Page 54 - br-june-2021

June 2021

many hours playing cricket or football in season there. I have included a
photograph of a painting of the bottom of the High Street completed by my
elder brother some weeks before he died of covid in February of this year. It
shows the village pond in the foreground and the house where my mother, my
two brothers, myself and my sister were born It is the second door in the building
on the right.

The house is built of chalk, with walls almost three feet thick with plaster and
pebbledash to protect it from erosion. At that time the only other buildings there
were the rectory in the gateway on the left, the church and Manor House on a
slope away to the right.
No cars were parked in the road as they are today, it was a beautiful and quiet
spot. Today there are numerous houses built around the trees on the right and in
the meadow behind these houses and to play in the street today would be
suicidal. Although there are no through roads, there are so many new houses built
there and with no parking except in the road for the bottom eight houses, there is
little room to walk safely let alone play football.
Despite a high rise in population there is no full time vicar, the Methodist Chapel.
where we went to Sunday School has been converted into a house as has the
old village shop. Sunday School was a must for all the youngsters living nearby,
because it organised parties and outings to the seaside. I remember coming

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