After taking my daughter’s old Morris Minor out around the country lanes and calling at The Masons Arms on Chipping Norton Road for lunch, we arrived back in Bloxham and saw that the museum was open. What a lovely old building with all its treasures inside and what a warm welcome we received.
It took me back seventy five years to 1941, when we came from my school in Adderbury to woodwork classes at The Joiners Arms in the upstairs workshop. Our master carpenter was a Mr. Merryfield from Banbury, a very strict man. One of my projects was to make a walnut walking stick with ebony top and French polished. I never thought I would use it, but now I do.
In those days the hub of the village seemed to centre on Norman Rivers’ shop opposite the Barford turn, he sold everything from a stink bomb to a bike, you name it he had it.
Many years later when my friend Jim Russell and myself started the Banbury Steam Society, we held our first Bloxham Steam Fair along the South Newington Road in a field belonging to old Tom Smith.
I used to leave my big steam engine under Claud Hemmings’ walnut tree: his farm house was opposite your lovely museum and was en route to the Rally field. Those were the days!
I am eighty six now and live in Bodicote and I envy you your old museum. Bloxham can be proud, it’s a superior local village.
Tom Gascoigne Bodicote 28-03-2016

On Easter Sunday, my dad and I planned for a lovely day out in our old Morris Minor, known to us as Glad (Gladys).
First we went for lunch at The Masons Arms just outside South Newington, which brought back many childhood memories for my Dad, as his Mum worked at the pub when he was a little boy, he is now 86. He would go and wait for her until she finished work to go home.
The pub has been considerably altered over the years. He said over lunch that the dining area with the arched window where we were sitting, used to be the old garage, and the kitchen in the old days was downstairs in the cellar. Lunch was delicious, and it was a real treat.
From there we went back to Bloxham to visit the Museum, which re opened on Easter Sunday. The exhibition this year is ‘Anniversaries and Celebrations’.
We were met at the door by Peter Barwell, a delightful man, who is a volunteer, one of many who assist at the museum in their own time.
The artifacts and pictures on Bloxham history were so interesting, with real life set ups and examples of old fashioned Bloxham life.
A particularly interesting one was of a wedding, with a wonderful lace dress, stockings, and veil with explanations of what the real meaning is behind them all.
Another picture showed Prince Charles outside the Hawk and Partridge after he attended a music event in the Church; apparently he went into the pub for a quick pint after the concert! That was back in 2000, the Prince looked quite youthful and the pub was still open.
On a back wall at the museum there is a file full of pictures and paperwork relating to various bits of history in Bloxham, one showed a receipt from the Old School House, which was previously the Primary School, then turned in to a restaurant and is now houses. The receipt for the meal showed two glasses of wine at 60p each, good old days perhaps!!
Please find time to visit the museum if you can, it is well worth the ₤1 to get in, most enjoyable, and children will love it.
L .S. (Tom’s daughter)