The Langford Family

James Alfred Langley b 1866, he married in 1888 Mary Ann Crooke b 1871. They lived at Passengers Farm and then from 1916 at Vine Cottage Broad Street.  James worked for GBC on a steam roller and for Friary Meux delivering barrels of beer.  Mary started an agricultural business in 1912.  Theu had ten children, six boys & six girls.

The Lee Family.

Refer to the Yellow Book for more information.  In the 1853 Muster to arms, John Lee was a Billman, William was an Archer.

 

General Sir Peter John Hall  Leng  MC  MBE

Born in 1925 in Sunderland, Peter was awarded the Military Cross in the field in 1945 and was later Director of Military Operations at the MOD.   His MC was for gallantry in a battle to cut off the town of Visselhovede near Bremen during the second world war.  He was wounded in May that year during the advance on Hamburg. After the war he was appointed  Military Assistant to the chief of defences staff, Earl Mountbatten of Burma.  In 1973 he was Commander of Land Forces Northern Ireland and then worked for the MOD as Deputy Military Secretary.

Peter & his wife Virginia lived at Nightingale Old Farm c 1974.

 

 

Frederick Arthur Lilly (Michael ) b 1917 & Rosemary Millicent Lilly nee Howards b 1917

They both moved into Frog Grove House in 1953, living there for 46 years.  Michael served as a squadron leader in the RAF during the war.  He joined the BBC after the war worked his way to becoming deputy managing director, external broadcasting. He retired in 1979, enjoying the  garden at Frog Grove.

Rosemary was born in Seale and served in the FANYs as well as being in the SOE. The SOE being a covert agency that conducted espionage and sabotage in Nazi-occupied Europe and Asia during the Second World War.  She worked with the resistance in the Grenoble region. (She admitted to riding a motorbike and being an excellent shot with a carbide rifle.)  She was chairman of the Parish Council in the 1970s and school governor. She was also a founder member of the Wood Street Village Association.

Ernest Limming.

Ernest lived on the village green & came to work at Drummonds in 1910 to take charge of their milling & gear cutting departments. There were no bus services then, one had to walk, cycle or pony & trap.  Later, Mr Crouch started a small bus service.

Village entertainments were held in the olde wooden room, a barn behind Inholms Farm, where  Ernest played the piano.  His other interests included chess and astronomy.  Initially with cylindrical cardboard tubes with a simple lens of 1m focus.  Later he had a six and a half inch clock driven Cooke equatorial telescope of 10 feet focal length with two astra cameras, exposures lasting up to two hours.

 

William & Mary Lipscombe.

William was the son of Robert Lipscombe who lived in the Worplesdon area in 1805.  William married Rhoda Walker in 1830 & they lived in Broad Street Common, but unfortunately, she died aged 25.   In 1837 William married Mary Hurt.  They lived at Pitch Place where their daughter, Maria,  was born in 1839.   In 1861, they lived with seven children at Backside Common, where William was a farmer with two acres of land.

William & Mary’s son was also called William b 1845  & their daughter in law, Emily.  They were married in 1870 where William was a Corn Chandler’s Carter ( transporting Corn etc by horse & cart for a corn dealer).  They lived in 1861 at Backside Common, then 1872 at Broad Street and later at Stoughton Road.  Their children were Annie 1872,  William 1887, Henry 1879, Elizabeth 1881, Beatrice 1889 & Ellen 1890.   There are recorded nineteen Lipscombe’s attending Wood Street School between 1879 and 1904.

The Luxfords.

Annie (Winnie)  with children, L to R  Lucy b 1892, Francis b1890, Sidney b 1882, Emily b 1896,  Gladys b1898, Herbert b 1889.

 

 

 

Valerie Moody nee Lofting.

Valerie b 1940, lived in Wood Street Cottages on the village green.   Her grandmother was Gladys Charlton who they lived with.  She recalls June, daughter of Mr & Mrs Stovold, marrying a Canadian Soldier & moving to Canada,  She was a bridesmaid at Chapel House Farm ( Mullards Farm)., Pinks Hill.  The Canadian soldiers who lived on the Common during the war gave her & the children of the village, maple syrup etc.

The Loveland Family.

 Refer to the Yellow Book for more information.  One of the oldest families in Wood Street, lived & farmed at Hollybush farm for over three hundred years. The last Loveland was James, who pastured sheep on Pinks Hill until at least 1881.

 

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