Thursday 25 February 2016

Frosty Morning Walk




Now I confess this happened a few years ago but I only rediscovered the photos. My wife was doing a photo-shoot for a book at a village hall so I went out for a walk to find a disused railway.





The shoot was in Hackleton Village hall which I think at one time was the village school  built as you can see in 1863




I started out along a footpath to Piddington where you can see the church across the common in the distance




It was a pleasant walk through the
countryside















and soon enough I was passing the church wall ( I have yet to publish
the blog)











Taster for the church









Headed off though the village




 which looked to be still waking up




past this lane with the old chapel at the end









on past the pub with no chance for a pint, it was closed






 Back out in the countryside





Finally came to what I was looking for, the railway bridge















The old track bed was still there though used as a farm track now




I climbed down from the footpath to get a shot of the bridge





Then it was back off along the footpath




Occasionally checking the track bed





The frost was still on the ground as you can see


Along the was I noticed some brickwork and though there had been a railway building there and was excited to find it had been a station and the platform was still there




After that it was back out on the path then onto the road where I found another bridge









From there it was walking along the road passing views like this






Finally coming to the Village of Horton













And another pub to pass







It was getting near lunchtime so I set off back to see my wife passing through the grounds of Horton Park and coming out of the Drive gatehouses




Soon enough I got back to Hackleton
























Where I passed the village stores which had the plaque you see on the right


 Soon enough I was passing another tempting sight of a pub






 
But I headed off down the road to the hall and Lunch with my Wife


If you want to check out where I went along the old railway click the link 


Wednesday 3 February 2016

Nuffield Place



Not so far away from Greys Court you will find Nuffield Place it was built in 1914 for Sir John Bowring Wimble, a shipping magnate. He died and his widow sold the house to William Morris in 1933. Some of you might ask who was William Morris well he started out making bycicles in the shed of his parents house back in 1893 when he was 16. in 1901 he bought a shop in Oxford High Street buy 1903 he was building motorcycles. In 1909 he set up a garage along Longwall Street in Oxford selling cars and in 1912 he started manufacturing cars under WRM Motors LTD it went on to become Morris Garages and he became Lord Nuffield. He live at Nuffield place from 1933 till he died in 1963 and is buired at Nuffield church not far away. The house was left to the Nuffield Trust who had it for a long time before gifting it to the National Trust who run it now. I visited with my wife back in 2014 and 2015


Nuffield Place






On the way in you pass these brick sheds
 Against which you ca see this old deadication plaque












You also pass this old brick garage











Where you can see Lady Nuffields old Wolsley which she used to use











and in the back seat is a picnic basket ready to go out for a sunday picnic














There are alos a lot of old posters looking at















The day we came there were a couple of cars on display, one was this classic Morris Ten Four owned by one of the trust members




The other was in my mind a bit of a joke. A fiberglass replica MGTF which was produced though I could not tell you where
One of the first things you see walking in the house is a Bycicle, might have been  one of Lord Nuffield's early bikes




Next place is a small sitting room












You can see a photo of Lord & Lady Nuffield on the mantle piece



 Go through the snooker room






Then see the  lounge


Where of course you would listten to the radiogram
 You might also want to go for dinner.

 One of the things on show where the robes they had when attending officail functions





There was an aray of old pre decimal coins on show and if I am right there is 5 shillings 11.5 pence in that little lot












Lord Nuffield Writing desk





and his tinkering couboard, in truth I doubt he used much of the stuff shown here but I recogise most of it being an engineer. In truth he did not sleep well and used to tinker with clock inthe night


Lady Nuffiels sewing room where she made her clothes and those of her maid's  and also mended them as she ws a firm belever in making do and mending things















Her room had lots of paterns fro making items























A book on things housewifes could do. Think of it Lady Nuffield could afford a few servants but she still did things herself and mended her own stockings







No doubt packed her own case
















Last thing we did in the house was look round the gift shop but I only looke at one thing
Out in the garden is a hnad pump with apoor little lost bunny on it, might add next time we visited it had gone





The side of the house with rocery















Thought the weather vane superb butthe the person who built the house was a shipping magnet .The sundial, you can see where it is situated on the house in the first photo








Out in the vegitable garden is a potting shed full woth all the stuff you would think should be there





I'd love a shed like this










 The the opposite corner of the garden you see this building, go inside and






















 you can see an Iron Lung. Lord Nuffield used to make at the Cowley factory them and give them to any hospital that needed one






If you check the link above you can see one like this on the section about Lord Nuffield



A superb view of his garden from one of the upstairs windows

  The House from the garden. Hope you enjoyed your look round. Nuffield place is just off the A4310 at the top of Gangsdown Hill near Nettelbed. Its worth a look round if you have a couple of houes and you can get a cup of tea in the tea room there.