SANDFORD ON THAMES VILLAGE MAGAZINE ON LINE
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The letter which was sent to Mr. Busfield, who was at the time Chairman of South Oxfordshire District Council, and circulated to other interested parties has been acknowledged by Mr. Busfield, who states that our grievances will be discussed at the next appropriate meeting to be held in June, 1984.

We have also had acknowledgements from Mrs. Margaret Thatcher (Prime Minister) and Mr. Cadman South Oxfordshire District Council. You will of course be kept informed of further letters or meetings.

Can I reiterate that when paying your rates into the special account please make cheques payable to:- BOYD/SHEPHERD/HUTTON/NORTON.

People in Church Road and Henley Road can pay their rates any evening to Mike Norton and residents of Kiln Mobile Home Park to Janet Shepherd on a Friday between 6.15 and 8.l5pm. Receipts will be given for all payments received.

Although the police know who the offender is it appears (or so they say), that due to his age there is very little they can do. Does this mean that this pervert can carry on this behaviour at his leisure?

Although I am a great believer in law and order I think this is a case where we the male villagers (and a great many know who this character is) would be justified in giving him a thrashing if he returns to our village.

Quite often the offenders when spoken to by the police will remove their offending rubbish but it is up to you to help them.

I have an office in the city centre and within 400 yds of the Town Hall, but it sometimes takes over 48 hrs to contact the right person you wish to speak to, this problem does not seem to occur with the South Oxfordshire District Council. If Oxford City is an example of Local Government efficiency, let's hope for all our sakes we stay out of the City.

The question of a new street light outside the Village Hall and another on the road to the fly-over bridge were discussed. The latter would cost over £1,000. Further consultation with the Electricity Board will take place at the next meeting.

New equipment for the Recreation Ground is also under consideration. Any ideas for suitable items, or offers to help build them would be much appreciated.

The City of Oxford has submitted a plan to the Boundary Commission for the proposed extension of its boundaries. This includes the whole of the parishes of Littlemore and Sandford, as well as many others. The Parish Council is unanimously against any such take over of Sandford by the City, and during the week 9th - 17th June, 1984, a member of the Parish Council will call on you to ask your views on the matter. We hope that a large number of signatures against the proposal will strengthen our case in opposing it.

We have to put our views to South Oxfordshire District Council by the 30th June. The next Parish Council meeting will be on 18th June, and we hope that anyone wanting to ask questions or put their views will come to that meeting.

A brief list of reasons given by the City for taking over an area, and our comments on them are the following:-

a.

Built-up areas should be included, or areas to be built up in the next ten years. This argument could apply to some of the Greater Leys Estate to be built partly in Sandford Parish. This area could be considered separately from that part of the Parish already built.

b.

Areas where different administration adjoining causes irritation and inefficiency. Some friction is always bound to occur in a fringe area. Moving the boundary further out will not eliminate this. The City maintains that Local Government would be more efficient if they could take over the Fringe Area, because we would then be represented on the City Council and they would not have to negotiate with South Oxfordshire District Council.

THIS IS OUR MAIN REASON FOR NOT WANTING TO BE IN THE CITY.

The City plan states that villages could retain their Parish Councils. This is legally impossible, and any such Council would have no power whatever. Representation of the village would be in the hands of 1 Councillor representing Littlemore and Sandford on the City Council. Election of such a Councillor would surely be on a party political lines, which does not ensure good representation of our needs. It is only necessary to read press reports of City Council debates to understand that.

CRITERIA FOR CHANGE OF A BOUNDARY AREA.

1. That change should reflect the pattern of Community Life.

2. It should improve the effectiveness of Local Government.

The first argument does not hold as Sandford is Not an urban community but rural, and in the interim Green Belt, which it does not want to see eroded. The city argues that because many inhabitants of Sandford work and shop in Oxford and some have their names on Oxford housing lists we are a suburban community which would benefit from their experience of environmental 'improvement'. This argument would be laughable if it did not show the total lack of understanding of village life and wishes among those who would like to administer our daily lives for us.

The second argument is based partly on the question of fringe area friction, discussed above, partly on the question of distance from local government offices. Sandford lies midway between South Oxfordshire District Council and Oxford City headquarters. Access to either is almost equally difficult.

FINALLY.
It is nowhere mentioned that City rates are substantially higher than those in South Oxfordshire District Council.

Please give these points your consideration before we visit you for your answer to the referendum.

Elizabeth Burra.

I have an idea that:-

1. Will help to increase the size of the 'Sandford Link'.

2. Will create a local interest concerning the 6th June D-Day Anniversary.

I am sure that I'm not the only person in Sandford that was actually involved in D-Day and could tell us about incidents that happened to them if they were interviewed by your reporters and a recording made.

Before the interview is published, it would be wise to have the stories vetted by the Services Security.

An ideal place to start would be the local British Legion, also invite readers to write to you telling their stories in their own words and versions.

I strongly recommend the reporter and recording version because so many people can recall an incident but find it not so easy to put down on paper. I for one can recall my D-Day experience, also an incident at the YALTA Conference and how we crossed the RHINE at NIJMAGEN.

My unit consisted of myself in charge of 6 airmen, cooks, one driver and one 3 ton lorry, loaded with compo rations, petrol and water. For 4 days our unit was one of several of an advance party of RAF personnel whose job was to take over an airfield as soon as the bomb disposal squad had cleared it.

Our unit with about 80 personnel, 1 Squadron Leader, 1 Flight Lietenant, 1 Flying Officer, 1 Warrant Officer, Fitters, Engineers and Ground Staff.

