The Picture House

A Memory of Rilla Mill.

How many people remember the picture shows which were held in a hut at the top of the hill. I was one of the London evacuees billeted at Minions, and some of us would walk to the pictures and back again - how far was that! We were at Upton Cross school and I can recall the class being told to bring a lunch to school one day as Mr Bartholomew, our teacher, was to take us up on the moors, I think towards Sharp Tor, to see a bomb crater. Relations of the elderly couple I lived with owned Addicroft Mill, they were George and Ethel Pike, and we loved going there. I believe the Mill was bought at one time by the author and artist Norman Thelwell, and I have his book, 'A Millstone Round My Neck', with his drawing of the Mill. I used to visit Cornwall most years and always came back to Minions, usually to have a pub lunch, and then drove down the hill to Upton X and on to Rilla Mill, it's now too far to drive sadly, but I was very pleased to find this web site. I was then Eileen Whatley, but doubt if there would be anyone who remembers me, and if there is and they would like to get in touch, I am in the book for Highcliffe, Dorset.