Coming Hopme

A Memory of Taddiport.

I've lived in Taddiport for most of my life, since my late father, John Richard Robinson, bought the former Buckingham Arms Inn from Jimmy Horrell in December 1970. The property had been empty for about four years, having closed as a pub shortly after Whitbreads took over the original brewery owners, Starkey,Knight,& Ford. Originally there were five of us, my maternal grandparents, Henry & Dorothy Brown, my parents John & Margaret Robinson, & myself. After a couple of short term jobs, Father took up work at the big creamery, & Mother soon opened a small riding & livery stables, which she ran until ill health made her decide to retire in 1987. Our two favourite horses also went into retirement at a nearby old horses home, they were Duke the Irish Draught Horse, & Rufus the Shetland Pony. Grandpa Brown died in 1985, Grandma Brown in 1999, Mother in 2003, & Father in 2009. I reinstated the Agricultural Holding status in 1990 when I began breeding Black Welsh Mountain Sheep, & reopened the stables on a smaller scale for livery only in 2006, as a 'Farm Diversification', which continues to this day in conjunction with the smallholding.