St John The Baptist, Burford

Cromwell Was A Perfidious Bastard

Oxfordshire is the landscape of the English Civil War. Reminders are everywhere...



A contingent of Levellers in The New Model Army mutinied over pay and politics. Cromwell outmanouvered and cheated them, had over three hundred of them locked up in Burford church (the only building big enough to hold them) then had the supposed ringleaders shot.

Harman Memorial, Burford

The chap commemorated in this memorial was Henry VIII's barber and body servant. The four figures surrounding the entablature are believed to represent Brazilian tribespeople. If so, these are the earliest representations of Native Americans in English art. Here's a detail.


This is 16th century but looks amazingly like the work of Eric Gill.

The Ghost Train

A West End hit (written by Arnold Ridley- who later played Private Godfrey in Dad's Army) rejigged as a vehicle for Lancashire comedian "big-hearted" Arthur Askey and his suave straight man Richard "Stinker "Murdoch. A bunch of travellers are stranded over night in a haunted railway station. There are laughs and chills- and Murdoch gets to fire an automatic in anger. (In the 1940s it was the cool thing to shoot from the hip; now it looks dorky.) Askey is (or plays) one of those comedians who is never "off"- producing a non-stop fusillade of clowning, back chat and impressions. He reminds me of Robin Williams.

I couldn't really tell you if this movie is any good; I remember all these people from my childhood and I'm fond of them.