Family of Richard Charles HUNTRISS and Yvonne Suzanne BAUME

"The partners in Stockton, sons & Fortescue were Richard Charles Huntriss and John Marcus Neal . . ."

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=XINnAAAAMAAJ&q=huntriss&dq=huntriss&lr=&pgis=1

Bloxham Village Museum was founded 25 years ago by Yvonne Huntriss, a lady who had become by default the honorary village historian. Along with her husband, she organised pageants in the village to raise funds in order to start a museum. She was exceedingly successful in spite of people quipping "If you do manage to start it who will look after it when you get too old?". Her reply was: "someone will come along" and she went on collecting money and cadging old shop counters, display cabinets that were being thrown out by universities and best of all, getting the local ancient charity the Bloxham Feoffees to allow her the use of the ground floor of the 14th century Court house in the village.

She gathered up a loyal band of helpers and many villagers turned out their old household or farm implements, most of which had been handed down from generation to generation and the Museum came into operation.

The money collected was mainly used to build a store at the rear of the old Court House. Again this was mostly built by volunteers and someone donated some old dexion for shelving. The first big hurdle was to become registered and with only a typewriter to produce a catalogue of accessions this took several years.

(Taken from MODES users association Website)

Yvonne is a retirred school teacher.

From the "Bloxham Broadsheet", February 2011

There was a full house for our February speaker, Mrs Yvonne Huntriss MBE She delighted all the members with her lively, sometimes moving, account of her family. Most of the audience knew something about all the work she has done in the village, but not so much about her family background and early life.

Her mother came from a line of Huguenot refugees who escaped from France in the 17th century. Father came from a distinguished Catholic family. Yvonne trained to be a teacher of young children. Her first school was very poor and one of the children said that a rat had got the baby! She then taught in a ‘posh’ school in London and wrote books for youngsters. During the war Yvonne was in London and then evacuated along with fifty children to a very big house where no arrangements had been made for them. By this time she could cope with almost anything, being a tough fighter when required and a good organiser, and the arrival of a doctor was a great help. During the war Yvonne’s brother, Louis Baum, was in a Japanese POW camp working on the Burma Railway. He made a lifelong friend, Charles Huntriss, and the two men supported each other. After the war, while teaching in Hampstead, Yvonne met Charles and married him. They went to live in Claydon which was a very isolated village, only one bus a week, with no amenities and no gas or electricity. As usual Yvonne coped with this and the children. Eventually they moved to Bloxham where they bought a derelict house which they renovated themselves. Charles was a wonderful workman and Yvonne was tough and determined – she pickaxed all the underlying rock herself. Bloxham was a true village with working farms, lots of shops and craftsmen. There was an annual church fete but not much for children, so Yvonne started a children’s stall for them and she and Charles spent the whole year making toys for it. Yvonne started Brownies and Guides in the village. She produced pageants, which involved lots of research. As a result she was asked by Mr Clarence Butler to do an exhibition about Bloxham. With the backing and hard work of her husband and her brother, Louis, and immense help from the village, this turned into the museum, which is fully accredited and has been going for over 25 years. Yvonne was typically modest about her MBE saying that it was to reward the efforts of the whole village.