IT HAS taken 18 months, but Jean Jeffs has finally achieved her objective.

She wrote to Memory Lane to ask if readers had photos of Slade Camp at Headington, Oxford, where she lived as a child.

The only pictures she had seen showed residents, but little of the huts they lived in.

Following a series of articles and letters, she traced her next-door neighbours, Etti and Percy Talboys. And they have found this picture which shows just what the huts looked like.

The huts, on a former Army camp off The Slade and Horspath Driftway, provided much-needed housing for dozens of families after the Second World War.

Mrs Jeffs, of Sandford-on-Thames, whose maiden name was Robinson, lived there with her father Roland, mother Joyce and sister Margaret for 18 months while Wood Farm estate was being built.

After the Army left, the Talboys moved into a 60ft long hut, which the city council converted into two homes. The Talboys lived in one, while the Robinsons occupied the other.

Since meeting again, the two families have enjoyed plenty of nostalgia.

Mrs Jeffs tells me: “We had a lovely reminiscing walk in Brasenose Woods, following First Avenue to the point where our hut would have been. We found the foundations still in the undergrowth.

“We bought a 1956 Ordnance Survey map from the St Luke’s Record Office in Cowley and it was really interesting.

“It showed the majority of huts on the site, and how well spaced out they were.

“Our hut was nearly up to the Ridings at Shotover and our mum must have been very fit with all the walking she had to do to take us to school and other places. The map also brought back memories of the Army tank loading ramp on the site.

“We also contacted Ivan Wright, chairman of the Shotover wildlife organisation. He had aerial photographs of the Brasenose Wood area, including Slade Camp, and was interested in our stories.

“He mentioned that a colleague, Bonnie Risk, lived at Slade Camp. This was an added bonus as she was our next-door neighbour when we moved to Wood Farm. We met her and more reminiscences ensued.

“Mr Talboys and Bonnie Risk made rough drawings of what it was like inside their huts, and the new photograph supplied by Mr Talboys gives a clearer picture of our hut outside.”