The letters Page
I'm currently researching the family tree. William Markham is pictured in
the book 'Charlton and Newbottle: A tale of
Two Villages. -I often wonder what life there was like in the 1800s ?.
Rebekah, Coventry. (June 2006)
Thanks Rebeka for your letter -Good Luck with the research! ...and if
anyone can help her with info on The Markhams
I am sure Rebeka would love to hear from you.
-rebekahm28@aol.com -Webmaster
It was wonderful to read the newsletter and catch up on all the news.
Gareth and I now live in Birmingham but
regularly visit thevillage and enjoy keeping in touch with dear friends there.
We wish you a healthy and happy 2006.
Congratulations to Nigel Williams and Liz Morgan on their respective marriages.
Joanna Brown (Cliffe) (December
2005)
Thanks Joanna -We ALL wish you and Gareth the same healthy and happy new
year to come! -Webmaster
I was introduced to your web site by a friend, Barbara Parrs who was, she lived in the village and her two sisters still do.
I was very interested in the letter by "Libby" about Mr Wilf Grant. Libby
as far as I know that story was just for you, I
never recall hearing it anyway. Wilf was my uncle. He, my grandfather
Frank Grant, and my great grandfather Samuel
Grant were all blacksmiths in Charlton at the Forge. My mother
was Olive Grant.
I have spent many chilly, but happy times watching horses being brought in
and being shod. The smell of the shoes
burning onto the hooves and the often needed reassurance that the horse was
not being hurt, stays with me forever.
I have fond memories of the village. Talking my grandmother into letting
me get sweets from the little shop, lovely walks
aroung the Roman Camp, big slices of bacon from the freshly slaughtered pig
that hung in the hall at my grandparents
house, ooh the flavour. Fresh veggies and plums from the allotment
at the back of the forge.
The big stone wheel there with a little tap on top that dripped, to sharpen
knives.
Falling down in the cherry orchard, still bear the scars on my knee of that
one ! Served me right was all the sympathy I
got as I was not supposed to be there. Picking violets and primroses
in the ' huge' Newbottle Woods as a child. I was
quite disappointed to realize when I grew up that they were really quite
small.
My parents were married at Newbottle and I have a lot of family members buried in the churchyard now.
I have lived in the States for nearly 40 years, but whenever I go 'back home'
I always visit Charlton. My parents are gone
now, there are no Grants left in the village, sad really after all these
years, Marjorie is the only living child of the Grants
now, she is 95.
Good luck with the web site, and thank you for a lovely stroll down memory Lane.
Jill Godden Bureau
From: "Jill Bureau" <banburianforever@yahoo.com> (December 2005)
Pleased to hear from you and the 'memories' -we all still have fond memories of talking to "Wilf" at the forge -Webmaster
Brigade etc. etc.) is getting married in Finlay, Australia on New Years Eve. Finlay is about 3hrs north of Melbourne
and she is marrying Daniel whom she met at Southend on Sea where they both teach and where they will be living.
There is to be a blessing at Newbottle on Saturday 8th April.
If Katrina is still looking for a rambling club, then if she could contact
Diane Morgan who is a member of The Cherwell
Ramblers.
(David Morgan December 2005) -Pleased to hear the news and send all our best wishes for the Big Day! -Webmaster
When I was a child, she used to tell us how pretty it was on Primose Hill. I have been to Newbottle and surrounding area
three times. We ran into some confusion on the first trip and couldn't understand why Charlton didn't have a parish
church! We eventually found out there were two Charlton 's in Oxfordshire, the other Charlton on Otmoor about ten
miles (?) distant.
Our original Butler family were living in Charlton on Otmoor then sometime between l776 but prior to l8l6 they relocated
to Kings Sutton and then around l840-50 moved to Newbottle where they were living in the house right outside the manor
house.
In 1890, my grandmother went to London, met a man from Essex and lived the rest of her life in that county.
I am sure there must be some Butler descendents living in the general area
of Newbottle, Banbury and surrounding
towns. My great grandmother was an Elizabeth Butler. Her parents.
