Frederick G. Mortimer was born on 2nd March, 1915, on Cumnor
Hill. His parents had been married at St Lawrence's Church, North Hinksey. His
father, Frederick John, had established a fruit and vegetable business in Oxford
Covered Market in 1899; his grandfather was a baker at Stanton St. John for
forty-three years.
By 1910 his father had acquired freehold land on Cumnor Hill, where a market
garden with greenhouses was established and a house later built. Here, at the
'Firs' (later 'Sandhills'), on Thursday afternoons (early closing day), friends
would join the family to play tennis on the grass court. He remembers that
Stephen Curtis would take almost all winter to plough a field with two horses
and a single plough at the bottom of the hill.
He attended Magdalen College School in Oxford as a day-boy and on leaving school
went as a pupil/assistant to Hill Farm, Elsfield. After one year, he went into
his father's business. There were in those days seven greengrocers in the
Market. 'Mortimers' bought in produce from wholesalers at Evesham and more
locally from Hinton Waldrist, Tyrrell's and Hicks'. In the 1920s, produce came
in by horse and cart and by motor van. In 1923 his father bought his first
delivery van. Much of the business was with colleges, hotels, restaurants and
schools, and deliveries were made by errand boys on bicycles. The boys were paid
very little. Many of the market premises had cellars where, for example, bananas
could be stored for ripening.
During the 1920s, Mortimers business expanded in order to produce more of their
own grocery needs. Freehold land had already been bought on Cumnor Hill. In 1925
his father bought Nobles Farm and 'Dean Court Farm' (the one on the south side,
now 89 Eynsham Road) from Arthur and Sarah Wastie. In 1928 he bought Red House
Farm, which was next to Noble's Farm.
His father took opportunities to invest in local land for development,
especially on the Eynsham Road. He remembers two fields at Botley Pound: one for
pasture, the other used occasionally for sport. On Thursday afternoons, staff
from Grimley Hughes, where his father knew the manager, came out to play hockey.
The land was later built on. He sold the plots for Third Acre Rise, for example,
plots being one third of an acre.
(In discussion with John Hanson and Peter Bowell, August 2001)