“We don’t want to say any words!” they grinned at me.

“It’s the people that make Wantage what it is, particularly on days like this. We all have a story to tell about these terrible diseases, we cannot give up fighting it with everything we can!”

“I’d have been married young – around thirteen or fourteen. I’d have had a child almost yearly, but many of them wouldn’t have survived past the age of five because of the inability to prevent serious disease at the time.”

Her detailed knowledge of Saxon life around the time of the Battle of Ashdown impressed me as much as her skilled weaving.

All you had to do was choose a colour and this gentleman speedily and cheerfully produced a balloon pet.