New homes rewarded the returning soldiers of 1919 when local authorities became major landlords, with subsidies and powers to compel land purchase. Wheatley’s housing stock rose by 30% (100 homes) in the 1920s, half of them the Wheatley Urban District …
‘A Country fit for Heroes to live in’ – Prime Minister Lloyd George, 1918 Read more »
Kevin Heritage of Wheatley Park School has created an excellent website chronicling the history of the Holton Park Estate, now the site of Wheatley Park School. It covers eras from Roman and Saxon times to the present day, and contains many fascinating …
Hostelries, Hospitals, and Hotels all offer shelter. The Good Samaritan took the injured man to an inn. During the Civil War, 1642-6, The Bell and other inns nursed and buried casualties at parish expense. When the King reinforced bridge defences, Wheatley homes and …
The George and Crown were our oldest inns. The King and Queen (the William and Mary sign of 1980 now shows Charles and Henrietta) and the White Hart were close behind. Mail was delivered and collected at the White Hart, …
Travellers depended on Wheatley for shelter, hospitality and fresh horses. It was a ‘service station’ for two main roads and it has a memory of 20 inn names. The London to Oxford road passed over Shotover (Old Road), replaced by …
The Crown Hotel was in business and popular for the people living at the lower end of the Village. It was very exciting when the Fair Ground Showmen brought the Switchbacks and other Sideshows on the scene causing much excitement. …
There has been at least one windmill on Wheatley’s southern horizon since 1671, when a local rate book mentioned that it was ‘in a ruinous condition’. A mill is marked on Michael Burghers’ map dated 1676. Co incidentally, Samuel Goode, …
Wheatley’s best known landmark is its six-faced, pyramid lock-up of 1834. This ‘round house’ or ‘keep’, a temporary holding place for those arrested before they were taken before the Justices, was built on the parish stone pits where parish ‘paupers’ …
The old White Hart, Wheatley, 1822, drawn by James Buckler. It is on the site of the present Oxford House, High Street, opposite The Bell. The signboard names the landlord as George Crookes. Buckler also sketched the Manor House and …
History is the overlap of memories. Richard Dumbelow of Wheatley, born in 1477 during the Wars of the Roses, lived for over a century, well into the reign of Elizabeth Tudor; as he died, Sybell Pangbourne was born in Holton …
