Having seen Elizabeth Beard this afternoon has spurred me to put pen to paper. Elizabeth is the daughter of Jack Dowdeswell, the famous jockey still living at over 90 years old [passed away since this was written]. We understand, through Jack's racing career, he has broken most of the bones in his body. But he is still alive and kicking! Betty (Jack's wife) was the daughter of Mrs Austen who used to live in St Agnes Terrace. Michael (Jack's son) married Bridget of the Westlake family. Michael is a hard worker for Lambourn Bowls Club.
Henry J Dancey was a farmer who lived at Stancombe Farm, Sheepdrove. Mrs Dancey used to keep chickens, turkeys etc. He had a large walk-in refrigerator he kept at Baydon at a friend of his - a Mrs Olivelli. Mrs Olivelli had a restaurant in London. Mrs Dancey kept Mrs Olivelli's restaurant supplied with chickens which the Londoners loved because they were Organic and not on ration! Mrs Dancey had three girls and a boy, Andrew. Andrew still keeps the farm and one girl owns and runs a cycle shop in Wantage.
Ken Mullins was another famous jockey winning many races, he was married to Edith of the Tom Bowsher family, Ken had two daughters - Shirley and Angela Mullins. When he finished his riding career, he took up farming and was successful at that as well. I plainly remember the combine harvester he had was a blue Ransome.
Jack Wise - a real character - he ran his own electrical business and had several men working for him. If you could get him in the right mood it would be most interesting to hear him talk of variuos Lambourn families. He knew who was related to who, what they did, how many children they had etc.. In his spare time he used to like to go to Newbury Races and have a little flutter. As if this was not enough, he also was a crack gardener winning (particularly for his large onions) lots of cups and mdeals and certificates at various flower shows, especially at Lambourn. He had a son, John, who carried on this business until he retired.
Tom Bowsher - a successful farmer - who at one stage owned and farmed 3 farms. He farmed two in Lambourn and one in Lambourn Woodlands. He had around a dozen men working for him. He also had a lorry for use by Berkshire County Council. This helped to keep Berkshire roads up together. Incidentally the lorry was driven by Clifford Hields who was also a fireman. Tom had six children who all helped in the business.
Bert Warren - ran a successful garage business on Station Road. He sold all makes of new and secondhand cars. His workmanship was second to none. He was also in the Fire Brigade and an officer in the 1st War. He married Miss Brown from Boxford - hence "Brown & Warren" [the business name]. Bert had three sons: Peter a bank manager, Tony a schoolmaster and Roy who carried on the garage business until he sold it around 2003. The garage was demolished and is now a super little housing development.
Dick (Richard) Radbourn was at Place Farm at The Broadway. He had 2 sons and a daughter. What is now called "The Park" used to belong to him. He used to far mand had a herd of milking cows. This enabled him to run a milk round supplying variuos villagers. What is now Lynch Lane estate used to be his farmyard and buildings to house the farm machinery and his herd of cows. One of his great joys was when Gordon Richards (the world famous jockey) called and took him for a day's racing.
The McAlpine Building family, in the latter part of World War II, occupied Kingsdown House at Upper Lambourn. This was where Atte Perse a famous racehorse trainer used to be. At one stage, also, Major Nelson used to train horses there.
When I was a boy Henry Cottril used to train racehorses at Seven Barrows. I think W Payne after the War trained racehorses there and then there was David Hastings who also trained there. In later years Peter Walwyn trained a lot of good horses there. It is now occupied by the famous Nicky Henderson.
