Newnham, The Flood c.1950

Photo ref: N87006

Was resident at Newnham house ran by Peter prankherd and staff bullied and beaten regularly over 18mth period has was all boys under that roof. We actually lived at the back in dorms wasn't allowed in main house unless summonsed to do work or to get a beating

Walburga Ehrengarde Helena, Lady Paget, 1839 - 1929 Born in Germany was a diarist and the last of Queen Victoria's intimate friends. Lady Paget died of burns after falling asleep by the fire at her home Unlawater House, Newnham on Severn, England, at the age of 90. Nodding over her newspaper in the Small Library of Unlawater House, Lady Paget lapsed gently into sleep. The newspaper slipped ...see more

My parents owned Unlawater House from 1963 until the 1970s. It was their first house when they were in their twenties and they ran it as a private children's home. I spent the first eight years of my life there and have great memories of lunches in the garden. They re-roofed it within the first five years of purchase. The council bought some of the land along the road to widen the road as it kept flooding as a ...see more

This hotel was owned by my mother Patricia Woods till around 1959. Newnham was a busy place then. H G Zeal had a thermometer factory in the High Street. Above the hotel was a dairy farm run by A.Jones (Dean Forest farm). As a matter of interest, the name Unlawater translates to River of Sorrows and was from a time back in history when Lady Padget lived there and a member of the family drowned in the river. Best wishes, Rai Woods. (Captain)