"In these Reminiscences, John Oakey brings to life many aspects of Winchcombe in the past, spanning the years between the use of flint and tinder and home-made brimstone matches, and that of the electric switch. In his forthright and unpretentious style, the equivalent in writing of what he calls his 'plain É Gloucestershire speech', he recalls much that would otherwise be unknown to the present generation.He was born in 1847, ten years after John and William Dent bought the Sudeley estate with the derelict castle and became the Lords of the Manor of Winchcombe."