Thimbleberry BOM1, Strings, Church Green

It’s that birthday time of year again. Liver garlic and cheese cake topped with chew candles.
Miss oh so cool birthday girl Angel was 11.
I think Precious was hinting about where she’d like to put the cake to go when we’d finished singing.


They were all nicely behaved.

The hound’s eyes are on stalks.
I’ve signed up to Thimbleberry’s Village Green BOM (“Dawn” middle colourway on the left in the booklet). These trees are this month’s blocks. Link is to the Fat Quarter Shop where you can still sign up to it.
Remember this? Well it is another finish for Stephanie’s No Strings Attached Challenge. I was glad to have this done as it waited patiently and I felt sorry for it. There’s something almost Klimt about it I think.
The table centre and 6 cup mats were all finished too from the left overs of the string challenge table topper. There were far to many left over bits for me not to do something with. I wont class them as a string though as they really are the tiny leftovers of the left overs and not really strings.
Now let me take you to Church Green Witney. Brief history of the town here. We’ll go up the left hand side as you face the church at the top of the hill.
This building is called The Hermitage. I had a friend who lived there with her husband who worked in Upper Heyford Air Force Base. She has a sweet Yorkshire Terrier pup called Merlin. Sadly we lost touch with one another but I still have the tapes where we were whispering trying to record Simon and Garfunkel.
The Fleece Hotel scroll down a little in the link.
Buildings nestle against one another facing The Green.

I miss seeing this sort of stone with stone slates covering the roofs. The Roman villas in the area had similar stone slates so I wonder just how far back in history they were used.
Apart from the cars this scene hasn’t changed in 100s of years,
Behind the Manor House some archaeology took place which discovered the remains of a Bishop’s Palace (Medieval). You can go and see it- more info here. I think finding it surprised a lot of people.
With St Mary’s Church behind us we’ll walk down the other side towards the High Street. I think Church Green would’ve been a good place for a Roman Fort to have been built, but none has been discovered…yet!
Henry Box School founded 1660
This avenue leading to the school could almost be in France.
Some of these houses are now offices.
and shops.
Witney Buttercross. The clock was added in 1683. The outer pillars and roof from 1606, but the central pillar on the steps is likely to be a Medieval cross or shrine. I can see it being part of a Medieval processional way for a statue of the Virgin Mary coming up through what was then a tree lined avenue through the town. (Elms which were victims of Dutch Elm Disease when I was a child).
Marlborough Hotel I’ll now share the Market Square which featured in Miss Read books. Turning anticlockwise.
View up toward St Mary’s Church and Church Green.
The cafe with flats above. These trees are replantings of those old Elms. For those who like Thrush Green this is the site of the Fushia Bush.
The Corn Exchange Building 1863 to the left.
It’s now used as a cinema.
The market is held weekly. When I was little all the shops closed for the afternoon on that day so everyone could go to the market. That used to be how important markets were to areas before motor cars made getting hold of exotic (non locally made items) so easy. Now though many markets struggle to survive, and local farmers are being encouraged to hold “Farmer’s Markets” locally throughout the UK each month so that local people can buy local produce at a fair price to the grower. It’s a good way to reduce the carbon footprint of what you eat but more importantly to help your local area thrive in these harder times.

Looking down the hill towards the other shops. The tree to the right replaces an Elm I was so fond of when my mother went into the shop on the right. It has a gnarled root system with all sorts of nooks you could imagine Enid Blyton critters living in. I cried when I saw it’s sawn stump and demanded to know why from my parents. The whole road felt empty and bare without the trees. I am glad these ones are beginning to mature for future generations.
And across the road again to back where we started.
The back of a couple of the shops. This area is now paved but it was lined in riverwashed pebbles when I was little so it was bumpy and fun to walk on.
I saw this taxi Tracy and thought of you. 🙂
When I was little this view was impossible. The huge Elms blocked the buildings from sight. The trunks were so huge and the foliage so dense. I didn’t really know what these buildings looked like.
This though was my favourite building Denton’s Toy and Bicycle shop. I bought all my farmyard animal models from there- 1 or 2 each week. It was the highlight of the week to spend ages looking and looking before making the decision about what my farm needed the most. Decision making as an adult is far less fun.

Next time Wood Green -famous as Thrush Green by Miss Read, and whatever else I have made and can share.


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