Olive Hampton – village hairdresser who launched Carols on the Common
The death has occurred at the age of 97 of Olive Hampton who was very active in the Penn and Tylers Green community for many years and who ran the hairdressers, Olivia’s, from the shop on Bank Road at the end of the front common.
Olive and her husband Len, pictured above, moved to Tylers Green in 1953 when he was a RAF pilot. In 1964 she acquired what was then a chemist on the common and transformed it into a hairdressers.
She chaired the local Conservative branch for nine years and was founding secretary of Tylers Green Mothers Club; president of the local Soroptimists, a charity for professional and business women; and on the committee of the Penn and Tylers Green Society and the Tylers Housing Association.
In 1977 she came up with the idea of holding Carols on the Common as part of the celebrations that year for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee.
The first few Carols on the Common events were held outside the shop in order to use the shop’s electricity and supply soup from the kitchen. The event has become an annual favourite in the village, attracting hundreds of people. Such a pity that this year, for the first time since its inauguration, Carols on the Common cannot take place because of the coronavirus restrictions.
Husband Len, who died a few years ago, represented Tylers Green on Wycombe Council for 12 years and was chairman of the council for two years. A teacher, he was secretary of the Wycombe Football Challenge Cup for 17 years, a class 1 referee and secretary of Wycombe Primary Schools Chess Association.
Olive and Len moved to Marlow when they retired in 1988 and, after Len’s death, Olive moved to Cornwall to be near her daughter Jennie.
Coronavirus update
- Provisional figures show a drop in new coronavirus cases in our area last week. In the seven days to Saturday there were 169 new cases in the Wycombe area reported compared to 316 the week before. In the Chiltern area (around Amersham) there were 46 compared to 99; and in South Bucks (around Beaconsfield) 75 compared to 134.
- Wycombe (and Tylers Green) MP Steve Baker has played a leading role in organising around 70 MPs to threaten to vote against the reintroduction of the tier system of restrictions after lockdown unless a breakdown of the costs to regions is published. It’s thought other local MPs, Dame Cheryl Gillan (Chesham and Amersham, including Penn) and Joy Morrissey (Beaconsfield) do not support the move. Mr Baker believes the restrictions are not worth the economic cost.
- Manor Farm Community Infant School is holding an Open Morning for prospective parents via Zoom this morning. The school says its after-school clubs will recommence on 3 December, the day after the second lockdown finishes.
- A mobile coronavirus testing centre is being set up in Gerrards Cross tomorrow and moves to Marlow on Wednesday. A seven day week testing centre remains at the Buckinghamshire New University in the centre of High Wycombe.
This blog will continue to be updated daily until the end of the current lockdown. You can contact me at peter@pennandtylersgreen.com