The Gould family at Fulwell

By Dorothy Gould, June 2000

Dorothy Gould and her family lived opposite John and Phyllis Parsons at Fulwell. Before Dot married her maiden name was Starling, with brothers Tom, Morris, Harry (all fought in WW2) and sister Lil. Her father, Jack had fought in the Great War in the regular army and her mother was named Alice Mary. The family moved from Norfolk to Fulwell in the 1930's and worked in and around the Ditchley and Kiddington estates.
Dorothy married Herbert Gould soon after at Chipping Norton and had five children - Phyllis (named after Mrs Parsons who was her Godmother), Ronald, Anne, Gordon and Janet.
Dorothy and Phyllis became close friends after John and Herbert went off to war and helped out whenever possible...below is an account of what is remembered today.

I remember sitting on the old village water pump when Mr. Benfield came rushing out to tell us all that something important was about to come on the wireless - It was the announcement of the outbreak of the Second World War. I will always remember the scene with a neat log pile and the fattened Pig out the front of Mr. Benfields house. Not long after this announcement the home guard was setup and I recall a great false alarm when everyone thought the Germans were invading. The villagers had to guard Ditchley whenever Winston Churchill was there and as the sun rose in the mornings the shouts from the men outside came through - They used to call the wives rather than the men to get them up! They used to shout 'DOT! DOT! DOT!' I once turned round to Herbert and said 'The men are calling you - get up!' The reply came back 'Its you they are calling for!!' Norman Bull, another local had his windows smashed one morning as the men had no joy in waking him!

Mrs Shearer was a great help to both Phyllis and myself and we took turns in sharing the workload. We all mucked in if anyone was ill and took turns in looking after the children. I remember Mrs Shearer falling ill once with a stomach problem - I think it was something to do with broad beans! Money was very tight back then and we were all very worried about our brave men fighting for us in a foreign land. Phyllis and I were both members of the Mothers Union for a little extra support. 

I remember being so excited when we took delivery of our very own Wireless about half way through the war, it was massive and took a wet battery costing 6 old pence to have it re-charged, I was forever turning the thing upside down to fix it!

Local characters were Taplins the bakers (bread was delivered by a chap called Mr. Busby) and Mr. Capes (from Adams stores the grocers). Mr. Capes was ever so good to us all and if my Grocery bill went over 10 shillings he always gave me the difference back - also at Christmas he used to give us a free Christmas cake.

We always used to walk down to Enstone to pick up the children from school and to do any additional shopping at Adams stores. On each Sunday we took the children to Church in Spelsbury and then onto Ditchley in the afternoons for Sunday school. Sometimes I looked after additional children from London (I do not know how I squeezed them all in!) and I would buy a leg of lamb from their families for 5 shillings. The children used to love the trip to Spelsbury as we always met the Durham Light Infantry out on patrol who would give them sweets and food.
Bombs and weapons were never far away as they lined the ditches and paths on our travels waiting to be shipped abroad.

I was presented a hat by Lady Astor at Ditchley on an open day visit, she was a relative of Ronald Tree, the owner of Ditchley mansion and the estates at the time. Mr. and Mrs Tree were divorced soon after the war, I recall she was very kind to the workers and their kin.

The war ended in 1945 and I can remember the men coming back home. There was no great celebration or party, Fulwell was not that kind of place, there was just an enormous sense of relief!

At the top end of Fulwell (at a place called Hennel) there is now an old derelict house which stands with a small barn and old farm machinery, during the war this was occupied and when we left Fulwell in 1947 I didn't want to take my old pram with me so I instructed Herbert to tell the lady up at Hennel (Mrs Crapper) that if she wanted it and would collect it then it was hers, and so she did!

Some of the names I remember from Fulwell were Mr. Warland, the head carpenter at Ditchley who I think John Parsons worked under before the outbreak of war, Norman Bull, Harry and Rosie Benfield, The Wakefield's, The Cross's, Savings, Jones, Widows and Taffy Hughes, the old farm manager at Fulwell.

I now live in Wardington, near Banbury with my second husband Harry and we have 14 grandchildren and additional great grandchildren so we still keep nice and busy.

Dorothy Gould – 17^th June 2000.