Herbert William Day Cotswold Stone Builder 29/05/1893 1/2/1986

A Memory of Calcot.

My first school was Botany; now a house. Children from the local villages went to Botany School until they reached the age of ten, then to Chedworth School. I remember the village as 19 houses and very few children. My adopted father was the local builder. He used to live in the village just down from the pump which served the village for water; his yard was half way up. The milk came in by horse and cart - you took your jug out to have it filled. Post you fetched from Fosse-Bridge. We later moved to the last house in Calcot - had to go past the Harvey's house, his sister and his mother used to live in the original house there but he took all but one wall down and rebuilt the house. We sold that to the Clarke family and bought the Barn House, which my adopted father had made into a house from the barn. This was done for Mr Rice, where I remember the pigs being killed - that was in the centre of the village. I remember the bomb being dropped at Splash, hiding under the double bed; hated the gas mask.
I returned back to England to sell this house as my father was in Bafford House, Charlton Kings. As children, many of us had a sledge which we used to use on the hill opposite the bottom house. Over by the Botany school there was a whirlpool in the river; fun times had there. An old Cart Horse being teased by one of the lads, he got his own back - he kicked the lad and broke his leg. Old bike wheels being raced down the hill at Calcot. The bus shelter was built for us children by my father. Last time I came to England it was still there, kept us warm and dry after the climb up the only other hill out of Calcot; we had to catch the school bus from here. The village was often snowed in, one time we could not go to Botany school, the snow was way above our heads and a tunnel was dug to get bread and milk in to the village. Other memories: catching tadpoles in the river, the Swans that would come after you if you went to close to their nest, in those days the toilets were what we called long drops. Mary Cook, my Dad's sister, was at that time the only one with a phone. She also had a little shop. Later we had a phone and later still the village had a post box and a phone box; when I was thirteen the electric came to the village. I left Calcot at 15 years of age and boarded in Charlton Kings were I met my husband and in 1966 we came to South Australia. Calcot when I last saw it in 1989 had many changes. I have since found my real family and have brothers and sisters but I will always be grateful to Ada and Herbert Day for taking me on - think I might have been a handful!!!!
Herbert was born at Splash Cottages over the river from my first school, from there he moved to Coln Rogers, married and returned, renting Splash Cottages from the Peach Family and later buying their first home in Calcot. Both Ada and Herbert Day are buried at Coln St. Dennis' small cemetery, Botany Road with many of their family. I was married at Coln St. Dennis Church. Hope you find this interesting. I have so many memories of village life.

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