My latest article is about Edwin Rixon who lived in Hook Norton for a time before settling in Banbury. He was a well regarded citizen of the town in later years.
Edwin Tom Rixon MM
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Lawrence Percy Grey DCM
An article about a soldier with a connection to the village who is commemorated on the war memorial in St Peter’s Church. It can be found with my other recent ones under Articles – Recent in the menu.
Hugh Cloberry Christian
One of my more recent articles can now be read online, just click on the link – Articles – Recent. He lived in the 18th century and had a connection to Hook Norton. A brief reference is made in the article about severe gales which hampered the voyage to the West Indies in 1795. A follow up article has been written – Disaster at Chesil Beach. This too can be found under Articles – Recent
New Forest October 2025
Recently I spent three nights staying in an AirBnB in Lymington on a family short break. Needless to say we went for walks in the forest and also paid a visit to the beach at Milford on Sea. Here are some images from this trip. The weather was kind to us with a day of sunshine on the day we went to Milford on Sea.
Midlands Air Museum
Continuing my trips out for the day I visited the Midlands Air Museum at Coventry Airport. A good collection of aircraft that I recall from my early days of aircraft spotting and visiting air shows.
Cotswold Airport
After a walk in the local area I stopped off at this airport for a spot of photography and lunch. The AV8 cafe is open to the public and it was very busy when I visited last week. It was still the school summer holidays and the weather was great…
Boeing 747-400 ex BA
Cotswold Airport at Kemble used to be the home of the RAF acrobatic display team The Red Arrows. However, now it is perhaps more well known as where obsolete aircraft are broken up for spares. During the Covid pandemic in 2020 BA decided to retire its fleet of Boeing 747s and many were sent here to be scrapped. One G-CVIB was spared and it now rests close to the restaurant/cafe as a nightclub and cafe. It means that visitors can get up close and personal with it.
Back on the bike
The summer of 2025 has been long and dry with little rain during the past few months. Temperatures have been above average and according to the Met Office we have had a few “heatwaves” when the temperatures are above 25°C for at least 3 consecutive days. So far we have had four….
There are several bike routes I can ride on from the house but recently I have put the bike rack on the car and driven somewhere else to have a ride. For a while I wanted to ride around Oxford and I managed to do this on 19 August. My plan was to park in Woodstock, however, the car park was full so I drove on to Oxford Parkway Park and Ride and started from there. The map above shows my route which was 25 miles and took 2.5 hours of not travelling very fast and taking in some sights with a few photo stops as well as a lunch stop in Jericho.
Blenheim Palace
As a photographer and keen walker I make the most of the good weather. Despite thunderstorms being forecast I travelled to Blenheim Palace in Woodstock on 31st July for a walk around the estate. There is restoration work being carried out on the roof with lots of scaffolding being erected to facilitate this. However, it provides an opportunity for visitors to gain access to the roof, all of 109 steps up to be eyeball to eyeball with some of the statues. I believe this is only until 2026 when the work should have been completed so if you are planning to visit Blenheim then you have a limited chance to follow in my footsteps.
British Driving Society
The Oxfordshire branch of the British Driving Society held a Meet at Hook Norton Brewery on Sunday 27th July 2025. There was a good turnout both in terms of horses and spectators….
Time for a new post
It is a few months since I last posted something on this site. I have been transforming my photography site – www.hooknortonimages.co.uk – to a WordPress hosted site like this one. It is now up and running, I hope those of you who visit it will like my choice of images. With a collection in the thousands it is difficult to choose which ones to put on the site. To make it a bit easier I have selected work from 2024 and 2025.