All this photos are copyrighted
View of the school from across the road
Black Bourton main street with the school on the left and the vicarage on the right, Notice the old Horse and Groom in the distance
Black Bourton school in 1922, Florence Chapman nee Townsend named these for me, she now lives in Lechlade where she has resided for the past 70 years, she is in her 90's now
This is the school in 1925, unfortunatly I can find no one who can name the children, all I know is Dorothy Eustace who was my Aunt and lived in Alvescot, If you or you know someone who can name them please contact me via the contact link on the left
Note you can see the church in the back ground, so this must have been taken in the school playground, and there is no houses between the school and the church, where as the is not 4 or 5
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It is most likely that very few people living in Lechlade today will
have great knowledge of Mrs Chapman, who will be celebrating her 93rd
birthday in January 2006, and who has lived quietly in the village for
nearly 70 years. It wasn’t always a life of ease and comfort though,
for Florence, who was born at Blackbourton in 1913, and had to grow up
in conditions which were far removed from the comfortable times we are
able to enjoy today. She had two sisters, both of whom are now dead.
Her schooldays were spent at an all-age school in Blackbourton, which
she left at the age of 14 when the school was transferred to Bampton.
There was little excitement to be experienced in the village at this
time, but Florence enjoyed the times when she attended the church with
her mother, and where she often found herself walking in the
churchyard. It was here that romance entered her life. She noticed, one
day, that she was being observed by a young man who was bold enough to
speak to her. He said he had “had his eye on her for some time!” She
married Albert Chapman in 1934, and subsequently had two sons and a
daughter; one son lives in California, one in Lechlade, and her
daughter in Cricklade. Albert Chapman had been born in Wales, where
times were hard and employment difficult to obtain. He was an excellent
scholar, and was destined for higher education, but his parents were
not able to provide the financial support he needed, so along with the
rest of the family he later left Wales, making his way to Warrens
Cross, near to Lechlade. His brother actually walked the journey! The
only employment available was farm work, which Albert found in
Alvescot, and where Florence, later, went to live with him. Eventually
they found a cottage at Kent Place, in Sherborne Street, Lechlade. It
was in 1951 that another move took place, this time to the new housing
area of Gassons where the facilities were far superior to those endured
in the Kent Place cottage. A memory from those days, however, which
Florence happily recalls, is the kindness shown to the children by the
soldiers during the war who were billeted in other cottages nearby.
After the war, in which Albert served in the RAF as an electrician, he
was employed at Smith’s Industries, Witney, until in 1969 he retired
because of ill-health, sadly dying in the same year. There had been a
further move, in 1961, to a smaller house in Gassons Way; Florence’s
daughter, June, had left home earlier, to be married, and almost
immediately after the wedding was appointed as the youngest woman to
take charge of Arkell’s public house, the Royal Oak in Lechlade. She
served there, with her husband, for 39 years, retiring at the time of
the millennium. One high spot in her life, which Florence Chapman
recalls with great pleasure, and satisfaction, is how the playing field
was obtained, for the benefit of the public. With the building of
Gassons Road, a large field area had been split in two, with one area
for house building. The owner of the field agreed to hold the sale of
the other half when two sisters in the village, named Wellen, suggested
that it would be suitable as a recreational area for the people of
Lechlade. Through regular village collections the money was eventually
raised, and it is due to the sterling efforts of the people, at that
time, including Florence Chapman, that everyone in Lechlade today is
able to enjoy the many pleasures provided by the facilities. Florence
has lived her life well, and is very happy, still, to be living in
Lechlade where she can regularly attend St Lawrence Church, her
Christian faith having been instilled, as a young girl, by her mother.
Jack Smee. Florence, her daughter June, grand- daughter Rachel &
great-grandson, Ashley.
These sites cover the ox18 area of Oxfordshire England, including the following villages, OX18, Alvescot, Bampton, Black Bourton, Burford, Broadwell, Carterton, Clanfield, Kelmscott, Kencot, Langford, Lechlade, RAF Broadwell, Shilton, Parish Pump, Oxfordshire Events,
