Growing Up In Ickham

A Memory of Ickham.

I came to live with my grandparents in Treasury View after my mother had died in a car accident where we lived, on the Isle of Wight. I had been to Ickham before as a baby, and in later years was told many times by neighbours of being bathed in front of the fire in my gran's house! I left in 1972, but I have wonderful memories of watching the blacksmith at work, being confirmed in St Johns, not being allowed into the Duke William, Mrs Clegg's sweet shop, Len & Frank Coombes & the Bennetts who ran the shop and post office; I was taught how to weigh sugar and tea into bags. My grandfather was the gardener for Sir Charles & Lady Empson in Seaton, where I used to pick apricots and collect eggs. My father & uncles were all grocery boys & played cricket - some for Ickham, the others for Wickhambreaux. My brother and I both followed in their footsteps and went to Wickhambreaux Primary. There were tree houses to build in the woods, pill boxes to set up camp in behind the church, rivers to catch minnows in, we were never bored! I wouldn't change it for anything.