Venues
Tiddy Hall
Shipton Road, Ascott -u- Wychwood, Oxfordshire, OX7 6AG
The orginal Tiddy Hall was built by Reginald TIDDY (1880–1916) Collector of folk plays, local benefactor
Bruern Farms Cafe
Bruern
Oxfordshire
OX7 6QE
Born at Margate to William Elliott Tiddy, schoolmaster, and his wife Ellen (née Willett) who came from farming stock at Ramsden, he attended Tonbridge School where in addition to outstanding academic performance, he became Head Boy. At Tonbridge he formed a friendship with E. M. Forster and the character of Tibby, the brother of the Schlegel sisters in Howard’s End, is thought to have been based on him. He won a scholarship to University College, Oxford, and became Classics Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, and University Lecturer in English Literature, the new subject to which he was drawn. Inspired by the foundation of the English Folk Dance Society, he started a branch in Oxford and the side known as the Dancing Dons performed with the OUDS. Together with George Butterworth, he was a member of Sharp’s English Folk Dance Society Demonstration Team.
His professional and recreational interests came together when he turned his attention to mummers’ plays. He collected assiduously both through correspondence and by travelling around the villages and recording oral recitations. By the time of his death he had collected at least 33 mummers’ plays which were published by his friends in 1923 and have remained the most accessible collection of such plays.
In about 1909 he came to live with his father at the Corner House, Ascott End, and then at Priory Cottage in Ascott-under-Wychwood. He made a great impact on the village, recording songs and dances and forming a new morris side. He was an early supporter of the newly founded Ruskin College and the WEA and in 1912 built for the villagers a reading room, later called ‘Tiddy Hall’ after him. The hall became a natural venue for recreational activities and helped to break down social barriers.
In 1914 Tiddy felt that he should volunteer for service in the war, resisting the suggestion that he should transfer to the greater safety of the Intelligence Corps. Promoted to the rank of Lieutenant with the 2nd/4th battalion of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in 1915, he arrived on the Somme in May 1916. On 10 August while searching for wounded men he was hit by a stray shell and killed. Ralph Honeybone from Ascott, his batman and friend, was present at his death. His grave is in Laventie Military Cemetery, La Gorgue Nord.
Tiddy hall comfortably seats 150 people + some standing room and it is here we aim to carry the tradition started by Reginald Tiddy all those years ago as we aim to entice some of the bigger names of the folk/roots music world to the Cotswolds
The Original Hall
The Bruern Way
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It is our aim to play a part in securing a safe future for life on Earth. We are on our own journey of discovery. By constantly challenging and innovating, we are working towards a healthy future for farmlands, nature and food production for generations to come.
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So how does The Bruern Way help us on this journey?
Through our own farming methods, we are challenging conventional ways of farming and food production. We are forging the way ahead against the current agri-business system, through direct sales of food to our community and seed ownership, and through pioneering methods of farming that don’t fall into the well-trodden current system.
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Growing nutritious food, increasing biodiversity and providing produce for our community are the key factors that drive us.
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There is a lot of risk involved in this way of farming. Our farming techniques have not been so common this side of the industrial revolution and we are continuously trying and testing different ways to combine and enhance the three tenants of our mission: healthy soil; healthy food; and healthy people in our community.
