I recently undertook a research visit to the US National Archives in Washington DC. Whilst I was there I discovered this document – a target photograph of the airfield at Witney taken by the Luftwaffe in August 1940. It’s certainly strange seeing somewhere so intensely familiar annotated and analysed by distant Nazi’s planning its potential destruction. Thank heavens they never properly …
Burford’s History of Murder, Mistresses and Misbehaviour
“Rich in unspoiled treasures of the past, its long street, which leaves the Windrush rippling among the willows and mounts the steep hill, has something rare to show us at every step.” That quote, featured in the section on Burford in Arthur Mee’s 1931 book The King’s England, goes a long way to explain why the town has become such …
Ghost Special: Witney’s Murders, Suicides and Vanishing Hitchhikers
Something fairly unique to Britain is our strangely unquestioning acceptance that places are haunted. Even people who aren’t superstitious in the slightest occasionally mention that their local pub toilet is frequented by a ghost, or that they think an angry poltergeist lives in their shed. It’s hard to know how seriously you’re supposed to take ghost stories, but I’ve decided it doesn’t actually matter …
Witney’s History of War, Murder and Drunkenness
You’d be forgiven for imagining that Witney, David Cameron’s very own comfortable market town, has always been sleepy and dull. Didn’t it just make blankets for centuries and then become a pretty place for middle-class women to shop? Well yes, but it’s also had its fair share of drama. Here are five historical examples of Witney’s actually being totally screwed up. …