Mailbag, March 31, 2014

ONE of your readers was asking some time ago if anyone had a picture of the former Army huts at Slade Park at Headington, Oxford.

I found this photograph in a skip and believe these were the huts she was talking about.

I have no idea who the man and the boys are or why they are posing for the camera, but it gives a good view of the huts in the background.

Although I didn’t live there, I remember the huts.

I believe they were occupied by the Army during the Second World War, and when the soldiers left, they were handed to people on the council waiting list.

Some of the families moved on to the new Wood Farm estate in the early 1950s.

LEONARD HOLMES Cowley Road Oxford

Ringing any bells?

I ENCLOSE a picture of a steam locomotive, No 6000 King George V, which the railway enthusiasts among your readers may find of interest.

I am not sure when or where the picture was taken, but it belonged to a friend who worked on the railways as a driver and may well have driven this locomotive.

I am told that this locomotive had a bell on the front, a gift when it was shipped to America soon after it was built in 1927 to join the Baltimore and Ohio centenary celebrations. I believe it had a double chimney, presumably to enhance its performance.

I am also told that the King locomotives never came to Oxford, because they were too wide and would have hit the platform. Is that true?

SIMON STONE Banbury

Boundary marker spotting

I ENCLOSE a picture of a Great Western Railway Company boundary marker dated 1881.

It is between the River Thames and Oxford Canal on Fiddlers Island in North Oxford.

MARTIN EWERS Becket Street Oxford

Precious memories of an Oxfordshire sporting life

IN 2010, you included in Memory Lane several photographs belonging to my father, Stewart Jacobs, who was well known in Oxfordshire football circles. I enclose a few more items which may interest your readers.

As you recalled, he played football and cricket for Headington in his younger days.

He later became secretary of Headington United – the forerunner of Oxford United – and also served as the club treasurer. He was also the secretary of Headington Cricket Club.

In 1938, he was elected to the Oxfordshire Football Association Council and, in 1945, was appointed secretary, a post he held for 36 years, until 1981.

Here you will see a picture of Headington cricketers, a brochure produced by Headington United in 1959 as they tried to gain admission to the Football League, a fixture list for Headington United in the 1924-5 season, and three newspaper articles.

One, a profile of my father, appeared in the Sports Mail on Saturday, August 31, 1946, and the others concerned Headington United – an end-of-season celebration and a cheque presentation to club captain Frank Ramshaw.

BARBARA MANGER, Exeter, Devon

Bon appetit time for apprentices

THIS is another picture from a collection taken by a works photographer at Morris Motors, Cowley.

The occasion was an apprentices’ dinner in about 1955, the year I finished my five-year apprenticeship. Later I worked in the planning department under Mr L J Ford.

RICHARD BROWN Eynsham Road Botley Oxford