Gratwich memories
Here are memories of Gratwich and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Gratwich or a Gratwich photo.
Vicar's Daughter Growing up in Gratwich
After living in Jamaica and Barbados for some years, we returned and my father became priest-in-charge of Gratwich and Kingstone in the 1970s and early 1980s. I was the eldest of five. Our crumbling, draughty, white-and-blue Queen Anne vicarage, now done up with deluxe helipad, was as if out of an Albert Camus novel. We swam in the marl pit at the back in summer and skated in winter, and played and rode our little welsh ponies in the fields around us and went swimming with the ponies in the pond in the river Blythe at the back of St Mary's, the Georgian gem of a church where Mrs Caldwell played the pedal organ and her daugher Joy sang with a voice to match her name and the prayer books still referenced King George.
Memories of Staffordshire
Family History
While researching my family tree I've come across an Anthony Martin (born 1746 in Mapperley, Derbyshire) who died in Fradswell in May 1821 and was buried there on May 29 1821. I wonder which churchyard he's in or whether there are any Martins still living locally.
The Brook
Wonderful memories! It was awonderful place to have grown up. I learned to swim in the brook, aged about 11 years. I wonder who wrote the following which I was taught in school. Very appropriate! "Little stream flowing through woodland and valley, down where the lovely forgetmenots grow, where are you going Oh clear rippling water, down through the meadows where willows bend low. Little birds love you they drink of your water, whom is so cool on a warm summer's day. Dancing above you the dragon flies flitter, then in the moonlight the fox come to play".
The Photograph is of my Mother.
I'm a little young to remember the post office as it is in the photograph, but I can say that the girl in the pushchair is my mother and the lady behind is one of my great aunts. Three of my great aunts built and ran the store and post office at the bottom of the village, i don't know exactly when it was built though. I believe the photograph to be earlier than 1955 as my mother was born in 1949 and she looks younger than 6.
Our Childhood
My twin sister and me were brought up in Hixon from babies till we were about 10, we were known as the Taylor Twins. We first lived with our nan in the house that stands at the top of Smithie Lane and Featherbed Lane, we then moved into what was called The Baths, it was a 1 up 1 down house next door to a Mrs Greenwood which was behind Prestons Yard. We moved into a 2 up 2 down in the baths. Mum used to have to light a fire in a copper boiler to get hot water and bath nights was in a tin bath in front of an open range. We used to listen to 'Dan Dare' and 'Range Riders' on the radio. Eight families had to share the outside toilet which was a tin hut in the lane. We walked to school on the path outside our house and over the style and crossed a field into the school.
It is great to see the old... Read more
Hixon Village
I was 6 when we moved to Hixon from Stowe by Chartley. My dear dad Len, my 2 sisters Rose and Sue and my 2 brothers Gray and Mick. We lived in the Croft no 24, my brother still lives in that house today overlooking the woods that were there and the fields. I have very happy memories of this lovely village. We all schooled at Broadacres and it was a very tight knit community. The Clemsons i think were the largest family in the village and they are still going strong! I just purchased 2 calenders from this site one of Hixon and one of Gt Haywood, and the memories flooded back. As a child I loved this village and now as I face 50, I love the memories as much. Thank you for letting me travel back to my childhood on this site...
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