People
Within this section you will find historical photographs of people from the village. Some will be very old, others from perhaps 10 or 20 years ago.
We would really value information about any of the photos including dates, names, little stories, however trivial since it all adds to the interest. Use the comment form at the bottom of the page.
Doreen
Doreen has lived in the village for the whole of her life. Her grandmother owned the Crown cottages (opposite the Inn with the Well). Doreen lived originally in the house now known as Woodbine cottage but on the death of her grandmother, she took ownership of other crown cottages, moving to Roseneath (No 1 crown cottages).
Here are a few pictures she provided.
Photographer: Doreen
Potato Harvest 1940 - ‘Dig for Victory’
These photographs were taken by Oliver Frost. They show the potato harvest in The Manor House kitchen garden. At the time there were 16-18 people living in the house, including family, cook/housekeeper, between 6 and 10 evacuee children from London, cowman, and gardener. The second picture is of the head gardener, Frank Arslett, a junior gardener H Lewis, and Joyce Frost (then Joyce Montagu).
Photographer: Oliver Frost
Rev Dunn, Tim Ormond and Mrs Kinneir
A newspaper cutting from 1972, of Rev Dunn and Tim Ormond presenting Mrs Kinneir a silver platter on her retirement. Mrs Kinneir was a teacher at the school for 25 years.
Photographer: n/a
Comments
I lived in crown cottages untill i was about 4 or 5 years old and still remember the outside loo,leaving to live in Liddiards Green,I also remember Mrs Kinnear she was my teacher and always remember her as a very kind woman and her husband also use to visit the school occasionally
Why have I not come across this site before…?! Absolutely fascinating. My family, Hazel and Vic Espley together with their four offspring, John, Stephen, Tom and Richard lived at Dragon House, next to the school, from 1966. Dad died in 1991 and Mum in 2007. They are both interred in a peaceful setting in the shadow of The Manor. I regularly walk our spaniel, Mollie along The Ridgeway on either side of the village followed by a welcome refreshment at The Old Crown. Happy days…! John Espley
What a storm of happy memories were stirred up by finding your website - memories of summer holidays spent with my grandparents in Ogbourne St George.
For two weeks of every school summer holiday between 1958 and 1968 I stayed with William and Daisy Ryder who lived at 15 Liddiards Green.
William was born on 29.5.1887 in Lambourn, Hants. After his marriage to Daisy Bowley (of Vernham Dean, Hants) on 2.9.1914 they settled in Ogbourne St George, living, I believe, in one of the Crown Cottages opposite the Inn with the Well. The cottages were pulled down because of a road widening scheme and my grandparents were then re-housed in Liddiards Green around 1952. I have a vague memory of the crown cottage they lived in (or maybe I was told it), of me being very small and sitting on a stool before the open fire, and of the front door opening straight into the sitting room.
At the time of his marriage William worked as a Blacksmith’s striker. Whether he worked for the “big house” or whether he worked privately I don’t know. He went away to the Great War, was badly wounded in action, but survived to return to the village, unlike so many of his friends. Between the wars and during WWII he “got on his bike” and worked at the Railway Docks in Southampton as a supervisor to support his family. At the close of WWII he found work as a Fuel Warden in charge of coal supplies at the American Base on the Chiseldon road. He was still working part-time at the age of 74 as a building labourer in charge of stores (builders’ materials) in Marlborough. He died in 1980 having spent 68 years of his long and useful life living in the village. Daisy Ryder died in 1973 at the age of 80. Both are buried in Ogbourne St George Churchyard, a most beautiful place to be laid to rest.
Sadly for William he was the last of his male generation in the village. He loved a lunchtime beer with his mates in the pub near the village shop. As the years passed they died one by one until he was left at the bar on his own. I have a memory of me being about 23 years old and visiting Ogbourne for the day. At my Aunt’s request I went down to the pub to call him home for lunch. He was so pleased to see me and bought me a drink (we were late for lunch of course). I treasure that memory, just me and him together, smiling and talking.
