BANBURY QUAKER MEETINGS.

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Throughout my recollections Quakers or 'Friends' as they call themselves figure largely. They were not out to convert but to give generously of their time and money, to help where they felt there was a great need. In Banbury there was a large network of Friends who became our friends. The Town owes the Quakers a great debt for all they did and gave. One influential Quaker family was the Gilletts of Woodgreen.

Woodgreen, at the top of Broughton Road on the north side, was the home of Joseph and Beatrice Gillett. It had been built by Joseph's uncle, Charles Gillett and was a fine house set in a hollow with beautiful grounds and trees.

Joseph was a wealthy director of Gillett's Bank (now Barclays Bank) and every day he would go up to London by train. He had many interests and hobbies. When wireless was in its infancy he had a transmitting station at Woodgreen and would radio messages down to his brothers and sister in the attic of their home at 4 West Bar where they would try and pick up his faint scratchy messages. He studied the weather, was a geologist and in his small brickworks at the top of Broughton Road he experimented with making bricks with non-injurious materials, and from these bricks built the four houses beside the brickworks and two houses on the corner of Park Road. ...A strict vegetarian and teetotaller he was considered a health crank. Tall and thin, very generous, gentle and kindly - everyone like him.