My grandmother was a member of the Taylor family, who were butchers
in Lambourn for at least four generations (earliest known was Thomas
born 1761, died 1842). The photograph was taken in 1911 of the family
shop in Newbury Street, Lambourn. The butcher in the picture is probably
my granny’s brother, Jim (James King Taylor). The younger man in the
picture may be his youngest brother Sid. The certificate next to the
door reads: HUNGERFORD CHRISTMAS FAT STOCK SHOW 1911 – THORLEY’S SPECIAL
PRIZE.
Jill Wohlgemuth
Extract from Jill’s uncle’s
memoirs : Vic: Lambeth to Lambourn. Vic writes vividly about his
childhood memories of the village – eg pig-killing, fox hunting, the
flower show – then after the second world war he returned to live there
permanently until he died aged 93 in 2003. He lived for many years in
Woodbury and spent his latter years in Close End
“When we went to
our new house in Woodbury, I noticed that from the front we were
looking straight over to the back of our old house at Bockhampton, and
then when I went into the back garden, the thought struck me: when I was
young, and spent a lot of time in Lambourn with our Granny, and cousins
Jim, Cis and Dot, our Uncle Harry, their father, used to run a
butcher’s shop. Cis, who was four years older than me, helped her dad to
deliver meat ordered for the weekend by customers or racehorse owners
who lived about.
And so he had a pony and a nice high two wheeled trap, and it was kept in a shed with all the harness. But the pony was kept in this field where I was now standing. When it was an open field, it seemed much larger than now with the houses here. It was early on Saturday mornings when I would go with Cis to this meadow, in what we called the Eastbury Road , to get the pony, and bring him back to get him harnessed up.
We soon came to the five barred gate, and then the fun began. Sometimes it would be quite easy to catch the pony, another time he would be busy feeding himself in the far distance and then suddenly look up to see us coming towards him, when he would get ready to start playing games. Being quite a large field it was easy for him to get well out of the way, but we always managed in the end. We would walk him back, and Cis would then harness him up to the trap and drive him up to the shop.
I would help to take the different orders out to Cis and she would check them into the vehicle and I would jump up along with her and then drive off. This would often be a full morning job until we got back for dinner time. And so,suddenly bringing myself back to life, after going back all those number of years, I found myself still in the back garden, and realized I was now living back in Lambourn.”
