Millennium Project
I am most grateful to Kenneth & Rodney Hayward for their extensive help with this article.
James Hayward (b.1832) married Sarah Boffin in 1852 in Bodicote where both of them lived. They had four children of which Harry (b.1872) married Mara Cecilia Newman both of Tadmarton.
click on Family Tree and all other images to see larger versions
 | 1911 Census Harry & Mara are in Bodicote with 7 of
their children. Not on the census is eldest daughter Cecilia (Celia)
aged 14 as she was in service elsewhere. Frederick was born the same year after the census was taken and
he was followed by Ivy & Elsie. Their 8th child, Frank Joseph, died in infancy |
1920 Their second son, James Levi (b.1900), married Lily Dancer in Banbury.
1946 This photograph (r) was taken in Bodicote on the occasion of Harry & Mara's Golden Wedding.
Back row l to r:
Arthur; William (Bill); Horace ; Frederick (Fred)
Front row l to r:
Margaret (Maggie); Cecelia; Harry; Mara; James Levi; Ivy; Elsie
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The 1939 Register shows that James Levi was a man of many trades -
hairdresser, fishmonger, florist and greengrocer. The only other person
in the 1939 Register is their youngest child, son Walter, aged 17 who is
working part-time in the shop;But
not for long...
Walter
was called up and joined the RAF where he
became a Leading Aircraftman (LAC). At war's end he returned to marry
his Aynho fiancée, Joan Taylor, and to help run the family shop. In the image of him standing in front of his shop he is with his two boys Martin (l) & Rodney (r). Rodney
carries on the story of ....
"...Haywards Shop
My Great Grandparents were George and Rhoda Dancer, previously mentioned in these articles and who lived in Deddington in one of the cottages which my father bought in the mid-70s and is still in family ownership.
My Grandfather James Levi (Jimmy)Hayward and his wife Lillian (Lily) bought the shop in the Market Square to the left of The Tchure during the between Wars period and traded there as provision merchants, fruiterers, greengrocers and fishmongers. The rear rooms were used as a barbers shop where Jimmy would cut hair for tuppence (two old pence) and shave customers for 1d (one old penny) The upstairs was used as living accommodation for the family.
Jimmy and Lily served the community throughout the Second World War, assisted by my father Walter until he was called up. (see A Parish at War)
My father’s sisters Doreen and Peggy (Madge) both worked in the shop until they married. Doreen married Bryant Rose from Tilehurst in Reading and went to live there and Peggy married John Wallin (see Kathy Wallins story of the Bakery) a baker whose parents ran the bakery next door (currently Hamptons International)
Walter worked for Jimmy for many years before setting up his own general store on the High Street, currently Tchure Cottage in the early 60s, assisted by my mother Joan and myself after school each day. My brother Martin ran a mobile shop from the premises serving nearby villages and continued to do so from his own property after father retired, until Martin himself retired in 2000. This service dated back to Jimmy’s shop days when the van was run by Walter, helped by my mother Joan after the war years. The shop still kept the traditional half day closing every Tuesday. Although unusually for those days it was open on a Sunday morning.
In 1972 my father bought the Market Square premises from Jimmy (a reluctant sale from father to son!) and the shop was altered into a mini market on the ground floor and the living accommodation was turned into storerooms for the grocery business. Walter sold the shop on the High Street and Jimmy and Lily retired to their cottage on Goose Green (Clematis Cottage) and lived there until their passing.
The shop was run entirely by our family, myself, brother Martin (mobile van) and my father and mother. Our wives, Anne and Sandra, helped out at the shop to give my parents a very rare holiday break.
l left the family business in 1983 to pursue a different career and in 1989 with business Partner Lewis White opened Hayward-White Estate Agents in The Old Bakery following its purchase from the Wallin brothers on their retirement. (Editor: see an article (l) from April 2008 Deddington News).
When my parents retired the way people shopped was changing dramatically especially with the advent of supermarkets. The premises were let over the coming years to various tenants including Unicorn Antiques, ladies dress shop Fleur, Viva/Sacs and Hilary’s Hat Hire.
Walter passed away in 2000 and following the passing of our mother Joan in 2012* the premises which then came into the ownership of myself and my brother Martin continued to be let out.
The premises were then sold to its current owners Richard and Helen Spencer. The entire building was refurbished and Nellie & Doves Fashion Boutique was opened in 2017.
I am pleased to say that Anne and l still live in Deddington as do our children and Grandchildren making 6 generations of Deddington history." (1 March 2022)
* Rodney's tribute to his mother in the Deddington News can be read HERE
Late 1940s/early 50s? In this photograph James & Lily are on the right with brother Frederick and his wife Dorothy on the left. NB: Kenneth Hayward is Frederick's son and Rodney is James' grandson
1955. Madge - always known as Peggy married John Wallin who, with his brother Laurence, was a baker - see The Wallin family
James Levi died in 1974 and Lily in 1982.
Walter died in 2000 and Joan in 2012
[Editor's note: A Thomas Hayward's death is recorded in 1867 and there is a gravestone for him in the churchyard. The only other place Thomas appears is in the 1861 census where he is recorded as a servant groom living between the Bliss and Gibb's households in Philcot (sic) Street. He was born in Watlington and, as far as can be ascertained, he is not related to the Haywards of Deddington.]
More about:
Gallery
- The Hayward General Stores
- The Hayward & Proffitt Families
- The Bliss & Wallin Families
- Wallins Bakery
- Collection of miscellaneous newspaper cuttings about the parish over the years