Shipston Road

The Tin Tops (Tabernacle)

Tin Tops had a corrugated roof – though it is possible the roof was originally a thatched one but was replaced with the corrugated roof when the thatch rotted. It was set in the field next to the large house - Springfield House. This large house was not in the Parish of Clifford Chambers, but the field – along with Tin Tops – was definitely in the Parish of Clifford Chambers.

Monty Preston lived in this corrugated roof cottage with his wife and only child – Patricia. Pat (as she was called), was a beauty – small but very articulate as well as attractive with beautiful blonde hair. She attracted the attention of Tony Green in the village, married, and spent their early year of marriage at The Nashes. They in turn had only one child – a girl – a beauty – slender and taller than her mother and just as articulate as her parents – and with a very sensible head on her shoulders.

Monty, as far as I can make out, was just a farm worker, but his daughter – and grand-daughter made one think they were descended from high-thinking people. Perhaps, despite Monty's humble working life, he was!

Shipston Road Bungalows

It seems certain these bungalows were built on a part of a field in the parish of Clifford Chambers, sometime between the two world wars.

John Bailey was not the first owner of the first one – now called “The Thistles”. He and his wife when they first married, squatted at Atherston Aerodrome. This was quite common after the Second World War when the empty buildings and Nissen huts built by the War Office for training 'our boys' for the War – were very suitable for housing those bombed out of their homes and those needing somewhere to live.

As things became better for this young couple – and things became better for the country on the whole - , John and his wife bought “The Thistles” a beautiful bungalow with a large garden where he grew plants in his greenhouses, and kept chickens in another part of the garden in between his proper work of a tool-maker.

But his greatest treasure was his old steam-organ which he worked on throughout the years, polishing, and cleaning, and mending and repairing – until it was spotless and ready to show around the country.

TOM - PHOTO OF THIS STEAM ORGAN PLEASE AND ONE OF JOHN BAILEY