven as much as the old brick lined one. The new one didn't come up to the old. Just before Gardner was ill we put in new ovens and a new floor. We'd had new ovens and the oven had to go outside. I liked the old oven best. It had the heat inside the oven. Heat it and then take out the fuel before you baked. Washed it out first by spinning the mop round and round. It was far better, far better for bread and cakes.

I didn't do any of the kneading, I mixed the brown. There was a great big thing. A lead yes. It used to shake you see. It would have broken away. We should have taken it with us when we left. It was electric. I mean we had electric mixers and where for anything big you know a sack at a time, we couldn't have done it without electric. Gardner made it overnight for his father.

The tins they have to be rubbed first. They have to be taken out of the oven first, then they all have to be rubbed and greased. Gladys used to do all that. She lived with us for 9 years and she did all the rubbing. We couldn't do it ourselves. Oh yes we'd start before 4am and have one batch out and put another in for 6. Then if we wanted extra kind of thing, though it weren't every day, then we would have to start at 2am. We were really tired out.

We had a car and the dog would cry to go in it, but we could only let it Tuesdays when we didn't have bread only cakes and malt loaves. I was good with horses but I can't understand girls wanting to work with them. We used to go through the floods in the pony and trap easier than a car! We were the first I think. Well it was a little 7, Austin 7, and wasn't nearly big enough for our bread. No. I remember going our first ride in it and the door opened and Gardner just had time to put his arm round me and saved me. I hadn't fastened the door. It was nice but we never did pass anybody. We never passed anybody until we had the bigger one. It was a treat. No we didn't have an Austin again, no. Later we had a private car when Gardner came out. That photograph of Jock, he loved this old van. That's me shading my eyes. It was only a small van our first and it wasn't big enough.

Gardner's father had been on the parish council. He was chairman for a while. Then Gardner put up. He and Mrs Muriel Bradley tied and oh dear I hadn't even voted.

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The people in Church Lane? Well they were a big family at the Vicarage. They used to go abroad. Revd George Barr. They kept a nurse and Mrs Brown and her husband came with them, he was their houseman or gardener. The Vicarage? I didn't see a lot of it to tell you the truth, because I always went to the back door from Church Lane. The coach or whatever they used then would go through that way and down Church Lane. The first vicar he was when I first came, George Barr. He used to go abroad and of course he kept a staff going. He had means. He attended at the Chapel when they put the window up for Thomas Cherry. The designer of that was there to unveil it, but they had to come round twice to get money for that. I mean people hadn't it to spare really.

Revd Mr Bennett had a nice wife. I liked her. They had four girls. They were there when the new vicarage was built in the old garden. Then they had his father living there, a nice old man he was badly crippled with arthritis, his legs and hands were all bent. He came over to the bakehouse. His wife's father was a clergyman I believe.

I remember Colin Shirley from Creampot. He was a gentleman. Gardner was too. I haven't seen much of the top end of the village. For a long time that part was real strange to me you know. WE DIDN'T GET OUT! I visited Greens once at Monkeytree, round to the kitchen back door. Mrs Green was a good cook and her mother was supposed to cook for royalty. She must have the best you know.

On the Green at the post office Mrs Harris sold ginger ale. Ginger beer and that sort of thing. I knew her well. Then there was Mrs French, Cyril's grandmother. Mrs French she'd do anything, she'd help anyone. She stayed with anyone if they were poorly you know, help someone if they were ill. Mrs Thomas Cooknell was her sister, another nice person. Cyril was Gardner's friend, well they lived next door, the church side. Anyway they knew each other very well. I didn't but he came and he helped me two or three times. He liked to drink. He didn't come in, not if he drank too much. Mrs French being next door was very friendly with Godson's. She was a lovely old lady.

Mrs Tasker who once lived opposite the bakehouse had twins. They used to come over and we enjoyed one very much. She lives at Chipping Warden. Edie was quite different from her twin. She was like her father and her sister was like her mother. Her mother had a hard time of it and worked very hard. Mr Tasker was a very jolly man. She was a church woman but I don't expect he went. He went off to the war and she had to carry on with the carrier's trade. Edie used to come across and help us. She seemed very fond of Mr and Mrs Godson.

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Mr Louis Lambert and his wife from Lambert's Cottage, kept the church and churchyard then, but when they got too old it became too much for them. They came past from their cottage in the High Street.

We used to go on the three o'clock train from the station, one shilling and sixpence return to Leamington, or we could go all the way to London. Oh yes we used that a lot. I've known three signal men. Mr Arnold, Marlowe Gardner and Mr Timms. He was a good singer. They had a good choir when I first came, a very good choir at the chapel.

Gardner had a rupture due to heavy lifting but not a word of complaint. When he became ill they had to buy bread for the round and get someone to deliver it, which cost more than it paid. The doctor said he mustn't work again as he had Parkinsons as well as Diabetes. So at 60 he had to retire. He never complained. He was an invalid for 21 years. He was forced to retire due to ill health. It was a big shock when the specialist said, "You'll never work again, the best thing to do is to get rid of your business." We did but in the wrong way. When we said we would sell it, Mr H... promised to put an advert in the trade paper for us, then forgot. Too late he put it in. So we only had Mr Welford come. Then after he put the advert in and we got a lot of enquiries then. We lost out really by that.

Gardner designed these two bungalows. Drew both these places. Ray Cherry built the two, his and our bungalow at the same time. At Station house I had to go and hold my hand to the back of Gardner to get him up stairs. I used to dress him every day and wash him all over. He was a big man you know. His toes went all black. The doctor told me if it wasn't for me he'd have had no feet. We had the first bungalow built but it proved too expensive so we put up a smaller one. The first was sold to Mrs Moore and we moved into the smaller one in the garden. Both have the same view down through the Plantations. When we had this bungalow made Gardner put things in the deeds I never heard of, he didn't discuss such things. He made sure the joint hedges can be only three feet and no more, and also about the boundaries. Its all proved very difficult. I sold a bit of the garden off to Dancers in Vicarage Gardens. It gives them a lot of extra room.

Once we used to entertain the chapel ministers you know, until Gardner got ill and could not hold his knife to carve. Then we stopped. I gave up putting flowers in the chapel, we were living on capital, so we stopped.

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Godson's were Methodists, well not originally. The family had something to do with the Bourton chapel and that was Congregational, until the Methodists took that over. It was congregational when I first came here. I used to go up sometimes. My mother's people were chapel here. Her relation was Mary Smith who left money for the library. That was aunt Mary Smith. Bourton had one as well. Two endowments. £40 and the interest to be spent on books each year.

Opposite the chapel they built those houses. Fancy building there like that! There used to be hens and a horse in there. I don't know where they wanted those houses built but one parish councillor was determined to have them like that, and they said he did it to spite someone, that's what I was told. It wouldn't please those who had to look over. It doesn't matter now does it, the times gone.

It was sad when we gave up the business. Mrs Bonham came round with a large bowl of flowers.

Gardner died in the Horton. He did not know me for three months, then he appeared to rally, called me Marie, but died not long after. Cherry's did the funeral.

That bread! Oh the smell of it. It went all over the village. All handled twice for tuppence hapenny a loaf.

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