Travels With My Aunt

I stayed with my Great Aunt Evelyn Cramer Roberts in one half the "Cottages" (16C left hand side of the road going towards the station) during parts of my childhood and growing years between 1934 and 1956. In my childhood there was the village shop and post office which always smelt deliciously of the groceries sold there. I can remember helping her maid, Emma, clean the oil lamps when I was very young. My aunt knew everyone in the village as she had lived there for many years. We would deliver the parish paper to many of the villagers and we would stay for a while to gather the village news. She was always close to nature and her garden was a wonderful place to play and later to learn about plants and care of them, which lives with me today. It was and I hope still is, a classic cottage garden with ancient yew hedge and herbaceous border and vegetable garden. She would often take me on long walks even into her eighties to see a heron's nest or some other bird of interest. In my teen years I loved walking in the Warren through the white gate to which she had a private and very large key. I also loved the lake on the way to Eridge Castle where the Grebes had a nest. My aunt knew the Abergavennys and we did visit there occasionally to see the lovely grounds especially at Rhododendron time. As I had an itenerant life with my Airforce father my times in Eridge were special as nothing ever changed. I believe that the cottages had been an inn in earlier days and there was said to be the ghost of a little serving maid who came through the cupboard door into my aunt's dining room. My mother and my aunt saw her but I never did! My aunt always refered to the pub as the Bucket and Gun for what reason I do not know. My daughters visited the village in October 2010 and found the pub closed which was sad and no one seemed to know where the cottages were situated. I of course do know because they are firmly fixed in my memory. I emigrated to Australia in 1967 and my aunt died in 1958 so that my association with Eridge ceased but it is interesting to read other memories of that very special place. '