The Pettifer family lived in Woodway House and owned and farmed land in Sibford Ferris. Joseph Pettifer was a renowned poultry breeder and judge on the international circuit. His son Salmon Pettifer sold a piece of land at the top of Mannings Hill, above Maria’s Cottage, reaching along Main Street as far as Malvern House. This included a wild flower meadow which had historically provided the village Pound where travelling or stray animals could be safely penned and grazed.

Four, linked detached housed were built by a Tadmarton builder in the mid 1960s and won an architectural design award for their several fashionable Scandinavian features including narrow “letterbox windows” some of which can still be seen today. Although built on an upward sloping site, the roof line is interesting as it was kept level on all the houses. Later changes have altered this appearance.

In the loft of one of the houses, on a rendered chimney breast, three sets of initials can still be seen – EB, JK and MM, presumably those of the workmen who carried out the work. The date 10/8/66 and “END OF THE ROAD” also appears. The houses were slow to sell. Number 1 was sold to a private buyer but the other three were rented by USAF Upper Heyford and occupied by American Pilot Officers and their families for a few years. The original RAF base, which from the 1920s was home to three squadrons of RAF Bomber Command, became a USAF base in the 1950s. They are all now in private ownership and the Close remains unadopted by the District Council.

Maureen Hicks