Birth Place

A Memory of Templecombe.

My birthday, a very cold day 10th December 1944.  My mother had been in a horse and cart delivering milk to the area around Wincanton when the cart turned over into a ditch, this started premature labour and she was taken to Templecombe as the nearest hospital. My mother Phylis Cruickshank had been living at Bitwood Farm, Charlton Musgrove, my father, Donald Stuart Cruickshank, a seaman recently demobbed, was working as a chef at a local hotel.
This information is mainly drawn from my birth certificate and my memory of various stories told by the family over the years.
I would welcome any information, however small, to fill in the many blanks.
My mother divorced my father in 1960 and burnt all records of their time together, I did not know how important this was in my own history, or I would have asked so many more questions when she was alive.
This period seems to have produced so many 'secrets' which today we would regard as commonplace.
I believe there was an article in the 'local' paper about the incident.
I was sad to see the 'hospital' demolished, such a lovely building, perhaps we would have saved it today and made it into a youth centre or community centre.
I have so enjoyed my visit to your site.
Regards......Andrew Cruickshank