We received orders to board our lorries and form a convoy, radio silence was the order of the day.

We arrived at a dock and drove on to a boat, (A landing craft, which was the shell of a boat which could drop the front and rear section and allow vehicles to drive on or off at each end). when it was full we set sail. After several hours we pulled onto a shingle beach the front end dropped down, we walked off followed by the lorries. We moved inland for about 1/4 of a mile and then laid low for about 3 days. Later we found out we had landed at BLANKENBURG and it was D+8.

From BLANKENBURG we progressed from airfield to airfield and eventually reached the outskirts of the River Rhine at NYMAGEN.

When we received the okay by the army bomb disposal unit we were told to empty our lorries, each man was to carry his own kitbag and a can of water or petrol or a box of camp rations, across the bridge when instructed.

The lorry driver was instructed to drive over the bridge in first gear with his door open and be ready to jump out and jump to safety when the order was given. Only a single track was safe and a small tight load at a time. Eventually we were all across safely and reformed.

We, 122 FSP were the first RAF personnel to cross into Germany at NYMAGEN.

We then proceeded to RAF GUTTERSLOGH, and beyond one day we were told to halt, (that day we saw Russian Soldiers) and return to RAF GUTTERSLOGH, where we stayed for some time.

Our first billet was the bombed out guard room, later into barrack rooms. For weeks and weeks we had slept and eaten in or underneath our lorry and a roof over our heads was luxury.

Later on we moved back to MUNSTER North West Phalia to an ex German Airfield (HANDORF), where we were billeted in a bombed out hotel. On the Airfield were the remains of part of the German Air Force Planes and equipment.

There we stayed while peace was declared and later on our demob. Luckily, my unit and myself had survived the war without injury. We all parted the best of friends and a stone less in weight.

Mr. W.E. Richardson, 11 The Crescent, OXFORD.

To all our friends,

Just a short note thanking you all very much for your kindness and your support to us both during the past weeks.

Hopefully one day we will be able to thank you all in person.

Once again thank you all.

Yours Stuart & Yvonne Hutton.

Thank you for the lovely flowers and generous donation.

My husband and I would like to say a big thank you to all the residents of Kiln Park and Sandford Village, for their kindness and most lovely flowers received in the loss of our grandson Jamie, also their kindness and thoughts for Yvonne and Stuart.

Thank you

Shirley & Gordon Street (Yvonnes Mum).

Sandford House was for many generations home of the Martin Family, who were mainly merchants and cornfactors, however, it appears that in years when trade was bad, the family let their house in Sandford to live in Wantage. On November 28th 1767, this interesting notice appeared in the Oxford Newspaper:-

'Mr. Sutton begs leave to inform the public that he has taken Sandford House, ready furnished situate three miles from Oxford on the Henley Road, which is opened for the receptions of patients, where such persons as choose to be inoculated, are requested to apply'.

The inoculations referred to in the advertisement were of course against smallpox which was virtually endemic in the country in the eighteenth century, accounting for over 10% of all deaths. Mr. Sutton appears to have been the major operator of a form of inoculations introduced into England from Turkey by Lady Mary Wortley Montague, in 1721, but this method was rather dangerous in itself, as the serum contained the smallpox virus but it was either this or risk death or disfigurement.

Sutton claimed a death rate of no more than one in five thousand, but rumour was rife that Sutton had lost many patients. To combat these reports he offered one hundred guineas 'to any person who could prove he had ever lost a single patient by inoculation' - but rumour was contained along another line by his detractors and again Sutton replied in the newspaper 'Mr. Sutton denies rumours that patients at Sandford House are infected with the itch'. For two years Sutton continued with his inoculations in the village and in 1769 he advertised that he would 'Stop inoculating at Sandford at the end of May, and finally on June 21st 1769, the last episode in the annals of Sandford House appeared:-

'Sale by Wyatt of furniture at Mr. Suttons mansion - bed guaranteed free - from smallpox'. A final footnote must be made. The Parish Register records no deaths from smallpox over this period, so maybe Sutton, the pioneer, was correct in his claim that he had not lost a single patient by inoculation.

[Kingcup - more info]

Sift the flour with a pinch of salt into a mixing bowl. Drop in the butter and cut it into the flour until the small pieces are well coated. Then rub them in with the fingertips until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar, mix egg yolk with the water, tip into the fat and flour and mix quickly together with a palette knife to a firm dough. Set aside to chill.
After the pastry has chilled for about 15 minutes line the pastry on to the small tartlet tins and bake blind for about 8 minutes in an oven at 375F or Gas Mark 5. Allow to cool.

Remove the stalks from the strawberries and keep on one side. Warm the redcurrant jelly glaze but do not boil. Brush the cases with the jelly arrange the strawberries in the cases and brush again with the glaze. The amount of glaze should be generous - sufficient to fill the pastry cases and so hold strawberries firmly in place.

Prepare the pastry. Sift the flour and salt and sugar, rub in fats, and mix to a firm dough with the vinegar and milk. Roll out with a rolling pin to a round the same size as the flan ring, and fit the pastry into the ring's base. Prick lightly and set aside.

Set the oven at 375F or Gas Mark 5. Beat the cheese until smooth, add the sugar, egg yolks and cream. Turn the mixture into the ring and bake in the pre-set oven for 20-30 minutes until firm to the touch.

In the meantime cut the skin from the pineapple (if a fresh one is used). Dust the pineapple with sugar. When the curd cake is cooked, leave it until cold, and then arrange the pineapple on the top, slightly overlapping the slices. Serve with a bowl of lightly whipped cream.

PUBLISHED BY: Sandford Parish Council.