Welcome to The Wychwood On-Line

This is the site for The Wychwood Magazine, serving the communities of
The Wychwoods in the Cotswolds since 1980!
The magazine is published every two months, by the community for the community and our friends, with 68 pages, packed with features, articles, news and short stories
about life in the Wychwoods.

Latest issue: April – May 2021

Editorial

Perhaps, finally, hopefully, surely – yes, perhaps we can begin to look ahead as well as backwards in the Wychwood Magazine after a dreadful period.

Looking back, the Wychwood Post carried out an interview with two of our local GPs so the changes and successes of our surgery can encourage readers.  Travel during the pandemic was difficult to say the least but articles about essential travel from both New Zealand and Nigeria speak of perseverance through the many challenges.

Looking further back, John Naish reflects on his years as the Wychwoods’ post master while Alan Vickers looks at the earlier years of Henry Longshaw in an article that brings many reminders of a society that is fast disappearing into the rear view mirror.

But no self-respecting local magazine would only look backwards.  This is a time of hope, hope for the future so Tony Lewis encourages us to get planting in the garden, David Knight tells readers of the joys of cycling along the many bridleways and woodland tracks, and there’s an attractive walk in the Evenlode valley.

We’ve not finished.  Katherine Bott, known to many as a voice of classic FM, amuses readers with a few tales from her life and Eve West rounds off this issue with a warming tale of accommodating a new cat into the household. The Wychwood Magazine is looking forward to a brighter future for its readers.

Bob Forster, Editor

List of articles

• An evening with Wychwood Surgery
  On Wednesday 3rd February, Amanda Clarke and Alan Kennedy interviewed Dr Katrina Darker and Dr Nina Brown about their experience of being a GP during ...
• Cycling in a pandemic
  It’s been almost a year since we heard the words ‘stay at home’ with restrictions imposed on all of us. We were only allowed to ...
• What’s new at the Wychwood Project?
  Do you have a favourite place, plant, or walk in the Wychwood area? Artists in residence at the Wychwood Project, Nimmi Naidoo and Flora Gregory, ...
• Tony’s going to seed!
  In the dark months of winter, it’s good to look forward, to plan, to imagine the warmth of spring, the burgeoning plant growth, the sounds ...
• Rock Choir continues through lockdown
  The Wychcraft Rock and Pop Choir were preparing for their biggest gig (a concert of three choirs, to raise funds for St Marys Church in ...
• The Tale of Two Trees
  From The Wychwood October/November 1981 Dr Gordon Scott At the Five Ways in Shipton there is a lime tree with a seat underneath, planted by the Parish ...
• School remember assembly, but not as you it!
  ‘Open the Book’ is in essence a presentation of Bible stories during assemblies or collective worship in school. Each presentation last about 15 minutes, starting ...
• New life at Shipton church
  External scaffolding at the north and south of St Mary’s church has been erected to allow repairs to be done on the outside roof. Special ...
• My Wychwood experience
  In my final year of high school, I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do when I graduated. There was a possibility of ...
• Fibre broadband for the Wychwoods?
  The UK Government is currently rolling out a scheme to improve rural internet connections, by using fibre-optic cables to connect each individual property to the ...
• From Nigeria to Shipton …during lockdown
  Although hailing from ‘up north’ and having spent most of our working lives overseas, Anna and I already felt the Wychwoods to be our spiritual ...
• Jessie Rachel Rainbow nee Hicks
  02/09/1931-05/12/2020 Born in Westcote near Stow-on-the-Wold she often spoke, with a cheeky glint in her eyes, of the many antics she and her two younger siblings ...
• Portraits for NHS heroes
  This piece was written by Karen Lord, an established local artist. At the beginning of the first lockdown, I heard on the evening news of an ...
• Stumped for something to do?
  Here at Shipton under Wychwood Cricket Club, we do not just offer the chance to learn and play cricket from the age of 7 upwards. ...
• A family walk in the Evenlode valley
  The river Evenlode is perhaps overshadowed by its neighbour, the Windrush, but for the appreciative walker, it has so much to offer.  This walking route ...
• Wychwoods Tennis Club 2021
  In the year 2020 we were to celebrate the club’s 70th Anniversary with plenty of events lined up to mark the success of the club, ...
• Memories of Shipton one hundred years ago
  Leslie Longshaw as a young man born 1911 in London and brought up by grandparents in Shipton. Died London 1990 The Wychwoods Local History Society website ...
• The Wychwood interview
  Michelle Moody owns and runs Cotswold Beauty Salon (previously known as The Beauty Room, Est. 2006) on Groves Yard in Milton under Wychwood. Tell us where ...
• Zebby Zebra – an introduction
  “I would like to introduce you to a friend who has given me great delight over the rather horrid previous year. He began appearing to ...
• Milton parish council
  … or the travails of a new clerk I wasn’t sure what to expect taking over as Parish Clerk.  Whilst I was confident my background would ...
• Shipton parish council news
  Unfortunately, the pandemic has put paid to our plans for the Annual Parish Meeting again this year. Ordinarily this is where you are all invited ...
• My Post Office history
  When I was a boy in the 1940/50s, every village seemed to have a post office and shop, all with slightly different offerings. My mother ...
• Goings on at Bruern
  It has been quite a year on the farm here at Bruern, with several new exciting projects underway. Whilst there is a lot of uncertainty ...
• Subscriptions
  Subscriptions for 2020/2021 were not collected because of the difficulties posed by the virus but we were very grateful for some generous donations in their ...
• Wychwood bowls club
  Bowlers made the best of the limitations of 2020 and did well to complete all our internal competitions. We are hoping for better things this ...
• Congratulations
  Milton’s Glyn and Sarah Allcock became grandparents on 5th December 2020.  Their daughter, Harriet, gave birth to Persephone Elizabeth who weighed in at 9lb 11oz.  ...
• Did you know …?
  The Day Centre is looking ahead to life post-lockdown.  Meetings have been held for the committee and the volunteers, under the leadership of the new ...
• Riddles
  Click here to reveal the answers. What English word retain the same pronunciation, even after you take away four of it’s five letters? What gets bigger every ...
• Disaster strikes again
  Do disasters always happen at the worst possible time?  Readers may recall from the last magazine that torrential rain totalling 34.8mm fell in the Wychwoods ...
• Adventures in music and radio
  Singer, broadcaster and Milton resident Catherine (Kate) Bott on her work/life/laughter balance. Curtain up: we’re in ancient Rome, where nobleman Ottone has been ordered to kill ...
• Oxfordshire’s blue plaques: Patrick Steptoe (1913-1988)
  This magazine has included articles about local blue plaques and the causes behind them – the recording studio in Chipping Norton and a plaque in ...
• The first time – or the cat sat on the mat, eventually
  It wasn’t our first time to have a cat. I’d grown up with cats and my husband and I had two cats before we had ...
• Thought for Easter
• The last of the snow and floodwater.
  A pictorial reminder.