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 

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.