Memories of Granparents Harry Hill Lily Richardson
My grandparents hailed from Kingsthorpe and Northampton. They came to Toronto, Ontario in 1907. Grampa ran his own business plaster ornamental mouldings. He did work all around Toronto specifically The Royal Alexandria Theatre in Toronto. I have many happy memories of my grandparents. Grampa always called me "the little nipper". His parents lived at 5 Vicarage Lane. Grampa Harry lost two brothers in WW1. He always told my mother a story of going through the cemetery late at night when he was a child (the cemetery was very close to the house) and a goat being there. He thought it was a ghost and ran like the devil! Mom and I enjoyed a visit to Kingsthorpe in 1998. His father Samuel was a plasterer. My gr-grandmother Ellen Reed was still living during the war and got to meet her nephew George Hill who was serving with the Royal Canadian Engineers. She thought he was her son George who had died in WW1 aboard the HMS Good Hope. My uncle George purchased some heavy bedsocks for her and a bottle from the local pub. She said she had never been so warm in her life!
I have since been in contact with some wonderfully helpful people from Kingsthorpe on the internet who have taken pics of the house in Kingsthorpe.
Best regards to all, Margo Clarke in Ontario, Canada
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RE: RE: Memories of Granparents Harry Hill And Lily Richardson
Thank you for sharing this memory of your family. It is fascinating to read. I live in Kingsthorpe Village and spend hours walking through the quiet streets with my two pre school boys. Part of the old cemetery which is opposite 5 Vicarage Lane has been made into a pocket park with trails through it. My boys love playing there and as I wander around with them, I often think about the people who lived here before us. There is so much history all around as some of the graves are from the early 18th century and the old brick walls surrounding both cemeteries are very, very old.....I think about all the other children who must have enjoyed enjoyed walking along the top of them, just like my boys do! I love walking past all the old houses in the village and I often wonder about their history....who lived there and what life was like for them? I guess it really makes you feel that we are just temporary guardians of an area as it passes through time. Kingsthorpe Village is still a lovely, friendly community with the village green and a beautiful old church and a couple of pubs It is a pleasure to read about people who looked after the area for us all those years ago and looked after it in a way that 100 years later it is still a wonderful place to live.
Comment from Lizzy Maher on Wednesday, 8th June 2011.