Endon, Staffordshire

Good Old Days

I was born in High Lane Brown Edge and lived there until 1963. I have lots of memories, everyone knew each other, they didn't need to lock the doors in fear of unwanted intruders, in fact during the war years neighbours became family. I had a fabulous childhood - times were spent in the fields playing ball games in the summer... [more]

Amenities, the good old days, and they were!

Brown Edge was a brillant place to live, and I have fond memories of the village.
Perhaps in my youth I did not really appreciate what I had, the village store (Keiths), the butchers, Harrisons and Sammy Bratts., cake shop, Mountfords chip shop., the working mens club, the Holy Bush, the Lump of Coal and the Roebuck, what a selection and... [more]

Child of the butler/cook

As a child I grew up close to Biddulph Old Hall and spent many hours playing around it and listening to stories of an old lady who was a neighbour and who had grown up at Biddulp Old Hall as the child of the Butler/Cook. She was very proud of this and spoke of a red chair in the shape of... [more]

A wonderful Christmas time

We arrived in England on 15/12/1988.  My hubby Stephen and I were to be married on 7th January 1989 in Biddulph. I was amazed at the size of Heathrow Airport and for the first time in my life, I saw an English taxi, the ones we only see in pictures in South Africa.  Mom Ivy, Dad Roy and sister-in-law Helen fetched... [more]

The Old Vicarage

In the 1970s I lived in the Old Vicarage and remember being able to view the church from the house.  My fondest memories are a lovely gentleman named Tom who used to take me to the shop each week when (I think) he collected his pension.  He would always buy me Smiths Salt and Shake crisps - and even to this... [more]

Would You Believe It

The young man on the outside of the pavement is me, the group standing in the distance are family members and the two on my right are demanding to know where I am going, as it happened I was going to see my Gran.

Did not know who the kids were and still don't but if you look at the... [more]

Evacuation

My brother and I, aged six and a half and five, were evacuated to Wetley Rocks at the outbreak of war in 1939.  We only stayed for six weeks but the time is imprinted on my mind.  We were billeted in a farmhouse which belonged to, I believe, the Ridgway family who lived in a grander house nearby, now demolished.  Miss... [more]

evacuation

At the beginning of the war I was evacuated to Leek. I was only there until the Christmas but I remember going to school in a building called the Nicholson Institute and I stayed with some lovely people called Wagstaffe near Balls End Park. They had a shop where they sold and repaired watches. I remember that we... [more]