Jamie Carter

There are no Autism services here, so I am starting my own My dad, Mark, has always lived in Watlington, and his dad, Charlie, before him. My dad met my mum on the Isle of Wight when he was on a cricket tour. I was born on the island and we moved here when I…

Richard Harris

My association with the Primary School has meant a lot to me “My birth was registered in Hatfield – my mother was taken off a train there as I had started to appear. It was 1943, and I spent my first two years in Felixstowe where my father was stationed. After that I was brought…

Kitty Tait

The shops in Watlington have been really supportive “I was born in Shepherds Bush in London in 2004 and when I was three, my brother was five and my sister was seven, our family decided to get out of the city and move to the country. My grandparents live in Wallingford, not far away, and…

Jenny Wilkinson

“I want to get a big flame gun!” I was born in Toronto, Canada. I was a war baby. My mother was from a well-to-do Irish-Canadian family, and my father was a doctor with the RAF. He went back to England, and I was born. My mother and I came over when I was 13…

Mike Young

We’re sheltered from the big wide world “My dad was in the Army and he met my mother when he was stationed up north. I was born in Lancashire in 1946. My dad was from Watlington originally. He applied for a job as clerical staff at RAF Benson, and we moved to Chalgrove in 1953,…

Gillian Cottle

People look out for each other in Watlington “The M40 cutting is important to me. The first time I drove through it, my son Charles was 5 weeks old and weighed just 5 lb. It was like coming into a different world, with Oxfordshire laid out in front of you. We were moving to Chalgrove…

Chrissie Bell

I love the Chiltern Hills and the woods “I was born on a farm in South Africa, and when I was 13, I went to boarding school in Bethlehem, 50 miles away from home. After school, I worked in a bank, got married, had two children, got divorced and life changed! I had a friend,…