But to talk about all my friends in Ogbourne I must start in the late Fifties. As soon as I arrived for my two-week stay my gran would encourage me to knock on doors and ask the other children out to play. Every year I would seek out the same girls (mostly girls, I suspect the boys had better things to do) and we would run for miles through the village and Jubbs Lane, wander down to the railway line and watch the steam trains passing in the cutting below from (what seemed) a great height. We roamed free, without fear, and played with our friends. The days always seemed long and hot and full of adventure - sitting in the fields among sharp stubble after the harvest and smelling the warmth of the earth, leaving the house after breakfast, returning for lunch, going out again, then back for tea and bedtime. If my homing instinct and hunger pangs didn’t send me back to meals on time my Aunt, Phyllis Ryder, would be dispatched to hunt me down. (By the way she was a pal of Doreen, the lady mentioned in this “People” section.) We girls were tomboys too. One time we were climbing trees, at the bottom of the hill opposite the road leading to the Church where a small stream had a drainage pipe crossing over it like a bridge. On the far bank of this stream was a row of tall, mature trees. That day it was near tea time and we were high in the branches when I saw my aunt striding down the hill calling my name. We shushed each other and hid in silence in the tree canopy, thinking we’d get told off for climbing so high. As soon as Auntie had given up and turned back up the hill I scrambled down to the ground and followed her home at a safe distance.
I remember having a big, innocent crush on the dark-haired boy next door (the house attached to no. 15). To me he seemed very worldly and grown-up (he was probably about 12 years old at the time). For years I admired him silently and from afar. As he got older I recall him wearing a black leather jacket and sporting a Rocker hairstyle. (Whatever happened to him?)
At eleven years old I was sitting on the pavement with two other girls at the entrance to Liddiards Green watching older children walking to the village hall for the weekly youth club. I was so envious. I couldn’t wait to be thirteen years old to go there myself. (Unfortunately by the time I’d reached thirteen the youth club had folded - to my utter disgust).
Opposite the turning into Liddiards Green was a white-painted house. I became friendly with the girl who lived there (was her name Pat?). We’d meet up every summer and play on the swing in her parents’ garden or wander the village together. We had a mutual friend in a girl from Ogbourne St Andrew. Pat was the proud owner of a bicycle. Kids would congregate down Jubbs Lane and ride their bikes up and down at the railway line end. That’s where I learned to ride a two-wheeler. One memory I have of Pat is the two of us feeling very grown-up and going to the cinema in Marlborough around 1964 to see “Jason and the Argonauts”.
Oh, yes – the Transport Café. If I was to hear Tommy Steele singing “I Never Felt More Like Singing The Blues”, I would be time-warped instantly into the inside of that caff in the late 1950s. It seemed such a dangerous, exciting, forbidden place to a young girl. I mean, people were sitting there drinking coffee! eating! and listening to a juke box!
Twice a day cattle used to be driven up the main street and into the farm entrance near the turning into Liddiards Green. I can still smell the pungent bodies of the cows and see the steaming heat rising from their hides as they plodded along the road with udders bursting with milk - and there was the consequent dropping of cow pats into the road. The farmer would clear most of it up, but nobody minded the muck then, it was all part of normal village life, not something to be deplored or despised.
There were two children living in the farmhouse, a boy and girl. I have a clear memory of them sometime after 1966. We went for a walk together along the redundant railway line (which had become a walking trail by then). We walked a long way that hot day and talked about the world and our ambitions in the naïve way teenagers do.
Manners were different too, more formal in many ways. Every adult was addressed by title and surname - Mrs so-and-so or Mr so-and-so. If my gran spoke about a friend of hers two doors down she would say “Mrs so-and-so told me that…”
It wasn’t all play during my holiday. Few people owned cars. It was either use public transport or walk. We did a lot of walking, my gran, my aunt and I, up and over the Ridgeway on blisteringly hot days or along the Chiseldon Road to a farm to buy a supply of eggs for the cold larder (no fridge). My gran did that walk every three weeks without fail. If my Aunt had a day off work she would go too. Once a year I did the walk with them. My gran knew the names of all the field crops. She taught them to me while I helped to carry the eggs home.
