We met at John's today just eight of us. Sheila's story was about school village life and a young lad inheriting a cottage later on in life. John played out a James Bond scenario shooting villains which turned out to be playing a video game. I wrote about how I thought up my story. Joan wrote of an old man remembering his past life and then his children and grandchildren arrived. Pat gave the illusion of investing in property but it was just a game. Rosemary told of a £10 pom returning to her roots visiting the places she played as a child.
Brian told us of an unfortunate Miller who was found to be cheating his customers and paid a high price for his crime losing his entire property.
Ann got most votes for her story
Next month "It looked like"
The Entire Property
Joyce and her husband Reg lived about fifteen miles from Bristol on the edge of a small village nestling in the folds of the Mendip Hills. They were farmers; at least Reg was, having been brought up on the farm he then inherited from his parents. Joyce had been a teacher, but when she married, she gave up her job and concentrated on becoming a good farmer's wife. As the war progressed and more and more children were being evacuated to the country, Joyce put the suggestion to Reg that maybe they could take in some. He had no objections, so Joyce decided to present him with her full plan. They lived in a large rambling house and as she was a trained teacher maybe they could have about twenty children and she could teach them with the help of their daughter who was about to leave school herself. They could employ a couple of the young women from the village to help with the children and in the house. Initially Reg was doubtful, but Joyce was very persuasive and eventually everything was set and they were ready to greet their new guests. The countryside proved to be quite a new experience for most of the evacuees although they quickly settled into their new routine. School work was completed as hastily as possible so they could get outside and enjoy exploring and helping with any small tasks they could on the farm. Towards the end of November, Bristol experienced its first Blitz. It started at six in the evening and for six hours the city was bombarded as wave after wave of the bombers droned overhead. The sky over Bristol was aglow with the crimson and orange from the burning buildings. Eventually it eased off and as the planes returned some discharged the remains of their cargo before completing their journey. The farmhouse received a direct hit and as the emergency crews arrived they could see the entire property was smouldering.
Fast-forward seventy years. The Walking group of the USA had decided to take a short break in the Mendips. They were staying in a small hotel near Cheddar. The weather had been very good as it always was on these trips and again they were joking that the organiser must have a direct line to the top man. At breakfast they were discussing their trip for that day and chatting to their host. When they mentioned their proposed route, he said they must look out for the chapel. They couldn't miss it and should have a look around it. Having looked at the route map, they were rather mystified as there didn't appear to be any chapel or church marked, however, they set off and after a very pleasant walk over quite undulating countryside noticed what appeared to be the outline of a chapel across the valley, just off the track they were on. It was decided to veer off and take a look. What they saw was quite extraordinary. It was the ruins of quite a large house and around the boundary walls the trees had grown forming new walls. The branches met overhead to form a vaulted roof and at one end on the corner there was one very tall tree that towered above the rest like a spire. On one shorter side there was an opening. They all trooped inside to find the floor covered in moss and the light shining through the branches of the trees shed a tracery onto the moss like stained glass windows. Someone had fashioned a wooden cross and placed it at the end on a large flat stone. Beside it there was a small posy of fresh flowers. There was also a wooden plaque underneath on which was written," Nature and the Elements have designed and constructed this chapel on the site where twenty five people lost their lives on 24th November 1940. Twenty were young children from the London area and the remaining five from our community. This is dedicated to them all."
