Ken Southam’s daughter, Sue,
opened the door of his bungalow to
me and Lynn Little. “She’s always
late” Sue said, gesturing towards
Lynn. (In the Mayor’s defence, she
had been spending her day trying
to find a place for a homeless war
veteran to live.)
Ken was sat waiting in the kitchen.
The smell of his pipe lingered and he
was quick to warn me of the cabinet
positioned just inches above my head.
“I’m a bit on the deaf side so shout”
he said, just before our interview
began. A touch of deafness is quite
understandable given the fact he is
95. He came to Carterton when he
was 4, and I asked him if the town had
changed a lot in that time. He said it
had but not for the best, putting this
down to there being too much building
taking place: “we’re going to be in
trouble before long up this road”. He
also doesn’t believe the Co-op should
have been allowed: “there was plenty
of things going on without that. It’s
what killed the market. One day at the
market there were 60 stalls, now they
have about three don’t they?”
We discussed the first bus service
in Carterton. “Frank Jones bought
this small bus for schools more than
anything. The City of Oxford wanted
to start a bus service from Carterton.
Carterton people objected; they said:
‘No, Mr Jones has got a bus here!’ So
what used to happen was at the time
The City of Oxford bus was due to
go, Mr Jones pulled up in his 10 or 12
seater and anybody in Carterton who
had a car went with him – like a funeral
procession! This went on for about
6 months until the law stepped in!”
Transport came up more than once
in our conversation. Ken remembers
when the Americans were in Carterton.
They used to leave their cars behind
when they left. “We used to flog them,”
he said, “anyone would buy them for
stock car racing, banger racing”. (The
United States Air Force was given the
Royal Air Force Brize Norton airfield
in 1951. USAF remained in Carterton
until 1965 – but kept making bomber
detachments here until 1967).
You often hear kids talk about how
there’s nothing to do in their towns. I
wondered if there was anything for the
young Ken Southam to do. “The only
thing we used to do was put a penny
on the railway to see if a train would
flatten it!” Ken went to Burford School
when it was still a grammar school, and
he used to run, once taking part in a
schools competition at the White City
– “I was unlucky, I was third”. He didn’t
just run competitively. “We had a big
fat man who was a policeman here,
and he was always chasing us because
we were being a bloody nuisance” Ken
said. “He used to go out to Alvescot to
the pub on his bike. The boys would
go down there with a bit of string.
When he went in to have a drink they’d
tie his pedal to the frame!”
Ken Southam left school at the age of
14. He helped his dad, who owned a
builder’s yard, do decorating. “Did he
give you any money for that?” I asked
Ken. “I doubt it” he replied. “I was
friendly with the pub landlord’s son,
Geoff Smith” he went on to say. Geoff
was the son of Charles Samuel Smith,
who is said to be the first landlord
of Carterton’s first pub, The Beehive,
which opened in 1932. “Geoff used to
be on the milk recording. We were
often out together and he said ‘You
ought to get a driver’s licence, why
don’t you come out milk recording
with me and learn to drive?’ So I used
to go out with him driving, I knew all
the farms he had to go to. One time
the tyre burst when he was asleep –
‘Christ, I thought we’d hit something!’
he said.” It’s not all the pair got up to.
“Geoff had a sister called Pam who
lived with their gran in Essex. He rang
me one night and said ‘you’ll have
to pick me up later on.’ I said ‘why?’
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