Long Wittenham, Oxfordshire

Diana Wright remembers ….

We moved into No. 14 Westfield Road on 31st August 1975.  The houses were about two thirds occupied by then.  Bob and Barbara Edwards had moved into No. 13 one week prior to us, only moving to Durham in 2020 to be nearer to their son.  How we miss them.

The builder did plant a number of trees, but sadly in the hot summers of 1975 and 1976, many perished.  There were some garden walls but no dividing fences and no gates, just a couple of lengths of wire, between the neighbouring houses and the ground left bare.

We could choose the colour of our bathroom suite, but everything else we had to provide for ourselves: white goods, carpets, and curtains, lawns etc.  When the furniture van arrived we couldn’t get access into our house until after 1pm. and so the removal men started emptying our goods onto the dry earth of our garden.

Eventually all was resolved and my husband John and I and our three young children were able to sleep in our beds that night.  There was central heating provided by an awful oil boiler situated in the hall.  One small boiler for water and another for heating.  After we had wall insulation and double glazing this became far too hot.  The children christened it the fiery dragon as it made a horrible roaring noise if it wasn’t lit quite right, and let off a lot of smelly fumes.  It was a joy when gas finally came to the village and we were able to install proper central heating.

This was photo was taken before we moved in, about February 1975.  It shows the garden that John had to use a pick axe on, to break up the hard ground.

Mercy Ward and the vicar called to welcome us to the village.  Our daughter Jennifer, who was just ten years old started at the village school.  Mr Sutton was headmaster at the time. She spent one year at the village school before heading off to Wallingford.

Eventually we got to know our neighbours, and as most of us had pre-school children, we formed a baby-sitting circle, which ran successfully for many years.

When our son James turned three years he went along to the playgroup.  I was on the mother helper list and eventually became one of the leaders.  We had been living here for about three months, when the company John worked for made him redundant.  A horrible time: no job, no car and three young children.  John was fortunate in procuring a teaching post in London, but we still had no transport and so he cycled to Didcot for the train, cycling again the few miles to his college in Wandsworth.  He did this for three years before starting at Abingdon College.

We managed by bus and I was grateful to Chris May giving me lifts into town for shopping.  After five years we finally managed to buy Barry and Isobel Henderson’s old car.

14 Westfield Road in Spring 2026