Tag: Witney Town Hall

In search of Narrow Hill

Witney Town Hall

We left The Angel Inn refreshed and eager to see as much of Witney as we could in the short time we had. We’d seen the houses of Corn Street where Alice was born and we’d seen the church where several of my ancestors were baptised, married and buried, even if we hadn’t found any graves. I knew that my great great grandfather, Thomas Haley junior had moved from Corn Street to Woodgreen by 1861, but the only address on the census was Private House. Ten years on, he’d moved to West End but there was no address I could trace. By 1881 though, he was living on Narrow Hill and, due to a stroke of luck, I knew exactly which house he’d lived in. After a quick stop to take a closer look at the Town Hall, we set off to find it.

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Before the beginning

Witney Oxfordshire

My Grandfather, Thomas John Haley, the man who inspired my novel, Plagued, was born in Witney, Oxfordshire on 27 October 1887. It was the year of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. His father, Elijah, was born in 1862, in Hailey, just outside Witney, and was a woollen blanket weaver. His mother, Esther Brodrick, was born in Filkins, about 9 miles away, in 1865. Thomas was their first child. I knew all this from research into my family tree, and I’d heard Pappy talk about Witney, but I’d never been there. So, on 26 September 2021, with the book in the process of being published, Commando and I went on a little trip into the past. It felt like a trip I should have made long ago.

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