Mr Stanley Everett remembers Chipping Norton in the early twentieth century, interviewed 1986

Mr Stanley Everett, born in 1909 was interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960' project. Here he remembers the pleasures of living in Chipping Norton in the early twentieth century.
Transcript

STANLEY: In the spring all the fruit would be in blossom and it was absolutely beautiful. The green growth of grapes which were only leaves at that stage, you could go up in a plane and look down on these patches of blossom, just like you can the tulips in Holland. You can look down on six acres of tulips or you can look down on six acres of peach trees in blossom or plums or whatever. It was a very pretty place and you know there was no pollution. The river was nice and clean in those days and you could do a fair amount of fishing. We used to get crabs, and general varieties of fish that were in the river at that stage, you wouldn't get much after you'd had a flood. But when the flood had subsided and gone down again the fish would come back. Somehow there was always a place where you could get a feed; you could get a feed of fish, you could go and shoot a rabbit. You were in this little village all on its own, there was no commerce or anything, no shops or whatever. But you know you could go for a walk right round the whole works. You knew everybody that was there.