Can You Help? — Somerton, Oxfordshire

We need your help. These are questions our research has raised but not yet answered. If you know anything, however small, or have a photograph, please tell us using the form at the bottom of this page. Every answer we get goes into the village history.

Places

The school house at the bottom of Church Street. Local memory says it was a school house. Lady Jersey ran a girls' school and an infants' school in Somerton from 1815 until they joined Fermor's school in the 1860s. Did either meet here? Who Lived Here
"Holloway". In 1910 Thomas Moore's house was at "Hollow Way", and a former villager remembers living as a child in a house called Holloway. Where was it?
Adam's Cottages. Who were they named after?
The forge. The Plumbs were Somerton's blacksmiths for three generations. Where did the forge stand? Economic Life
The reading room and the bowling green recorded in 1910. Does anyone remember them? The Village
Somerton Mill and the wharf. In the twentieth century there was a paper business, perhaps recycling and baling, on the old wharf site by the canal bridge. Who ran it, and when did it close? Economic Life

People

The Eagles. Harry Eagle kept the Railway Inn in 1939, and "Mr Eagle" owned cottages in the village. Who were the Eagle family? The Railway
Who kept the Railway Inn after 1939, and when did it close?
The Rev. F. W. Moyle, rector from 1957. When exactly did he die, and how? The Good, the Bad & the Absent
James Wilmer, "clerk of Somerton", who died in 1641. Was he a clergyman or the parish clerk?
Who signed the 1837 petition from the inhabitants of Somerton to the House of Lords? The Village

Events and pictures

The 1896 school photograph, once in the hands of Mrs V. Millar in Australia. Does anyone have a copy? The School
The Anchor butter advert with the cows playing football, said to have been filmed with the Jersey Manor Farm herd. When was it made? People & Families
The 1928 Oxford University point-to-point. Which fields did the course use?
The Millennium. Photographs of the village in 2000, and of the Millennium play. Somerton at the Millennium
May Day, the gargoyles and Mahala Blaby. Pages in preparation: memories and photographs especially welcome.

Share a memory or correction

Did you grow up in Somerton, or does this article bring back a memory? Do you spot something that needs correcting or adding? Rosemary Arnold and Della Paviour would love to hear from you.