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This talk, based on the speaker's book of the same title, was into parts: one about the unusual Maharajah's well and the other illustrations of the people of Stoke Rowe village at the end of the 19th Century and the early part of the 20th Century.
The unusual well came into existence because on Englishman in India in the middle part of the nineteenth century, resolved a local dispute by buying a plot of land and getting a well dug. As he result of conversations with the local Maharajah during which the fact that the English village in Countryside with a similar geological structure to the area where the well had been dug had no similar water supply. In fact most of the people obtained their water from streams and ponds. As a result of a report of the Indian affair in the Oxford Times it was decided to try and create a well in the village. A public subscription was opened and the Maharajah gave a handsome donation. The result was a very deep well was dug and a piece of machinery was installed for raising the water. The whole thing was covered with an ornate roof. In addition the Maharajah paid for cherry trees to be planted, sale of whose fruit enabled the provision of a well keeper and the maintenance of the well. Completed in 1864 the well supplied water for the villagers until well into the twentieth century. Each household was allowed to have two buckets a day. The structure, although no longer in use, was refurbished including the machinery for the centenary celebration which were attended by the Duke of Edinburgh.
The second part of the talk comprised of photographs of the villagers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries along with anecdotes supplied by the owners of the pictures or the recollections of villagers, particularly the old lady who had lived most of her life in the house now occupied by our speaker. The picture did give a very good idea of clothing styles for people from early to old age. One family kept the tradition of pitting boys into sailor suits until they were well past the usual age.
We also saw a few illustrations of leisure pursuits including a group who were involved in a marathon before the first world war. Cricket also played apart in village recreation with a team of small boys, with bats as big as themselves, a ladies team and two teams of cross dressers.
A very intriguing dip into the well of knowledge of a village's past.
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