Who Lives in Bloxham?
We first moved to Bloxham in November 1999, with daughters Laura and Alex after managing a hotel in Cirencester.

We were looking to buy something of our own and our then employers offered us a partnership in a new business venture, so we were able to buy the Joiners Arms, running it for 6 months till closing it for refurbishment, while we took a holiday.

But this did not turn out as intended and I ended up coming home on a medical flight for an operation on my back, spending the next month in hospital, leaving Mark to cope with a half derelict pub, two small children and a wife needing 5 weeks of recuperation.

Thankfully, the whole village came together and supported us, so we never felt out of place, and Bloxham always felt like home from the start.

After a few busy years, we moved to Witney to ‘turn around’ a hotel there.”Make it sellable without spending any money” was our instruction!

After that we returned as leaseholders to the Joiners, but we always had the intention of having a place of our own, and as our lease on the Joiners was nearing its end, and the Red Lion was threatened with closure, we made the decision to save this asset to the village at a time when so many pubs were being lost to their communities.

As  before, the residents of Bloxham gave their support to this new venture. After the challenge or running two pubs together, came the lockdown for Covid and we got tremendous support from the village when we adapted the Red Lion to become the Red Lion grocery store which saved our business from closure, for which we will be forever grateful.

Other great moments have been the wedding of our daughter Laura at St Mary’s, and watching granddaughter Madison performing at Bloxham Primary school, where their rendition of Africa by Toto showed the tremendous effort that whole school had made.

We love living in a village which goes the extra mile: Bloxham is a thriving friendly community and it’s a village we are proud to call home.

Sandra Page