Nanpantan Years

A Memory of Woodhouse Eaves.

We moved to Nanpantan from Birmingham in 1949, I was almost 6 years old. We lived there down Snells Nook Lane until 1954 when we moved to Kent. I loved Nanpantan and its area and have always considered it home. My best friend was Diane Mathes who lived at Alton Lodge in Snells Nook Lane and also Janet Smith and Josephine Illsley. Josephine had very bad asthma and I often wondered if she ended up doing OK, we didn't have all of the inhalers back then. I took horse riding lessons from a woman named Jill Stamper who lived on the Forest Road towards Loughborough, she walked with a bad limp as she had had polio when a child. I went to Mountfields Primary School and then to Loughborough High School, but was only there one term and we then moved away to Kent. I now live in the U.S. but my mind often goes back to those happy childhood years in Nanpantan. My maiden name was Wootton, I also have an older brother Peter who used to golf regularly at the golf course right across from my house, which was called Links Gate. I often wonder why, when I think of childhood, the days are always sunny, I rarely remember rain.

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