My Earlist Memories

A Memory of East Harlsey.

My earliest memories are of East Harlsey where my father was an undergardener at the Hall. The owners were the Constantine family, whose business was something to do with shipping in the North East. We lived in a tied cottage one of four near the Hall and Church. Before I was old enough to go to school we used to go to Osmotherly, I think on a Tuesday, to the clinic and to get the orange juice which came concentrated in a medicine bottle. I went to the village school in 1952 when I was five years old and believe the teacher was Mrs Lyle. I used to take the answers to the homework questions written on the inside cover of a Bero flour bag, the answers being provided by my dad. There were films shown in the beautiful village hall on a Saturday night after which my dad would have a swift half or two in the Cat and Bagpipes. The shop was run by Mr and Mrs Jordan and a greengrocers van came to the village on a Friday night, the guy selling the greengroceries was Danny Hoare. As a young child I used to fetch the milk from the farm at the top of the village. The farmers were called Alderson and their two sons Ken and Lol worked on the farm. I liked Lol, he used to tease me something rotten but I loved going up there and 'helping' with four shire horses, two black and two larger brown ones. I can'y remember all their names but one was called Daisy and another Blossom.
We moved to near Ripon when I was five and a half years old and then quite alot more after that but I have dear memories of this North Yorkshire village

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