I don’t remember the names of my small playmates of fifty years ago, but I do remember the fun and adventures we had together. Unsophisticated pleasures they may have been, but the memories of them are carved deep and have stayed.
In my mind’s eye there’s a permanent heat haze shimmering over that ancient landscape. I’m breathing in the sweet Wiltshire air and running wild again over the lanes and fields. For me, it’s always summer in Ogbourne St George.
this was a nice surprise to read this .I too lived in Crown Cottages untill I was 4 or 5 with a loo at the bottom of the garden ,and we too moved to Liddiards Green (number 11.) in the early 50s as you say rather a idyllic childhood.
Hello Frederick,
You must have been one of the boys I used to see rushing around the village on their bikes, or wandering the lanes in small groups like we girls did. Who knows, you and I may have even spoken to each other all those years ago - I think it highly likely that we did.
It’s good to hear a voice from back then. Let’s hope that more people contribute to the website with their memories.
yes Jeanette it is quite likely I was one of those boys ,it is more likely that you played with and knew my sister Tania.
yes Jeannette I used to play with you every summer you came to stay, we lived at number 11 liddiards just round the corner. i remember you well. Doyou remember valerie Jesson and Jenny Merritt, we all used to play together.
Well well ,what wonderfull site, I lived there for about three years as I can best recall, and upon leaving school worked for a while on Maundrells farm, while waiting to embark on a nursing career. Thank you for taking all the trouble of setting this up.
Hello Tania,
I’ve been trying hard since reading Frederick’s message to remember childhood names from Ogbourne (without much luck), but the moment I read your message an image popped into my head of a slim girl, a little bit taller than me, with short dark hair. I can see us walking together in Liddiards Green and talking. Did you have a younger sister (we pushed her around in her pushchair at one time I think). Have I got the right person? The names Valerie (blond hair?) and Jenny seem very familiar too. Didn’t we have fun back then? And didn’t life seem so simple too? It’s lovely to hear from you.
Hi everyone, I have just returned from Bognor Regis where I met my very best friend (more like a sister) Tania Cartman. We had a lovely chat over a latte and tried to catch up the last 40 years since we saw each other. We managed to get in contact because I bumped into Adrian her brother when I was in Swindon last month. The chances of this happening were quite remote as I now live in Spain. If anyone else remembers me please send a message.
Hi Valerie nice to hear your alive and well, I do hope you are enjoing your life abroad.
Hi Freddie, nice to hear from you. We were talking about you today. Tannie was filling me in on all the news and some history I didn’t remember til today. Glad to hear you are ok too. Isn’t is strange to hear a name from the past? Yes I am enjoying living in Spain although the summers are far too hot! My husband (Alan) hence the email address and I have spent the last few weeks in Kent as he works there part time. It has been lovely as I had never been to this part of the country. It is absolutely beautiful. Hopefully we can talk again.
Hi Jeanette, I really enjoyed reading your memories of Ogbourne, yes they were good days back then. I remember you coming to the village and I remember how your Gran used to leave a drink (I think squash) in a glass on the side in the kitchen with some kind of top on it (so you could go in and have a couple of sips) and put the top back on the glass. Funny what you remember isn’t it? I can’t remember what you looked like though. Have you been back to Ogbourne in the last few years?
Hi Clive I remember you too. Is your birthday on 30th April?
Valerie simply wonderfull to hear from you, how uncanny, no my birthday is in November, but my brother Cliiford is on the day you mention.
I do remember you being at the old school, with Mrs Howes and Mrs Kinnear, I used to great friends with your brother Alan (Uppsie), and worked, or slaved in the Polly Tea rooms in Marlborough with your sister Janet.
