From Leaking Majesty, To Glittering Citadel, And To Dust, The Last Keep Of Travis Court

A Memory of Farnham Royal.

I have a pic of my twin sis Jenny and a paint-brush, it's 1959, she's nearly 8, glossing skirting in the middle kitchen (there were 3). Until it was habitable we used to travel weekends from Sutton ('The Dormers'', No1 Devonshire Avenue, now a school) 441 from Staines, before mum had a car... It was an idyllic childhood, pond-fishing, or lizard hunting with Chris Jubb and Tim King, later we went to the Cellar, Windsor, or the 59 club Battersea Bridge or the Ace Cafe- Tim's first m/bike was a Greeves 250 twin, I used to pillion with his older brother Robert Matchless G3, then a '55 Thunderbird with sprung hub, then a Vincent Comet (about a months wages- now a years!). From empty, semi-derelict Lydia Smithers (ne Gorin von Grozny) made the house and gardens almost palatial and enjoyed them, between smuggling books across the iron curtain, and teaching languages at Slough Tech and other colleges, often in the evening. After her sudden death in 1968, aged just 43, our elder brother Alex came home from exile, and opened house to most notorious names in local parlance. Someone could write a book about what happened next . Best wishes, James