Category Archives: Club news

May 2022 meeting: Members’ evening

The evening provided a chance for members to give a short talk about a person, place, item, event or topic they’d researched.

By careful examination of census returns, street directories, electoral registers and old maps, Joyce Huddleston has traced successive locations of Radley (sub) Post Office. In the second half of the 19th century, it was in a now demolished cottage on the corner of White’s Lane and Church Road; a VR postbox survives, opposite the church. By 1901, the Post Office had moved to what is now Baker’s Close, Lower Radley, where there was a thriving bakery and shop. By 1921, Alice Machin was the sub-postmistress at Walnut Cottage, Lower Radley. The last location, from the early 1920s until closure in 2013, was 23 Church Road (formerly 4 Council Houses). You can see the VR postbox on the Radley Heritage Walk.

Charlie Milward reported a tale of hope and tragedy. In the 1870s, agricultural workers in England suffered poverty and deprivation. Many emigrated, in the hope of a better life. In 1874, 17 members of the Hedges and Townsend families from Shipton-under-Wychwood embarked on the Cospatrick to sail to New Zealand. The ship caught fire 700 miles from the Cape of Good Hope and all the emigrants died. There is a memorial to them on Shipton village green.

By complete coincidence, Harriet Moggridge related a happier emigration story. Harriet’s mother Cass has published a book on the successful maiden voyage of the Charlotte Jane, 1848-1850, carrying emigrants and cargo to Australia, returning via China. Captain Alexander Lawrence (Harriet’s great great grandfather) was accompanied on the voyage by his young wife Miriam and their baby daughter. The book draws on a memoir written by Miriam and the ship’s log book. It recounts losing and replacing a mast, storms, rows among the emigrants, and arriving in the ‘incomparably beautiful’ Sydney harbour.

Using material from the Club archives, Joyce Huddleston related how Radley celebrated the Coronation in 1953. There was a procession up to Radley College, a dinner for older residents, street parties and a quarter peal of bells.

Richard Dudding described the Club’s extensive archives, which include wills, photographs, maps, journals, sound recordings – and a cricket scorebook. You can find the archive catalogue, and details of how to contact the archivist, on the Club’s website.

To round off the evening, members toasted the 25th anniversary of the Club’s first meeting.

Reports of previous meetings

April 2022 meeting: The first Oxford v Cambridge boat races

On 11 April, Mark Davies related the early days of the Oxford and Cambridge (men’s) boat races. The idea came to two school friends, Charles Wordsworth (Christ Church, Oxford), and Charles Merivale (Cambridge). In March 1829 Cambridge University Boat Club issued a challenge to the University of Oxford ‘to row a match at or near London, each in an eight-oared boat, during the ensuing Easter vacation’.

Stephen Davies, boatbuilder at Oxford, was requested to post this challenge ‘in some conspicuous part of his barge’. Davies acted as coach to Oxford college crews, and became known as ‘Professor of Rowing’.

The first race took place at Henley, actually in June 1829; watched by large crowds. Oxford won. The rowers from Oxford wore dark blue, the Christ Church colours; the Cambridge crew was in pink or scarlet. In 1836, after protracted arguments about the course, Cambridge won the second race, from Westminster to Putney. This time the Cambridge boat was adorned with a light blue ribbon.

In 1843, again in Henley, Oxford won, though rowing with only 7 men. Their boat was displayed opposite Grandpont House, near Folly Bridge, where it became rotten and decayed. In 1867 Thomas Randall, a tailor who lived at Grandpont House, purchased it and had it incorporated into the President’s chair inside the university barge.

From 1845 the course was between Putney and Mortlake.

Reports of previous meetings

March 2022 meeting: Club news and Poor Law in crisis

At our meeting on 14 March, members recorded their thanks to Charlie Milward for his stalwart service as Treasurer since 2015, and to Colin Orr Burns for agreeing to take over the task.

Colin reminded members of the importance of oral history. Collecting it requires care and skill: from personal experience of mis-remembering when he had heard a particular song, Colin could attest that memories can be unreliable. The Club’s Oral History Group’s current interviews are focusing on Radley residents’ memories of life during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Deborah Hayter then spoke about Poor Law in the 18th century. Poor Law had been codified by the Act for the Relief of the Poor, 1601. This empowered voluntary church officials in each parish to collect rates for the relief of the parish’s sick, elderly, orphaned, ‘unable’, or ‘impotent’ poor. A few parishes set up workhouses, providing ‘indoor relief’. More commonly, the poor received ‘outdoor relief’ of food and clothing. The officials ‘moved on’ vagabonds.

