leslie frank nixey
Dear Alan,
Thanks for replying to my message on the Nixey genealogy forum. Sorry not to
have replied earlier.
I have been looking up some information my cousin Edward Nixey, sent me some
years ago, which recently surfaced after a house move. He has also done some
diggingand came up with a few bits of news which I pass on to you.
He thinks a number of our forebears were directly related to the black lead
business Nixeys in Slough. Some years ago the Oxford Times published a
history piece on the Oxford tram wars, in which was a cartoon of two trams,
one of which advertised this product. I used to have a copy of the picture,
but it has vanished.
Our great grandmother was born at Leatherslade Farm. At the timer of the
great train robbery, my father (born 1914) recalled having spent school
holidays there as a boy when it was still in the family. At the time of the
robbery, my great aunt, whose name I do not remember, was the postmistress
at Oakley, and her phone was used as HQ by the police investigators.
The oldest piece of information I have is a copy of the will of Thomas
Nixey, dated 1758, relating to his property in Cuddesdon.
To quote from Edward's letter to me in 1995, my great great grandfather
Nixey lived at Little London Green, Oakley. His son Edward married great
grandmother from Chipping Norton. They had four sons, Albert, Arthur, Frank
and Thomas. Thomas, my grandfather, married Winifred Duke. They had two
boys, Leslie Frank (my father), Edward (my cousin Edward's father), Winifred
(who moved from London to Chippenham in the 1970-80's, and one other sister
(now dead).
From Edward's notes it appears that my father's uncle Frank Nixey married
Laura Sharrock after service in India with Bucks Cavalry. They had two
daughters and a son who went to Wales to be a miner.
My great grandfather also seems to have had five daughters: Annie (married
Greeaway); Emily (married George Wyatt & lived at Leatherslade Farm, & had 6
children); Nell (married Sid Hallam, poss. lived at Boarstall); Florence
(married Harry Wiggins & lived at Oakley)' Evelyn (married Thomas Uff &
lived in Oakley) (born 1904).
Back in the 12960's we read with interest in a national newspaper that Miss
Marigold Nixey had been in charge of the Queen's horses at the Royal
Agricultural Show at Kenilworth. My father and uncle seemed to think they
were related. Years later in 1973 I met, while in Oxford maternity hospital,
a girl whose husband worked on the farm belonging to Marigold and her
brother Nicholas somewhere near Watlington. To my regret I never followed
this up. I notice there is a Miss M Nixey listed on the web site for the
Cleveland Bay Horse Society who lives atHarrington, Farm Great Milton. I
wonder if they are connected.My cousin told me in his letter that much of
his information had come from Adrian Nixey of Langley Mill Farm, Chalgrove.
I well remember visiting Oakley with my father as a child, and going to my
great aunt's cottage (she was the village postmistress for many years). I
lived in and around Oxford myself for thirty years (co-incidentally) until a
few years ago (Latterly in Abingdon), and once went to the churchyard at
Oakley to look at gravestones. I am now living in Cornwall, so too far away
to have another look!
My father died some eight years ago, shortly after his brother Edward. My
mother was never very keen that I should have too much contact with my
father's family, so I feel I have great gaps in my knowledge of our roots,
and it would be really nice to find some relations!
Sorry this is all a bit jumbled up. Hope you can make sense of some of it,
and that there may be bits which which fill in gaps in your own researches.
Good luck!
Regards
Roz