Childhood Days

A Memory of Bawdrip.

When I was 8 and my brother 10, we went to live in Bawdrip for a short while with my dad who was working there at the time. He took us to stay with an elderly couple, Mr and Milliner, where he was lodging and they looked after us while my dad was at work. (This would not have been easy as we argued most of the time!) Their house was called Bitham Bungalow and they had a golden labrador called Sandy. My brother drew a picture of him and they put it on their wall.

My first memory of Bawdrip was walking up a country road in the sunshine with poppy fields on either side and seeing Ma Milliner (we called them Ma and Pa Milliner) standing at her gate in the distance waving to us. They were so good to us and Pa Milliner, who had an old black car, took us one day to Weston Super Mare and I remember scrambling up and down the sand dunes and having a great time. I will never forget Bawdrip and intend revisiting there sometime soon. I anticipate that Bitham Bungalow no longer exists and although I have looked on Google Earth, I can see that there are lots of new houses around the village and I don't know where to start to even find where the bungalow was situated back in 1958. Can anyone help? My memories are all good ones.

Coming from a large city (Glasgow) life was idyllic in Bawdrip. The sun always seemed to shine, although this is probably just how I see it now. We made friends with a girl and boy called Shirley and Paul Ellis who used to visit their grandmother I think, who lived in a house just a few doors along the road. I remember sitting in her back garden which had yellow marigolds growing down the side of the lawn. This lady had a cigarette machine in her hallway and my dad used to give us money to go to her house and buy his cigarettes.

I seem to remember there was a little shop not too far away where we could buy ice lollies and if my memory serves me right there was a petrol station/garage quite nearby.

Sometimes in the evening my dad would walk with us to the Knowle Inn where he would have a pint of cider and we would have lemonade and crisps. Then on the walk back in the dark we would see bats flying overhead in and out of the trees which was quite scary, but as long as I had my wee hand in my dad's big hand I felt safe.

One day I will return. x

---

---