Southdown Cottages

A Memory of Willingdon.

My paternal grandmother`s sister, Aunt Lil (Lily) and husband Uncle Perc (Percy) Noakes lived down the narrow pathway in the middle of the Southdown Cottages. As a child we used to visit them and I remember they had a cottage garden. Originally those cottages at the back were Tea Rooms. Uncle Perc was the local Chimney Sweep and during his working life he was known to most people as everybody had coal fires in those days. I remember him for looking like a Victorian with a long curly moustache. In their retirement they were cleaners of the Midland Bank which is still recognisable but is empty. They had two daughters, my father's cousins Doris and Connie.

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