My Short Time Spent Living With A Family When I Was About 10 Yrs Old

A Memory of King's End.

My brother, was in the army and was wounded and sent to a hospital near Banbury, where he met and married a nurse, who was living with her parents in Kings Sutton. I went to live with her parents, and attended the local school. Her father had a farm, and each day he would walk from the farm, with milk in buckets hanging from a yoke on his shoulders, to sell in their tiny shop. I don't think I was allowed in the shop, but I saw the village people bring their jugs for the milk. My bedroom was opposite a pub which was used by service men, I can't recall the name of the pub.
The house was very basic, no bathroom just an outside toilet down the end of the garden. The farmer had two spinster sisters, their house seemed to me to be at the end of our garden, that's where they always seemed to appear from.!! We would walk to church for the morning and evening service each Sunday - bells and smells !! I remember the Manor house near the church very clearly, my two friends (evacuated from London) lived in that big house. I remember the girls names, also the the names of the family that I lived with, but I dont think it would be fair to put them in print. Now and again, the family used to go into Banbury, where we had lardy cake and I think Sally Lunn cake? Our few and far evening trips to Banbury for the cinema, were not always successful. The bus would be full by the time it got to our stop, I was so upset having to go back home. There was a co-op in the village, the girl that worked there invited me to join the drama group, which i did. Now and again we held shows in a hall. I remember so many things about my life living there. The school, a boy in my class called Donald, (he named a calf after me - I wasnt impressed). The teachers, Miss Morefew and Mrs Richards. I have no recollection of any other friends, apart from the London sisters, I dont think I ever left the house to play outside, but pehaps I did. The cobbler shop, the rec, Sam the farm bull. Having to wash with rain water from a barrel in the back garden.The rail station where we used to wave to the train drivers. I will never forget the family that looked after me. I have a lasting memory of my time spent with them. I held a concert for the RSPCA in the back garden - I sang and danced. There must have been a group of us kids, wonder if any of them remember me. It was a lifetime ago, the money raised from the show was for Russian War Horses!! My brother and his wife divorced - they both remarried. I left Kings Sutton and I must have been missed - I can't even recall keeping in touch. I stayed at home in Shropshire until I left to train as a nursery nurse in Birmingham. Years went by, I wrote one letter, by then I must have been married, but not sure (it was so long ago). I got a reply. My mother said I had done something she had always wanted to do - but didn't want to interfere, that was my only letter. I wonder if the family are buried in the chuch grounds at St Peter/ St Paul? If I thought they were, I would try to visit their graves. I live in Sussex and have no photos of the family. I have just one snapshot of my late brother's ex wife, she is with a group of nurses in their uniforms. My brother went to live in Western Australia, he died of cancer several years ago. We were a family of six, now there are just two of us living. My sister is older than me, she remembers my time spent away from home, but she didn't visit me, so can't help me with more facts. The family had a dog called Monty, also a cat called Jane. I was allowed to keep one of her kittens, and called her Tina. Years later I called our family dog Monty.

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