Miss Bee

A Memory of Thorpe St Andrew.

Santa Lucia Hotel was owned and run by Marion Olive Barkway, better known as Miss Bee. Marion was my grandmother and we used to visit every Sunday afternoon to help out with evening meals. When I was small I remember standing on the sun terrace fishing and gazing out onto the river. As I grew, I got into canoeing and used to keep my canoe there climbing over the wall to get to the river. Marion had a succession of dogs, alsations and daschunds - Judy, Kelly, Amber. Marion never left the hotel apart from the occasional shopping trip. She was always very happy and evenings she would enjoy sitting in reception and chatting with guests arriving and returning often laughing with them. Marion had the upmost respect of her staff. She would always seem to appear from nowhere if I stopped to speak (chat the girls up as a young lad) - kind of guess she was young once as well and still far too sharp for me. Marion had a way to see past the obvious. She spoke of an employee once who smashed a pile of plates in front of her and said, "now sack me" so she could go on the dole. Marion said, "no you can stay and pay for them".
We often canoe past her old place sometimes several times a day and we always remember. The place was sold in 1994 and ceased as a hotel.