Louth, Mercer Row c1955

Topliss drapers 1882-1975

I wonder if anyone remembers Topliss, 16 Mercer Row? It was there until 1975 when it was taken over by Boyes. It was probably the last shop in Britain to have a "cash railway" for taking customers' payments to the cashier and returning the change. The money travelled in a hollow wooden ball, like a croquet ball cut in half. There is a photo on The Cash Railway Website. Cash ball systems were generally supreseded by overhead wire or pneumatic tube systems.

Henson ancestry

An ancester of mine, Edith Rebecca Henson, lived in Worlaby in the late 1800s/early 1900s in Low Road or Top Road, Worlaby. She lived with the Rusling family as a niece. She married Richard Frank Henson in 1905. They shared the same surname but were they related - maybe cousins? Richard came from Scawby. I would like to hear from anyone who knows of this family as I am doing family history on the Henson family but I can't find out anything about Edith after 1905.

Growing up

North Somercotes played a large part in my growing up, I lived with my parents, sister and brother on the Lakeside Lido in St Annes Avenue, next to my friend Cherry Mayfield. I particularly remember when we both had chickenpox and our mothers ran a line through our bedroom windows so we could play noughts and crosses back and forth.
I went to the local primary school, and The John Birkbeck Secondry Modern School as it was called back then. Mr Aegeter was the headmaster at the time. I also remember Miss Vickers the PE teacher.
I have fond memories of our weekend bike rides through the countryside of North and South Somercotes, there would be a group of us, myself, Cherry, Jill, and Andrew Humberstone to mention a few, we would leave in the mornings with a picnic lunch and ride around untill late afternoon when it would be time to return home.
Since leaving the village and emigrating to Australia with my family I have often wondered what happened to all the people I knew back then. I see from the maps of the area that the village has grown considerably in comparison to the size it used to be.
Thank you  North Somercotes for some very fond childhood memories

Calceby ... my soul mate.

Calceby... I came to live here in 1947, not a country girl by birth, having lived in Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, for the first fourteen years of my life. This hamlet was to become my home for the next three years, isolated and  buried in the heart of the wolds. I came to know every part of the landscape, and walking very soon became my hobby.  My interest in history became larger than life because here I was surrounded with evidence  of a long forgotten past.
The ruined St Andrews Church on the top of the hill was my playground, and most days I would spend my time exploring every nook and cranny, and under the turf surrounding the walls lay the inhabitants, what a wealth of stories they could have told me of the lives and deaths of this small and unobtrusive village.

The Black Death was soon to come and desolate the population, leaving it
ruined and abandoned. The once village now became a hamlet, and without its inhabitants the church was soon obsolete. Life did carry on but never returned to how it once had been.

I only wish I could have learnt so much more of the history that surrounded Calceby while I lived there, my memories will always be with me, and I have returned a few times just to stand on the bridge and listen to the stream go by as I did as a child. I see my home is still there, and what's left of the ruins!!
I have even seen a wonderful sunset once more, breathtaking in its entirety. Who could wish for more!!