Browse Items (22 total)

Water lane in the 1930's was a very different hamlet from what it is today. The central point was The Crown Inn, run by Mr. and Mrs. Charles Hewer. It was a popular place with regular customers from the village itself and from outlying areas. It was…

During the war, my father was the head ARP Warden for the Village.There were a number of Wardens, and a group of boys who acted as 'runners'. One of the latter slept at Iles Green each night, but none of them ever had to run with a message. The most…

We first knew Oakridge in 1922 when my parents rented what is now known as Lyday Close from Dr. Percy Dearmer, as a holiday cottage. I was seven years old at the time, and my two brothers were five and six. It was a wonderful village for children as…

As a little girl almost five decades ago, I was often present at Evensong in Oakridge Church sitting in a seat close to the organist who was Mr. Hunt. Those were the days when there seemed to be a longer service (sermon probably) and the Book Of…

I well remember my father, Edgar, telling me of the time when the then Landlord, Charlie Ewer, had difficulty in getting his customers to leave, long after "Time" was called.So in desperation he went outside, found his garden hoe, and used it to…

A rolled up document was on stiff parchment paper. One side of the document is an indenture for the lease of some land in Bisley from Thomas Baker to Thomas Blanch, for seven years. The date on the document is 1814. The edges of the paper have been…

If you don't believe in the Archers, try the Gardners; for one thing, they're true. An Oakridge Lynch resident, Mrs Nurding, has unearthed a real—life document more fascinating than you would be likely to find in a year's fiction—reading or…

Dame Margaret Weston or Peggy Weston as some may recall her was born in Oakridge in the late 1920's, the only daughter of the village Schoolmaster. From any early age, she showed a keen interest in engineering and, after leaving Stroud Girls High…

In August 1837, there had been a mass exodus from the village to the young colony of New South Wales. The great poverty among the agricultural community had been further aggravated by the decline of hand-weaving on the cottage looms, brought about by…

Mr Ken Bucknell has many vivid memories as a young man living in Waterlane, below he remembers his Grandfathers years as sexton:Frederick Halliday born - 1864, was the sexton at Oakridge Church for 46 years, although he had a full time job at Bliss…