The Sunday before last, at Trinity Church, we had a service with a difference. Instead of sitting facing the front we sat at tables facing each other. We sometimes hear people’s stories when they reach 100 years old, or at their funeral. This service was intended to learn more about each other before then. One person on each table was asked to tell a little of their own story and how they came to Trinity Church in Abingdon.
Inspired by them, others told their story.
One person had come further than most. In 1958 ,at a little over one year old, he had come over from Jamaica. The voyage took about three weeks as they did not come directly to the UK. His parents got employment at the British Motor Corporation at Cowley, his father was in Insurance and his Mother was a Secretary.
A few years later pictures was taken of all the family that appeared in the local newspaper. The family had come across at various times during the 1950s – the younger members were born in Oxford or Abingdon.
Some of those pictures appeared again in the Oxford Mail, a few weeks ago, when there was an exhibition at Oxford Town Hall Museum about the Windrush Generation (people who came over from Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago – invited to help rebuild post-War Britain).
There is a Windrush Court in Abingdon Business Park. It is named after the River Windrush that rises in the Cotswolds and passes Witney before joining the Thames near Oxford. The ship that brought the first people from the West Indies was also named after the River Windrush. This Guardian article explains how.
