Memories Of Kelstern

A Memory of Kelstern.

I was born in 1947 in a farm cottage opposite the farm house at Cold Harbour (near Swinhope). My Dad (Harry) was a farm worker and we moved to Kelstern before I started school and lived in the semi-detached house opposite the triangular green in the village. My brother, Peter was a year and a half younger than me.

As John Appleton says, Mr & Mrs Peacock lived on the other side of our house. At the bottom of the garden there was a pig sty for each house. My Dad kept a pig as did the Peacocks. Dad fattened it up with scraps and pig swill until it came the day when our pig had to be slaughtered. This was a sad day. Dad was soft at heart and could never watch.

Everyone worked together in cutting up the slaughtered pig, making pork pies, sausages, haslet and other pork delicacies. They also salted the larger cuts of meat for storing. (We had no fridge or freezer.) My mother (Olive) made up a number of pig's frys (samples of the pig's liver, sausages, etc on a platter). She gave these to family and friends as was the local custom when a pig was killed.

I well remember Kelstern CofE School. When I started there in 1952, Mrs AM Robinson was Headmistress. I remember she had a black Ford Popular - quite posh at the time - and lived on Legbourne Road in Louth. In fact, she was the only teacher, as there were only about ten or twelve pupils. A School Attendance Officer would sometimes visit. His name was Mr Goodladd. A travelling dentist would also visit the school. If any of us needed dental work he would do it using a drill that worked on a treaddle he worked with his foot. I had a tooth filled. Not very pleasant. I also remember the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 when all of us received a commemorative mug and plate. Mrs Robinson was still Headmistress in 1958 when I left for King Edward VI Boys' Grammar School at Louth. A proud day for me as I had scraped in by passing the oral part of the 11+.

My brother, Peter, eventually started at the school a couple of years behind me with our cousin, Kenneth Crawford (son of Bill and Joyce Crawford, my Uncle and Aunt who lived in the part of the semi at the rear of the Post Office run by Mr and Mrs Rands.)

Peter also then went to Louth Boys' Grammar SchooI. Very sadly, he died when he was only 11 years old and is buried in Kelstern Church yard.
I also remember Josephine Fowler (daughter of Johnie and Nell Fowler who lived at Kelstern Grange on Davy's farm) was a fellow pupil in the same year group as me. She went to Louth Girls' Grammar School and eventually became a Prison Governor.

I remember the three tithe cottages adjacent to the school, Bert and Margery Vickers, Mr and Mrs Traves and Betty Traves.
Mr and Mrs Fell lived in the blacksmith's house on the opposite side of the road to our house.

Mr Harry and Mrs Alice Brockelbank were my Uncle and Aunt. WelI, I called them Uncle and Aunt but, strictly speaking, they weren't related. They were wonderful people. When my Dad's mother and father died when he was still young, they took in Dad and his younger siblings, Bill and Eadie although they already had two children of their own (Sybil and Jack Sykes). They lived in one of the cottages on the opposite side of the green to our house.

I remember just on the edge of the village on the road towards Binbrook was a house we called the Signal Box. I used to play with a boy who lived there whose last name I think was Bell.

I remember the Lincolnshire Road Car service bus to Louth only actually came into the village on a Saturday in the morning and came back in the afternoon. We had no car so that was the limited opportunity for shopping in Louth.

On a Saturday night, as a treat, our family would occasionally use John Drew's taxi of Binbrook to travel to my Gran and Grandad's (Mary and Alan Giles) in Binbrook. It was my job to go to the phone box outside Kelstern Post Office, put four old pennies in the slot and dial Binbrook 217 for the taxi, pressing button A when they answered. The men would go to the Plough pub in Binbrook and the women and kids would catch up with Gran and enjoy her fantastic cooking and baking.

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