Harwell: Village for a thousand years

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  • Harwell Book – Full text of ‘Village for a thousand years’
    • Introduction
      • Contents
    • Beginnings – The Beginnings of Harwell
      • The Beginnings of Harwell
      • The Charters
      • Close
    • Middle Ages – The Late Middle Ages
      • Harwell Church
      • The Medieval Manors
      • Cruck Buildings
      • Close
    • Tudors – Tudors to Charles II
      • The Tudor period
      • Berkshire Farmers and their Homes
      • The Harwell Mug
      • Harwell: The Family Name
      • Trade Tokens
      • In the Civil War
      • Close
    • Charities – Harwell Charities
      • John Loder
      • Christopher Elderfield
      • Poor’s Orchard
      • William Wells
      • J. King
      • Frances Geering
      • Matthew Eaton
      • Robert Loder
      • Bag(g)’s Tree
      • An Old Harwell Recipe
      • Close
    • 19th C – Harwell in the Nineteenth Century
      • Enclosures
      • The Great Fire of Harwell
      • Fire at Didcot Station
      • Harwell and the Early Posts
      • Close
    • People – Some Nineteenth Century Families, Houses and Personalities
      • The Manor of Bishop’s Harwell, or Lower Manor, after the Middle Ages.
      • Bob Lay, Bob Lay, Bob Lay
      • The Bosley Family
      • John Lay of Prince’s Manor 1815 – 1888
      • From a book sold for the Blewbury Village Organ Fund in 1874.
      • Thomas James Pryor
      • The Day Family
      • The Hitchman Family
      • Other Old Harwell Families
      • Pillar House, Harwell
      • A Country Doctor (Dr Richard Rice)
      • Kelly’s Directory reports on the Harwell of 1891
      • The School
      • A Pictorial Miscellany
      • Close
    • 20th C – The Early Twentieth Century
      • Stanley Day
        • The Turn of the Century
        • A Visit to Harwell
      • Tape Recordings
        • A Houseboy at Harwell
        • Eliza Hutchings
        • Harwell Bakeries
        • The Eggs
        • Old Neighbours
        • Fire at King’s Farm (c.1908)
        • Will It Light?
        • Miss Irene Clarke’s memories.
      • Poem by H.S. Baker
      • Close
    • WWII – The Second World War
      • Guinea Pig Club
      • Eric Greenwood
      • Harwell in Wartime
      • School Life in Wartime
      • The Harwell Players
      • Close
    • 1945 -1985 – The Post War Years
      • The Atomic Energy Research Establishment.
      • Harwell Parish Council
      • Water and Sewage
      • Nursing Service
      • School Life after the War
      • The Winterbrook Youth Club
      • The Public Houses
      • The Whit Monday Feast
      • Wild Flowers of Harwell
      • The Bee Orchid
      • Village Footpaths
      • St Matthew’s Church Today
      • Harwell Women’s Institute
      • Harwell Bowls Club
      • Harwell Football Club
      • Close
    • Cherries – Harwell Cherries
      • Robert Loder
      • Cherries (1965)
      • Gordon Bosley
      • John Masefield: The Cherries
      • Close
    • Appendices
      • Appendix I the Harwell Charters
        • Introduction to The Harwell Charters
        • Charter No 1
        • Charter No 2
        • Charter No 3
        • Appendix I Charter References
      • Appendix II Buildings
      • Appendix III Glossary
      • Appendix IV Contributors
      • Appendix V References
      • Close
    • Close
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Fire at King’s Farm »
You are here: Home / 20th C / Tape Recordings / Old Neighbours

Old Neighbours

07-05
Figure 7.5 Neighbours, by L.L.Brooke. King, the roadman (right) broke up stones to help make the base of the Harwell to Didcot road. “all day in the hot sun he worked hard from early morning to nightfall.”

(looking at photographs)

That’s Tommy Slade’s grandfather, old Bob Thorne. Willy Slade, he was your shepherd, wasn’t he? He used to sit under that yew tree up there in the summer, and he had a dog that was named Rose; rather a nice dog. I was only butcher’s delivery boy in Didcot, and I had no more sense than to let this dog loose, and that dog followed me about delivering round Didcot. ‘Course there wasn’t the traffic then as there is today.

That’s Gordon Bosley, Tom and Bob Slade.

That’s Alfie Bosley. His mother was very ill, Ben, d’you remember? They put some straw in the road to stop the horses makin’ a noise.

We had a harvest-home supper up in the granary round at Prince’s once.

We had one at Bishop’s. I can remember it.

All the workers used to come along and join us; that was very good cooking.

Johnny King used to sing a song …

Hang the vegetables in a net and boil up legs of mutton all in the copper. Made some very good stock, y’know.

John Thorne, well he was in the cherry business, and he must have earned some money out of it; he said “We must have a Cherry Supper,” and he had it in what was the old slaughter-house on the old premises up there.

Boiled mutton. Good food. Where’d you find a leg of mutton now? All lamb, isn’t it?

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Fire at King’s Farm »

Harwell is a village in south Oxfordshire, England, although until 1974 it was a Berkshire village. Harwell was first mentioned in 985, before the Doomsday Book.
This website presents the full text of the book (ISBN 0 9510668 0 3 ) published in 1985 to celebrate the village millennium.
"Harwell ~ Village for a thousand years"

Additional information about Harwell Village (History Notes, photos and more) can be found at harwellvillage.uk

Website © 2005–2023 maintained and managed by David Marsh on behalf of Harwell Parish Council
Copyright © 1985–2023 in the text of the book is vested in Harwell Parish Council