Box People and Places
Latest Issue 36 Summer 2022 
  • This Issue
    • Barberry Cottage
    • Currant Family
    • Poynder Fountain
    • Blind House
    • Charlie Cook
    • Slades Farm
    • Gingells at Bath View
    • Davies Family
    • Alice & Ted Vezey
    • Strong & Pictor
    • Arthur Brooke Memories
    • Murray & Baldwin Memories
    • Joan Applin
  • Inter War
    • Roaring Twenties
    • Unemployment
    • Continuity and Change
    • Box Rec 1926
    • Discovering History
    • Postwar Hopes
    • Haunted by War
    • Improving Life
    • Timeline
  • Previous
    • Issue 35 - Inter war
    • Issue 34 - Fogleigh House
    • Issue 33 - KIngsdown Post Office
    • Issue 32 - Chapel Lane
    • Issue 31 - Saxon Box
    • Issue 30 - Georgian Rudloe
    • Issues 20-29 >
      • Issue 29 - Darkest Hour
      • Issue 28 - VE Day
      • Issue 27 - Northey
      • Issue 26 - Heritage Trail
      • Issue 25 - Slave Owners
      • Issue 24 - Highwaymen
      • Issue 23 - Georgian
      • Issue 22 - War Memorial
      • Issue 21 - Childhood 1949-59
      • Issue 20 - Box Home Guard
    • Issues 10-19 >
      • Issue 19 - Outbreak WW2
      • Issue 18 - Building Bargates
      • Issue 17 - Railway Changes
      • Issue 16 - Quarries
      • Issue 15 - Rail & Quarry
      • Issue 14 - Civil War
      • Issue 13: Box Revels
      • Issue 12 - Where You Live
      • Issue 11 - Tudor & Stuart
      • Issue 10 - End of Era 1912
    • Issues 1-9 >
      • Issue 9 - Health & Leisure
      • Issue 8 - Farming & Rural
      • Issue 7 - Manufacturing
      • Issue 6 - Celebrations
      • Issue 5 - Victorian Centre
      • Issue 4 - Slump after WW1
      • Issue 3 - Great War 1914-18
      • Issue 2 - 1950s & 1960s
      • Issue 1 - 1920s
    • Index By Author
    • Partner Sites & Book Reviews
    • Currency Converter
  • People
  • Places
  • General
  • Series
    • Northeys
    • Box School Series
    • Box Farms
    • Box Library Project
    • NATS Trails
    • Prehistory
    • Roman
    • Early Medieval >
      • Vikings in Box
      • Box Before Normans
      • Common Field Farming
      • Conclusion
      • Wessex Under Attack
      • Boundaries of Box
      • Routes in Box
      • Late Saxon Locations
      • Society in Anglo-Saxon Box
      • Christianity in Box
      • Why Box is in Wiltshire?
      • Anglo-Saxon Evidence
      • Art and Craft
      • Why Speak English?
      • Box after AD 350
      • Britain in Late Antiquity
    • Feudal
    • Late Medieval
    • Tudor & Stuart
    • Georgian
    • Rail & Quarry
    • Late Victorian
    • Great War
    • WW2 Index
    • Modern
  • Contact
    • Blog
    • Q&A
Remembering Jockey Bill Peter     Various       December 2020
Picture
Getting to Selwyn Hall after Box Church (photo courtesy Griselda Davey)
Davey Daughters: Griselda, Anne and Clare
We three Davey daughters learned to ride with Bill Peter. At one time, his stables were at the end of the Ashley Road just before it joins the A4, and at another time, in Mill Lane at the bottom of the hill below the Post Office. Riding often took us up to Kingsdown and was an excellent way to see the countryside. Griselda and Anne were fortunate in having Bill Peter drive us to
St Thomas à Becket Church from Ashley Croft on our wedding days.
 
Griselda remembered when her father, Dr Jim, and she were on their way to the church in Bill's handsome Brougham drawn by his immaculately turned out horse. They were suddenly overtaken by a holidaymaker returning home who stopped ahead of them and filmed the carriage approaching the village. Quite an unusual event for 1973.
Picture
Bill at Ashley Croft (courtesy Davey daughters)
Private Contribution
The best friend I ever knew was William John Peter (aka Mr Bill Peter) who lived up Box Hill, near Clift Mine entrance somewhere and following this he lived in a caravan at Lower Ashley Stables. He was such a character with his horsedrawn carriage, fronted by Big Tom, the grey Irish Draught. Everyone knew Bill. He would often ride around the village for miles with that horse and it was nothing for him to do a circuit to Ditteridge, Marshfield, The Shoe, Box Hill and back to Ashley in a summer's evening. Bill would often visit pubs on the circuit and the horse grew to understand that red traffic lights meant wait and use its own initiative.
Pauline Paradise Nearly Came a Cropper
I saw the photos of Bill Peter with great interest. For a while, he had a young man working for him called Mike Fraying. I knew Mike and met him one day at Boxfields where I lived. Mike was riding a rather splendid chestnut horse, part-bred Arab and I begged Mike to let me ride. Mike was not happy but with my charm I persuaded him. We were on the field skirting the Boxfields Road going for a good ride up to the RAF playing field. Mike said to take the horse quietly and don't gallop him. Well, I was about 14 and what a silly thing to say to me. The horse had been worked in, having come from Swainswick, and, once I got the feel of him, we were off. Marvellous! However, at the top of the field, the area was fenced off (now by barb wire). The horse saw the fence before I did, turned sharply to the right, and I was off, landing on top of the fence. I cut the inside of my leg, quite badly, but being a brave (foolish) young lady, caught the horse, mounted up and rode back to Mike at bottom of the field. He was very angry, shouting Bill will go mad. The lovely saddle was dripping with blood and I never found out how Mike got on. I still get the scares thinking about it and I'm 86 now! But I still remember the wind in my hair on that ride, what a thrill. I would not have missed it for the world.
Natalie Grace Campbell Wrote
I remember Mr Peter(s) when he had the stables in Ashley. I always thought that there was a 's' on the end of the surname.
​Mr Peter(s) taught my mother (Elaine Campbell nee Boughton) to ride. The yard is obviously used by Emery's now for storage of building material. I believe that the yard was originally the stables for Ashley Manor - at least that is what I was brought up to understand. I remember his carriage too, being allowed to look at it in the shed where it was stored in Ashley.
Jenny Blue Wrote
Everybody placed an 's' at the end of Bill’s last name. I believe the picture of him on the homepage, was atop a horse called Jimmy. Bill could sometimes be a rather grumpy old fellow if memory serves me right. I spent many, many hours mucking out the stables opposite the mill and in return was occasionally allowed to turn out the ponies by riding bare back up to their field with my friend Jacqui who was a very good rider, unlike me.
Back to Issue 31