A Childhood Holiday

A Memory of Bromyard.

My family spent a very happy holiday as guests of the Barnaby famly who owned the castle. About 6 years old, I recall being transported from the station in a Trojan estate car - a most innovative design at the time with its unique diesel engine. Mr Barnaby, a botanist who wrote on Alpine flora, also owned a wonderful long-nosed Allard sports car with a dickie seat formed by opening the boot in which I rode in the open air with much glee. During our stay we rode ponies and followed a rabbit shoot on the estate, but most vivid is the time when the Barnaby children together with my older sisters and I ascended one of the turrets and emerged into a swarm of bees. Screaming with hysteria and with bees crawling in my hair I was rescued in the kitchen by Mrs Barnaby and my mum who administered blue bags and calmed me. I wasn't actually stung but my elder sister was, under the eyes, and her face swelled up so much she looked Mongolian.

Later I learned that the Barnabys moved to Lostwithiel, taking a couple of stone lions with them as memories of the castle which was, I understand, torn down... a fact that caused me some sadness as I had enjoyed my time there (bees excepted) so much. Molly Barnaby, in later life, gained a considerable following as a poetess and had several volumes of her poetry published.