I actauly learbe to play guitar with Alan, and played in aband for a while with Geoff Power, who lived in cottage by manner Farm.
Alan Jeff and I would spend hours wandering around the village dreaming of one day becomming rock stars, or as they were called in those days Pop stars, Alan and I were were great pals whilst we attended the Common , he was in the year ahead of me.
I did actualy drive through Ogbourne the other day with my dad, hasnt changed tht much, save for Muandrells fam having been replaced by a hideouse housing develpment, with them crammed in akin to sardines.
Hey thank you for getting in touch, I will tell Cliff whan I see him next, in fact we were talking of matters Ogbourne only yesterday, as I was telling him about this site, and the amazing photos of your house being built. I am on facebook if you wish to contact me, Clive Goodman in Tredegar South Wales, married with two wonderfull grandchildren.
Hello Valerie,
Fancy you remembering the orange squash! It’s one of the things I have a strong memory of too. It was always kept in a green patterned drinking glass, and I can still smell the oranginess of it - reminds me so much of hot summer days. It’s wonderful to hear so many voices from the past on this website. The last forty to fifty years seems to have gone in a flash. I only have hazy recollections of you all, but I do remember our adventures. I went back to Ogbourne about three years ago for the first time in decades. I think they were constructing the housing development on the old Transport Cafe site at the time. I agree with Clive - too many houses crammed into too little space for comfort these days, but in essence the village still felt the same. I went down to the church yard to see my grandparents graves and had a memory-filled wander around Liddiards Green and the lanes. After forty-odd years of work and many (too many) house moves we’ve (husband and me) have retired and returned to our roots in North Dorset.
By the way, was I right - did you have blond hair? And do you keep in touch with Jenny Merrit?
hello Jeannette, yes I was the one with dark hair you used to play with, and Val had blonde hair and Jennies was somewhere in between, we used to have such fun, times were so simple but we used to make our own fun, unlike the kids of today, I met up with valerie yesterday, for the first time in 40 years, it was wonderful, talking about all those old memories. there seems to be something about Ogbourne that all our generation cn not forget, I absolutely love the place. Hope you are keeping well,
Hi Clive, my name is Tania Cartman, I expect you remember my brothers, I remember your brother Clifford, I dont know if he is more my age, I am sixty now. I also worked in the polly tea rooms and hated it. The wages were rubbish but it was a bit of money coming in, the woman who owned it used to be a Jewish woman. Please message back if you can tell me more about the old days. Tania
Hi Tamia ,of course I remember most of your family, Freddy, yourself, and you had as I recall an elder brother who went to sea, who`s name at present escapes me. I have had some contact with your brother Adrian, who spent hours on Park Farm with my dad when he worked for Frankie Poole on Park Farm. in fact Adrian has been to see Dad a few times while out on his rounds.
Ah the old days in Ogbourne St .George eh, I could write a book, there seemed to be two paralled classes in the Vilage, there were us lot, condemned to a life of menial labour as we were swewed out of the Secondary Modern on the Common, and those who seemed to think they were a tad better than us, who attended the Grammar School, I can racall many a `dap up` betwixt your brother Fred, , Barry Venhouse, and the Grosvener boys ,David and Andrew. fiery stuff as I recall.
I can remember waking up in the bungalow we lived in then, hearing Mr. Golding or Grumpy as he was called, hurling the milk churns around, in what was probably an attempt to awaken one and all, insamuch as If I`m awake so can everyone else.
Waiting for the bus to the Common, outside Scotts shop and Post Office, Glyn Hamblyn breaking wind almost on demeand, being up braided by Bernard Darcy, Alan Jesson bending my ear about the lates record he had heard, and Barry and Heather Spreadbury arriving breathlessly at the shop as thier lift from Whitefield had turned up late, along with Reggie and Blanche Cox, still think of them when I pass thier old gous on t he Swindon Road, and of course Barry Luker and his sister, Julie.
