Fond Memories Of Betton Hall

A Memory of Market Drayton.

I lived at Betton Hall from 1940 - 1943, with my three brothers. As wartime evacuees from Manchester, we lived with the Crompton family who had three sons in the RAF; two were killed and the surviving son, who was a Lancaster bomber pilot, flew 60 missions.
We rafted on the lake in the summer when we spent long lazy hours fishing. It was idyllic, and in the winter when it froze to a thickness of several inches, we skated and sledged. Through the long hard winter of 1940, we were snowed in for weeks.
The family always dressed for dinner in the evenings when the men wore dinner suits and the ladies wore long evening gowns. They were summoned to the dining room by a loud gong which could be heard all over the house. After dinner in summer the family usually sat out on the terrace to chat and drink coffee. There was a very productive walled kitchen garden and a pretty rose garden with bee hives. It was an age that has now gone for ever.
After the death of Mr.Crompton, the house was sold to a builder who cut down all the majestic cedars and other magnificent trees. In the early 1890s, Oswald Mosley's mother took her family to live there after discovering her husband had been unfaithful to her. Now only a third of its original size, it stands as a sad but fond memory of its former self. I kept in touch with the family until the last one died six years ago, age 94.