Creamery Cottage

In response to Eric'ss post; I am his cousin mentioned above, Stephen Watson. I lived at Creamery Cottage for the first 4 years of my life (1953-7). To correct a couple of points; the building had a tiled roof. When my father, Alan, tried to level the floor he pulled up some terracotta tiles to find that they were laid on bare earth. He found human bones, but never tlod my mother until we left the cottage. The next occupants were my uncle Cliff Watson with his wife Evelyn and children Jill & Phillip. When we lived there the old Village Institute stood in front of the cottage. One night it burned to the ground, firemen rushing in and out of the cottage, through which I slept soundly! The plot stayed as semi-rubble for few years until it was turned into memorial gardens.

The butcher across the road was Harry Stockdale, my uncle. The shop also incorporated a slaughterhouse alongside. I well remember the blood-curdling squeals if pigs, moos of cows and bleating of sheep and then the ominous gunshot that put them out of their misery. Harry Stockdale lived in the house seen first on the left in the photo. After his death my cousin Brian took over the business and the house. The building immediately to its right in the photo belonged to my uncle's sister Mary Stather. The building was both her home and a tobacconist and confectionery shop, which also sold toys. Uncle Harry owned Creamery Cottage at the time we lived in it. I believe my Uncle Cliff bought the cottage fairly soon after he and his family moved in.
When we moved out of the cottage we stayed in the village but went to Simpson Avenue (No.15 - since renumbered to No.10).

Creamery cottage was across the road from The White Swan Inn. I remember that the village hunt used to assemble in from of the Inn and I used to watch from the cottage window. Also, maybe in 1956 or 1957 the singer Alma Cogan came to preform in Scarborough. She stayed at the White Swan and I could see her car parked outside; it was an Austin Metropolitan in cream in aquamarine. I hoped to catch a glimpse of the singer herself but never did!. Strangely in the 1980's I worked for Honeywell in Brentford west London. Across the road on the roof of the art deco Firestone Building (now sadly demolished) was Alma's Austin Metropolitan, which I could see from my office window.

We moved to Hunmanby in around 1974 and lived on Bridlington St. until 1988. We were friendly with Chris and Roy Bartram. A local farmer, Mr Cope would bring his herd of cattle down Bridlington Street in the morning much to the delight of our two children who had not seen such a sight before.