Catcott, Somerset

Those Lovely Days

These days Greylake's claim to fame is the council tip where people get rid of their rubbish, but when I was a little girl it was one of the greatest places in the world to me. If you go a couple of fields past the tip and look through the gateways you will come to a gate where nothing grows properly in... [more]

Memories of Stockland, Bristol

My mother's father and mother Mr & Mrs Tom Dibble lived in the Cooperage, Stockland. Thomas's parents Thomas snr and Jane (nee) Palmer had children
Sam, George from the Old Oak pub on the Cornhill, Mary + Mrs Hunt previous Larson, others I can't remember names.
 
I remember sleeping in the Cooperage in a four poster bed, when Mary... [more]

Evacuation to Woolavington

My family (name of Marsh) evacuated to Woolavington to escape the continual bombing of London.  We lived in 2, Church Street and my aunt and her family lived in No 1.  At the vicarage, which I believe was just over the road from our house, there were two young boys whom my parents spoke of as 'the evacuees' which seemed strange... [more]

Grape Vine Inn/Ring of Bells - Albert Holley

Transcribed from the Central Somerset Gazette of 1891:

16 May 1891 - Meare - "The Friendly and Benefit Society established last 9th Sep, held its first general church parade…After the service, the men reformed into procession and headed by the Glastonbury Good Templar Band…marched around the village and visited the farmhouses and the houses of the resident gentry, where... [more]

Honeymoon at 'The Old Ring 'o' Bells'

I spent my honeymoon here with my husband, Howard. It was truly idyllic and we were the only guests staying at the time. The stay was a wedding gift from a friend of my husband and his mother, we were on a tight budget at the time and would probably not have gone away at all. It was so peaceful and... [more]

Ring of Bells

I have a will dated 1865 for Robert Rood "of the Grape Vine Inn known by the ancient name of Brakeland". He bequeathed the property to his wife Mary Rood and it suggests the property was owned and bequeathed to him by his father Thomas Rood. His wife also had a property at Stileway beaqueathed to her.

The Ring o' Bells Public House, Meare

The building on the extreme right of the photograph used to be the Ring o' Bells Public House, owned by my great grandfather, Jesse Laver Difford. It was initially called The Grapevine Inn, or was called that when my grandmother was born there, in 1880 and its name changed to the Ring o' Bells at some time later. ... [more]