Thomas Butler and Mary Moss had many siblings
- Ann, Thomas, Susannah, John, our Elizabeth, William and Ellen, all born
in that order from l839 until l859 who were
living in Kings Sutton, Charlton and Newbottle during that time period.
The dates of birth for the last two indicate they were born in Newbottle.
The parents were married in St.James in 1838.
Thomas Butler died about l876 and Mary Moss Butler died December 1881.
The Sturch surname is another coincidence. This was my American husband's
mother's name, the family originally from
Warwickshire who emigrated to America around l852 going to Cleveland, Ohio
at first, ending up in Iowa about l868.
My English grandmother b. l870 married into the Pepper family in Essex .
An Elizabeth Pepper, 1873, from Essex,
married a Thomas Sturch from Banbury probably in the l890's. Sturch is an
unusual name so was surprised to know that
we had the Sturch name both in the American and English lines in the late
l800's.
Maybe there are some descendents from this couple living in the general area
of Banbury today.
Am always interested in anything from Oxford/Northants to hand down to the
children and grandchildren.
As you must have guessed, my hobby is genealogy!
Frances - Michigan fvinport@charter.net (6 October 2005)
Thanks for your email and for your memories, I do hope those descendants in the area make contact -Webmaster
when my father, Thomas Lane, who was manager of the Charlton Branch of the Co-operative Society shop in the village.
We lived in the village until 1945 when my father was moved to the Adderbury
Branch. At that time the "Co-op" was a
thriving concern used by virtually everyone. Next door to the "Co-op"
was the Baker who also had a shop selling sweets
as well as bread and cakes. This business
was owned by Mr and Mrs Durrant. The Butchers shop was owned by
Mr Harry Thornton and the Blacksmith was then was Mr Grant who at that time
was still kept busy shoeing horses.
I started at the village school when the teacher was Miss Taylor. My good
friend was Robert Frost whose father kept the
"Rose and Crown" And his grandfather had only just given up his regular job
as Village Carrier attending Banbury on
Thursdays and Saturdays – his Carriers Cart was still kept in the barn
at the back of the pub. I can recall that life was
much quieter in those days- there were only eight motor car owners, including
the two "Big Houses", and the bus came
from Banbury on Thusdays,Saturdays and Sundays – two buses on each day.
My family have always lived in the Banbury area and I go back there whenever I'm in the vicinity.
If any one remembers us I would like to hear from you. In the meantime I'll follow your website.Best wishes.
Jimnronnie@aol.com (23 September 2005)
Nice to hear from you James and for your memories,I
do hope those who know you in the village will make contact
-Webmaster
My name is Beverly Kablinger, formerly Christophers. I was raised in Charlton
along with my brother and sisters.
Marlene, Colin, Carol and Libby. Our mother, Peggy passed away 6 years ago
in Banbury. Our father, Henry, often
referred to by the villagers as Chris, is a resident at Diana House in Brackly.
He is now 93 years old and doing wonderfully.
I now reside in St. petersburg, Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico, where for
the past four years I have, along with my
husband Joseph, been busy building our own company in addition to working
with the University of South Florida in
neonatal research programs. Please feel free to share my e-mail address and
mailing address as you feel the need.
I would really like to again be in contact with other village residents of whom I have some wonderful memories.
Thank you for this wonderful website! My very best regards
Beverly Christophers-Kablnger - 4651 First St., N.E., #201B - St. Petersburg, FL 33703 USA
Beverly Kablinger Tel: (727) 535-6878 Fax: (954) 212-3188
(12 January 2005)
Nice to hear from you Beverley, and I do hope those who know you in the village make contact -Webmaster
I moved to Charlton at age 4 in 1958 and lived there until I was 21. Seeing the pictures brought back many memories.
I went to the school Miss Wellings was headmistress for the first few years
then Mrs. Scotson took over when I was
about 8. She only stayed a few years and now lives in Scotland.
I am to this day in regular contact with her, so you can
see a good teacher makes quite an impression on a young child.
The picture of the forge brought a sweet story to mind that I would like
to share.
