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
« Cherries (1965)
John Masefield: The Cherries »
You are here: Home / Cherries / Gordon Bosley

Gordon Bosley

1900-1980

Gordon Bosley was born at Fairlawn, Harwell, on August 20th, 1900; he was named Gordon after General Gordon, there being a vogue at that time for naming children after great men. Gordon’s father, William, was a coal merchant, with interests in grass-mowing, poultry-rearing and the hiring out of agricultural machinery. William’s one ambition was to acquire land to plant his own orchards. William’s opportunity came in 1907, when he was able to take over the tenancy of King’s Farm (Townsend), though he still lived at Fairlawn, which had ample yards for his other business interests. His account book, kept by his wife, still exists, bound in leather, showing the diversity of the work he undertook.

10-02
Figure 10.2 William Bosley.

When William’s son, Gordon, finished his schooldays at King Alfred’s School, Wantage, at the beginning of the First World War, he went at once into his father’s expanding business. William bought fruit from many orchards and stored it at Fairlawn. Young Gordon was kept out of the army by a strained heart and varicose veins; he was unaware of these disabilities then, and they had no effect on him afterwards.

Gordon worked hard for his father, and in 1926 suffered several accidents: he was badly stung by a swarm of bees, treated for suspected tetanus after sticking a hay- fork into his hand, and finally found unconscious in the road, having come off his motorcycle on his way home from a tennis match. He took up poultry-rearing then, as a lighter sideline, for it was discovered that he had severed an optic nerve, and lost the sight of one eye.

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Figure 10.3 Gordon Bosley, 1974.

His father leased Middle Farm, and in 1934 Gordon married and went to live at Pomander House and then King’s Farm. In about 1937 or 1938 William and Gordon bought 1200 cherry trees at 2s.6d. each, from Kent, and planted them, one between four Bramleys, on King’s Farm; but William became ill, and Gordon had to give up his poultry. William was worried by the need to pay tithe arrears under the 1936 Tithe Act; he took part in the protest march to London, but in July 1939 he died. That year they had a wonderful crop of cherries, and the cherry barn at Middle Farm was full; William’s ambition had been achieved. Gordon and his wife and daughter moved to Middle Farm and went on with the business.

During World War II, Gordon had to supply milk to all Harwell and the surrounding area. He had to install milking machines and sterilising equipment and milked about thirty cows a day. He was able to buy Middle Farm from his landlords in 1946. By doing so, he ended ownership of the farm by Magdalen College, Oxford, which had lasted over four hundred and sixty years. He began to grow some of the best fruit in the country, and won a silver medal at the Royal Show in 1954, for the best cherry orchard south of the Thames; this was judged to be William’s big orchard at King’s Farm. Unfortunately a virus attacked it almost straight away.

Gordon grew such wonderful cherries, including a new variety of his own, named Judy’s Fancy after his daughter, that people came from all over the world to buy Harwell cherries and fruit of all kinds. There were only about two months in the year when he had no fruit for sale because he built huge sheds in which the fruit was stored at a wide range of temperatures. The cherries and other fruit were sold in the medieval barn at Middle Farm; many famous people wrote letters of appreciation, for Gordon supplied English Prime Ministers and Chinese ambassadors. John Masefield used to come regularly for fruit, and wrote his poem “The Cherries” showing that he had studied more about cherries than most people who bought their chip-baskets of the beautiful fruit.

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Figure 10.4 Cherry pickers, c.1900

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Figure 10.5 Cherry pickers, 1948.

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Figure 10.6 Jack Hitchman making a ladder for cherry picking at Middle Farm, 1948.

Comments

  1. ANGELA MARSH says

    December 21, 2017 at 12:41

    fao: David Marsh
    Hello
    Figure 10.4 Cherry pickers, c.1900

    I wonder if you can help me.
    You have a photo on your website.
    We are designing a book for a private client who owns a farm. We are documenting a year on his farm into a small book. Besides cattle & sheep he grows apples & cherries.
    As part of the cherry growing page we wanted to illustrate cherry picking with an old image & on searching we came across this picture which show this very well.
    We would need a High res image though (300 dpi for print) and of course permission from Betty Pyke to use it.
    Any help you can give me would be gratefully received,

    Many thanks
    Angela Marsh

    Angela Marsh
    Robert Grocott
    Partners
    ZIGGURAT DESIGN
    Stockmans Cottage
    Clattinger Farm,
    OAKSEY.
    Wiltshire
    SN16 9TW
    Tel: 01666 860285

    Reply

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« Cherries (1965)
John Masefield: The Cherries »

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