"Come and Hear My Story!

Presentation and talk on the impact of WW1 on the families at Donkey Lane Community Orchard

8th November 2022. 7:30 pm at Chinnor Community Pavilion
Tickets £5 to cover costs.

Anyone who has attended the Chinnor Remembrance Day ceremony will be familiar with the Roll of Honour.

As part of the continuing social history research of Donkey Lane Community Orchard, we have tracked down the poignant stories of the sons of two families; the Howletts, Alfred and Aubrey who lived in one of the Orchard cottages and Frank Eggleton, the son of the owner of the land where the cottages stood, who, along with many other young men, left their village to serve their Country in the Great War and did not return.

On Tuesday 8th November, we would like to share these stories with you. Delving deep into war diaries and other War Office records we have discovered some of the key battles and lives of the soldiers on the Front.

Perhaps like us you are baffled by some of the language used in the descriptions of the war or maybe thought ‘how did they do that?’ We will try to answer a few of these things. For example; how did they transport 700 horses to Alexandria in 1914?

Ticket are £5 per person to cover costs, available at the Parish Office or by calling 07973 788339 or 07764 452777. Cash only please. Alternatively you can book tickets at Eventbrite. Please note booking fee applies.

Donkey Lane Community Orchard - INHABITANTS CENSUS 1861 – read all about it!!!

In 1861 it appears that only 4 of the Cottages in the Donkey Lane “Orchard” were occupied and the name of the Lane, in the Census, had reverted from “Guntrip Lane” back to “Hollans Lane”. One of the families missing was the Guntrips themselves which may be the reason why the lane changed its name back to “Hollans or Hollands”. John Guntrip had died in 1854 leaving wife Elizabeth. She was residing there in 1859 Tithe Amendment records but died that year and was buried on the 22nd February 1859. The Stratford family had vacated and also the Wades but the Howlett family had returned to the Lane.

The Howletts had rejoined the families who were there a decade earlier: the Marriotts, the Bishops and the Folleys.

In 1859 a Lucy Biggs had been residing but she had moved out before 1861 and had moved to live with a Jonah Britnell as a housekeeper in his house at Crowell Hill.

The returning Howletts were now represented by Maria Howlett, 3 children and a lodger Ann Styles. Two decades earlier she had lived in the Lane with her husband Edward, moving thence to a lower part of Chinnor and then to Wainhill. Edward died in 1858 and the widowed Maria moved back into Hollands Lane with her two daughters, Maria junior and Ruth along with grandchild Jane Maria. The girls are recorded as lacemakers but Maria, without a husband’s income, is designated a pauper claiming on the parish for support. A small amount of income would have been received as rental from lodger Ann Styles, also a lacemaker. The household was reduced in 1861 when daughter Ruth moved out upon marriage to James Smith a labourer from Longwick. Three years later they had a baby who they named Maria. The household was further reduced, in the same year, when granddaughter Jane Maria married James Munday. Some mystery surrounds who was Jane Maria’s mother. Born in 1842 she was not baptised until 1855 by her grandparents, Edward and Maria. Interestingly when Jane Maria married the Church Register revealed that her father was stated to be a Richard Jones, labourer.

Tragedy struck a year later in 1862 when Maria junior died aged a mere 45 and poor widowed Maria herself passed away in 1865, aged 73, leaving an empty cottage inviting new residents. READ MORE...

Apple Pressing at the Orchard

Come along on Saturday 8th October 2022 for an enjoyable afternoon pressing and drinking apple juice. Remember your clean empty bottles.