Thanks to Mervyn Harris of Abbey Properties for the (undated) photo of his father Mervyn (08-02-1933 to 30-09-2011).
The corner of Mill Street and Acre End Street, opposite the Jolly Sportsman, was a regular meeting place for local residents - known to all as Harris’s Corner after family butchers KF and M (Mervyn) Harris.
Mervyn Harris senior succeeded his father Fred in the firm and used to recall his days there with pride. Like the local doctor, the family was an early adopter of telephones (Eynsham 219) and quick off the mark with advertising too, with packaging to match the shop front.
Mervyn Harris junior has since maintained the family connection by arranging for a street sign around the corner, at the start of Acre End Street. His own recollections follow...
‘Dad was a great storyteller, mainly about old Eynsham characters and the village. He loved nothing more than a pint after work with his friends in one of their various locals - the Mason Arms (South Leigh), The Britannia (Barnard Gate), The Red Lion (Cassington), The Griffin (Witney), or The Merry Horn (Curbridge) – to name but a few! His great friend Colin Campbell was involved in many a story and is still a well-known face around the village. Dad left school at 14 to work in the shop and was delivering meat to customers well before passing his driving test! He married my mother, Janet Timms, also an Eynsham resident from Station Road, in 1953. They lived in Eynsham until 1974 before moving to South Leigh and then Witney, eventually returning to Eynsham in 2003.’
Grandfather Frederick Harris has a story of his own. Before settling down as a butcher, he was a member of the Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars. He was clearly an experienced horseman and his name appears on the list of winners at some of the horse-shows that the men held in France when they were not required in the front line. In photographs he is seen to be wearing the inverted horseshoe insignia, identifying him as a Shoeing Smith.
Below, Harris’s Corner: an undated image from our Street Scenes - more information welcome!