Well `Tannie` as I think you were called in those far of halcyonic days, how about tha for starters, I am on Facebook Clive Goodman in Tredegar South Wales, just one little though afore I depart, I wonder if there is any one person from that group of ours still residing in the village today, as with the price of houses and cost of living, will have precluded any hope of locals buying and living there.
Great to hear from you, keep in touch, ps Cliff is fine I was with him on Sunday what a bloke, so proud of my bro. See ya !
Hi guys, lovely to read all the messages, I wonder if any of you remembers the cottage by the railway bridge on the same side as the golf course, it used to be just by the bridge, that’s where my family started life in Ogbourne. My mum used to tend the poor people who crashed into the bridge which was quite often in those days. I can’t remember the names of roads but coming from the golf course on the old road you hit crossroads at the bridge,well we were on the left hand side. There was a small road to the left can’t remember where it went but we used to go for picnics and the cat Elvis always followed us, there was a road opposite and the road veering to the right went under the bridge. Maybe you’ll all be too young to remember but would be interested to know if you have memories of it.
I just remembered the road on the left went up to Aldbourne where my Dad worked on a farm.
Hello Valerie, I dont actualy recall the cottage as such , but well recall the bridge and the bend, there was and still is a little road leading from there that passes the police station, it comes out on the manin street, next to what was the New Inn, which I think is now called the Park Hotel, I also remember your cat Elvis, if its the same chap, he was at Lyddiards green, I used to see him when I went to your house with Alan, I used to think the Jessons were very posh as you used to have a coffee purculator, I had never heard of such a thing bar even seen one, take care.
There are photos on the site of this area which you might like to look at
hello Jeanette, did you know that the boy next door that you refer to was barry venghaus, his dad was a german man who stayed here after the war, his name was Herman as i remember, he was a really nice man, and well liked in the village, and yes the little girl i used to push around was my niece, my sisters little girl. I also had a baby brother, it could have been him, but he died when he was 7 months old. all the best tania
Hi clive, i was thinking about the class war so to speak that you referred to , it is funny but although there was a bit of hostility, we all seemed to get on really, i remember playing with the Grovenor boys and on one of these pages one of them speaks of us all quite fondly, do you remember they had the posh school bus and we had the old oxo tin as we used to call it. also you ask if any of us remain in the village , next door to us the cooks had a son late in life, he still lives in the same house, and one of my best friends who used to live in a tied cottage in the village (jenny merritt) her brother Eldie, still lives in the same cottage. take care, tanny
hi clive what a small world i dont know if you remember me , i used to play with your brother clifford , he used to come to my house at southend i also was friends with terry baldwin ,hes now living at pontypool and im just up the road from you in cwm ebbw vale , cant believe weve all ended up so close . its great to see a few old names and bring back some of those happy memories . and tania i remember you and your family ,even though we didnt play together ,i think you were a year older than me . keep in touch and share some of those childhood memories. linda
Astonisheddoes not get near this, it is amazing, how long have you resided in Cwm ?
I recall you and your sister, and think of you both each time I pass your old house on my way to see my Father each week, is it your sister who has the plant business ?
I will pass on your best wishes to my wonderfull Brother Cliff, who incidently is , like me happily retired, and surrounded by Grandchildren.
I can honestly say that I had not given the Baldwin family a thought, fancy Terry living down in Pooler, playing the United today at Brynmawr, on the Rec.
Gosh the number of times I have been to Cwm, when I was physio for Trefil RFC, and I have a good friend living in the village as well, we trained as sports therapists together.
I have been back to Ogbourne quite a bit as Dad loves to go back to his old haunts, we have been to the church to pay our respects to those old friends since departed.
I came to Wales to work and live when I qualified as a nurse in 1970, and fell in love with the culture so have remained almost ever since.
David Grovesner wrote a wonderfull piece about his return to the village, which evoked many memories for me ,as did Rob Dunn with his memories.
Well to say I was stunned would be the understatement of the day, thanks so much for getting in touch, keep well, love and peace , Clive.
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