Three Houses, Many Lives

Gillian Tindall gave a fascinating talk on Tuesday about her recent book, focusing mainly on Taynton Vicarage (shown above) as that is the house closest to Woodstock. She had an hour or so to wander round Woodstock before the talk - which she did in spite of the rain - and managed to look at our own Rectory, built in 1982 in the garden of the old Rectory (now known as the Bishop's House) which was built by the legendary Bishop Fell of Oxford in 1686-9. She moved effortlessly from very close study of particular houses and documents to showing how these illustrate changes and events in the country as a whole and she brought individuals and whole communities alive. All her books are exceptional in that way - my favourite is Celestine, the account of a French village.