"Lark Rise to Candelford" - an Oxfordshire idyll

The BBC is to begin a serialisation of Flora Thompson's autobiographical homage to her Oxfordshire childhood with the first of a 10- part television dramatisation of "Lark Rise to Candelford" being shown on Sunday at 7.40pm on BBC1.

It so happens that friends used to live in the tiny hamlet of Cottisford, just yards from the church depicted below and not far from Juniper Hill, the real-life location of Flora Thompson's childhood home in Oxfordshire; these small hamlets, hardly justifying the designation of 'villages', are not very far from the bustling market town of Bicester. One of the friends is a pretty skilled amateur artist and I was able to acquire a couple of her ink and pastel drawings of buildings cloesly associated with Flora Thompson and which hang now on my dining room walls. It is a beautiful part of England and I have spent a number of all-too-brief holidays there. I look forward to watching the first episode of the dramatisation this coming Sunday!

"Lark Rise to Candelford" Flora Thompson Flora Thompson's Cottage Juniper Hill, Oxfordshire Cottisford Church, Oxfordshire Click here to see larger images.