Marshs And Kennetts

A Memory of West Ashling.

My mum grew up in a house called Fernlea in West Ashling. She was the youngest of 8 children by Ron and Frances Marsh. Frances was also known as Cissy and was a Kennett - who had been in West Ashling when she was a child. She and her two brothers, Albert and Willie, went to the village school. One day when Willie was walking across the green behind the school (I think) to blow the whistle to call the kids in, one boy threw a stone (in play), it hit Willie in the temple and he died. I would like to write a family history of their time in Ashling and would love to hear any other memories. Cissy also played the little organ in the chapel nearby near the entrance road to Woodend. One day, when Mum was about 9, Mildred Price had a birthday party at Woodend and Mum was invited. She was supposed to have been given a lift, but it never turned up, not wanting to miss the party she decided to walk all the way. Someone spotted her and told her mum, and she was picked up and taken home. The Marshs left West Ashling in the late 1930s to move to St Martins Street, Chichester.

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