Every day on my way home from school I leaned over the half door of the forge
to speak with Mr. Wilf Grant, if he was
not making shoes I always asked him what he was making, the usual conversation
was "What are you making Mr. Grant"
" Well Nibby it's a Wim Wam" - " What's A Wim Wam Mr. Grant" - "Oh
its a Wim Wam to wind the moon with"
" Why would you want to wind the moon" - " Well to make it shine of
course" each day the same question.
Some days it was not just a Wim Wam but a Wim Wams mother or brother or some
relative but they were always to
wind the moon with. I remember at the old age of 7 thinking
there was no moon one night and assumed Mr. Grant had
been to busy that day to make the required Wim Wam needed to wind the moon
for that day. So when it thunders its
really Mr. Grant up there making a really big Wim Wam to wind the moon, as
I see it shining still over here in America.
In all the years I knew him Mr. Grant always called me Nibby instead of Libby
I wonder if he ever did find out my name.
I live in Georgia in south east U.S.A. I tell my husband stories of home
and hopefully soon we will be able to visit and I
can show him all the places I have told him about. I must admit I do miss
village life. I would love to know if Mr. Grant
ever told any one else the same story. I will be checking back with the site
often and hope more stories appear.
I would love to hear from anyone there, my e mail address is radster31@yahoo.com
So this is one of the many fond
memories of my childhood in the village. For those that can remember that
far back I was then Libby Christophrers now
Curtis . I lived in The Walnuts now called Walnut House in
Main Street.
12 January 2005
Nice to hear from you Libby and of your Memory -
pleased also to hear your father is happy and healthy living in
Brackley at 93 years of age! another character of the village we sadly miss
talking to-webmaster
I found your site by accident, and it has made me very homesick! I spent
my childhood living at Croughton, just
down the road from you. is there any chance of putting a page on your site
with a tiny bit of the history of the place?
I know that Rainsborough Camp is just outside Charlton (I used to cycle
to it).
By the way, - I'm an artist by profession, and have quite a bit of my art
online.
This picture on the page might look like a familiar place...
The view is from a photo looking south from near the junction
of the Charlton-Croughton road and one that went southwest
towards Aynho - as it appeared in about 1975.
Thanks again!
James Dignan (5 November 2004) grutness@surf4nix.com
We are up for adding a page or two on
Rainsborough etc -
anyone out there who wants to send in info/pictures?
-webmaster
It's great to see a website page 'up and running' for the village. I'm
fairly new in Charlton and have enjoyed perusing this
website. But it struck me that not all the photos do us justice - particularly
the one of the pub, which had such stunning
hanging baskets decorating it recently.
I'm particularly interested in the historical connections of the Village
and would be interested in a copy of the book
mentioned (Charlton and Newbottle -The History of Two Villages). I
also wonder if there is a rambling association or
'walking club' that covers trails within the local area?
Cheers, Katrina (10 September 2004) Anyone able to help? email us and we will pass on info -webmaster
G'Day & strife what a lovely supprise to get an E-Mail from the good
folks back home, do you remember the underneath
-the -arches sketch? great memories-the Poachers etc. So how
is the good village of Charlton doing ?
we often boast to people over here about it, they just love to hear about
England and when we describe were we used to
live -it's WHY did you leave? Well next month it's going to be 3years
since we arrived in Australia, where did that time
go? at the moment we are still living in our caravan I nicknamed it
the TARDIS as we have been doing a fair bit of
traveling and because of the vast distances involved we never quite knew
where we were going to end up for the night
hence The Tardis!!
We have just got back from a wonderful trip around the Eyre Peninsula in
S-Australia it's quite isolated but some really
nice little towns. As I said we are still living in our caravan and
yes we still talk to each other !! Most of the folk who
travel in OZ do the complete circumferance we go round in big circles and
end up at either Steve or Karen's still that
was the main reason we moved here to see more of them.
Talking of contact this E-Mail system is magic as you can probably see we
are very new to it,we found this mobile
machine which we take to a phone box dial a number and Hey-Presto. On
that note I will sign off now but will send
a more interesting letter with updates on the Family and of life for us over
here. We are so pleased to have made
contact with you.....
lots of love to EVERYONE in CHARLTON
from ALAN & BABS GRIGSON ( 4th July 2004) Nice to hear from the old folks!-webmaster