In the 18th century the cost of poor relief hugely increased, in some places beyond ratepayers’ ability to pay. There was growing disquiet about the ‘undeserving’ poor. In 1771 Arthur Young, agricultural reformer, wrote that ‘Everyone but an idiot knows that the lower classes must be kept poor or they will never be industrious.’

In 1795 the magistrates in Speenhamland (near Newbury) devised a scale for linking benefits to the price of bread. This was widely copied, but growing disquiet about its cost led to the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, which instituted nation-wide, and deliberately prison-like, workhouses.

Reports of previous meetings

Radley Heritage Walk

This walk around the village combines glimpses of everyday life in days gone by in Radley with an introduction to its historic buildings. Discover the village’s history by comparing old photos with what you see now. The leaflet features 24 points of interest and includes a map.

The walk has two halves, both starting at the Bowyer Arms pub. One half includes St James the Great Church and the ancient ‘Radley Oak’ in the grounds of Radley College. The other explores some of the old farmhouses and cottages in Lower Radley and takes you down to the River Thames.

The leaflet is on sale at Radley Village Shop, price £1.50, or you can download a free PDF here.

Find out more about the walk and the 24 points of interest

Front cover of Radley Heritage Walk leaflet

Patrick (Paddy) Dockar-Drysdale, 1929-2020

Patrick (Paddy) Dockar Drysdale pictured at his house, Wick Hall
Paddy Dockar Drysdale at Wick Hall

Paddy died in hospital on 9 December 2020, aged 91. His wife Olwen had died not long before, in May 2020.  

His family roots were in Radley and he lived as a boy in Park End farmhouse. He went to school and university in Oxford, with a spell of national service in between. After that he had two main ambitions: to work in the theatre and to travel abroad.  He was soon to combine the two, as stage manager for a theatre company in St John’s, Newfoundland, Canada,.  By then he had met Olwen, while working together as stage managers for a theatre in Surrey. They married shortly before travelling.

Paddy and Olwen stayed in Canada from 1955 until 1982. Paddy switched from theatre to teaching English as an assistant professor at Newfoundland’s university and then to publishing in Toronto. His specialisms were the use of language, dialects and lexicography. While in Canada he and Olwen had four children, two boys and two girls. They travelled widely and enjoyed the excitement of living in a young and fast-growing country.

On their return, they came to live in Wick Hall and threw themselves into restoring and enhancing the grounds and gardens. They planted over a thousand trees and introduced fallow deer into the park. Olwen led on the gardens and became technically qualified. She also became a highly successful chair of the Radley Flower Show – and a keen competitor too!  Once a year they opened the Hall grounds to the public, who could see the transformation they had achieved, enjoy teas provided by the Radley WI and contribute much-needed funds to the Flower Show.

Paddy became an expert on village history and was one of the founder members of Radley History Club. He was elected chairman at the Club’s second AGM in September 1999, having previously served as secretary. He was chairman until September 2002 and stayed on the committee until September 2005. He was instrumental in the Club’s production of the Millennium Map and was the editor, financier and lead writer of the Club’s first book, The History of Radley, published in 2002. This remains the best overall account of our village’s origins and past. Later he wrote a well-regarded book, Faith and Heraldry, on the stained glass in the church. His publishing background is evident in the editorial and presentational quality of both books and in their readability. His continued support for the Club included hosting its meeting in July 2007 at Wick Hall with a conducted tour of the grounds by Paddy and Olwen, followed by supper on the front lawn. In recognition of his long-standing dedication to the Club Paddy was made an honorary member in May 2014. 

He owned land in the village and was conscious of the contribution which the land could make to the community. He was a strong supporter of the Radley Neighbourhood Plan, and of the Radley Lakes strategy in particular, and was always ready to discuss how his own holdings might help improve access to the Lakes. He was very happy for people to walk freely in Radley Large Wood, the ancient Abbey deer park, and last October signed a historic agreement for this to continue securely into the future.

In recent lockdown months, and by now over 90, he was to be seen at Zoom meetings of the History Club and of the Parish Council, still taking a very active interest in the things in the village that mattered to him. Paddy had a quiet and courteous manner and was very well-liked by everyone who knew him. He will be widely remembered with affection and as a force for good in the village.

This obituary is an extended version of that by Richard Dudding published in the January 2021 issue of the Radley News.