The Oxhill News

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Village History - A Footnote

Grenville Moore wrote last month about the distinctiveness of old pavements and causeways.  I find from the old Parish Meeting Minute Books that the flagged pathway that used to run outside Gateways’ wall once extended all the way to the churchyard gate.  (An old Oxhill photo c 1910 also shows that it was laid continuously across the top of the entrance to Back Lane where it joins Main Street – useful in the days when roads were muddy.)

This long length of paving was tidied away long ago, again when it became uneven.  In 1931 the Parish Meeting asked the Divisional Surveyor “to substitute concrete in place of the uneven flagstones on the footpath from Mr Valender’s garage (at the baker’s house, now Karibu) to the Churchyard gate”

Oxhill had its own resident roadman in those days, but he would have been already fully occupied with his duties of ditch clearing, grass cutting etc.  Mr Bill Heritage, Tom’s elder brother, remembers (speaking then of the wartime years) that the roadman in his boyhood was Frank Gardner, (who lived at what is now 7 Beech Road), who “thought the village was his”, and woe betide anyone who made a mess!

This site is maintained by villagers of Oxhill for the benefit of the community and those interested in the history, news and activities that make the village such a pleasant place to live.

Last modified: December 04, 2007