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John told a glorious story about visiting Lewis in the Nuffield. Attached to a couple of drips, Lewis apparently remarked: ‘You see, John: like many of my predecessors as a Fellow of Magdalen, I am a two-bottle man.’
I forgot I wrote this some time ago. Very happy memories of those student days. I subsequently went on to train teachers for 30 years thanks to the grounding received at Westminster. Fortunately some fellow students remain in contact some 60 years on.
Thank you so much for this fascinating history.
Interesting photograph of the local preachers, it is great to be able to put a face to a name. I have the following information on J Faggetter.
John Faggetter (1830 to 1912) was born in Ripley, Surrey. He is recorded as a Shoemaker aged 20 in the 1851 census. He moved to Lower Heyford, Oxfordshire where he met a local girl Margaret Andrews (1839-1898) and married her (1861). They lived in Freehold Street and John worked on the GWR Railway for most of his life as a signalman, porter and later a railway pensioner. A house in the village was registered as a Methodist meeting place in 1804 and John would have witnessed the new chapel built in 1906. He was recorded as a Local Preacher on the Oxford Circuit of the United Methodist Church. Sons emigrated, George to Canada in 1888 and John Eli to USA in 1907; the vast majority of those with the Faggetter surname in these countries are descended from these two sons. Daughter Catherine married James Charter, and when widowed he married her sister Sarah. In about 1911 John joined Sarah and James in Monkton Combe, Somerset, where John finally died in 1912 aged 81.
I can confirm that the organ is still in place at Lime Walk. Your assistance in helping to move it, when renovations to the floor were needed, is still remembered and much appreciated!
Very happy memories for us too, Michael. We loved sharing our lives with our extended family of students and young people. It’s good, after all this time, to hear from so many that they are fully involved in their local Methodist Churches. God bless Philip & Sue
Thank you so much for your comments. We couldn’t agree more and hope that these recordings will bring some comfort to those who knew and loved Sylvia.
Thank you so much for sharing this memory. There is a striking parallel with the night of 24th May 1738 when John Wesley, whom John Walsh so admired, went ‘very reluctantly’ to a meeting in Aldersgate Street. On both occasions, one might say, the rest is history!
How delightful to hear John Walsh talking so incisively and eloquently. He told me several years ago at a Jesus College lunch about the dark-and-stormy-night when Lewis interrupted him while working in his College room. Lewis insisted that Walsh drop what he was doing and go with him to the Eagle and Child to meet with “a few chaps” to talk about their writing. Lewis pulled up Walsh by his collar and marched him out to what became The Inklings.
So lovely to hear Sylvia talking about her early life and later her time in Oxford and Wesley Memorial. She will be very sadly missed by all.
As far as I can tell the organ (made by Martin of Oxford) from this church is the one now at Lime Walk Methodist Church although the action was converted to direct electric at some point. In recent years when the floor under it needed replacing I guided some members of the church in moving it away from the rotting floor and then re-instating it without the strange cladding it had for many years thus revealing its original façade. It seems the organ had been rebuilt at some point either before or during its time in Walton Street.
Thanks very much for sharing this Brian. It is great that the organ has a new life and that a plaque on it, records its story! I hope you get back to playing it again soon.
Together with some volunteers from Oddington I removed the organ from Islip Methodist Church and after massively rebuilding the workings of it with another windchest and new action components I set it up at St Andrew’s Oddington where I play it normally twice a month (The Covid lockdown and repairs to Oddington Church at the moment in 2020 are preventing this)
Thanks for identifying your parents in this photo, Philip. Your father made an incredible contribution to the life of Wesley Memorial Church especially in his profession as an architect. The Early’s, as you know, were a leading family in the Witney’s High Street Methodist Church as well as the wider Church. Please feel free to share other memories.
The woman to the left of Reg Kissack is my mother, Eleanor Beard (neé Early). My father Geoffrey Beard is on the left-hand end of the back row.
Excellent website, particularly about People and particularly about those who lost their lives in war at this time of remembrance
Fascinating and very moving to read these accounts of the lives behind the names on the memorial plaques. Surely “his body was not recovered” is the saddest phrase demonstrating the waste of human life during war. Very thought provoking, thank you.
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