Swyre Puncknowle, The Bride Valley
Ancestral Research Web Site
Ancestral Research Web Site
I spent many years visiting people in their homes in connection with my work, and being naturally nosey and hopefully being a nice person, I most times started a conversation, I also sadly realised that for many of my older customers I was the only person they had spoken to that day or week!
During these years I heard many fascinating and interesting stories, stories that I often remembered with a smile. Then I realised that as a human I had made an un-repairable mistake, because today I try and remember all those stories and all I now recall is the odd one or two.
My mistake: I thought I would never forget all those people or the stories they had told me, why didn’t I either record them or write them down?
Today I have learnt the hard way, so many questions I should have asked, so many stories I should have recorded, now I note everything including the little smile that I see when a story is told.
Snippets of memoirs:
Lady in Hyde
“My aunt was standing next to Mr Churchill looking out from the cliffs at Dover, there was a huge storm, crashing and banging of thunder and lighting. The aunt stood her ground so as not to show Mr Churchill her fear!
Short time later Mr Churchill was speaking to her husband explaining what an amazing wife he had! As she had stood so strongly as the storm raged.
Then poor Mr Churchill explained that he was actually petrified but had to stand his ground because of the wonderful strength of the chap’s wife! “
Lovely ‘old’ lady in Percy Avenue, Botany Bay, Kingsgate (Reminded me of the perfect Granny!).
After much debate and discussion, this Lovely Lady was sitting at her kitchen table with a big smile on her face, egging me on to guess what her ‘career’ / job had been. After about an hour I gave up, and said please tell me?
To which a simple reply came again with a huge smile.
‘’My dear ‘boy’ I and all my neighbours in this terrace were Mistresses of London Business Men’’!
Pause with smile
“We knew what was expected from us, and all the time we were in favour, we had a place to live and an allowance! I was one of the very lucky ones I got to keep this house, I suppose today you would say for services rendered” (with a big smile on her face).
“You didn’t expect that did you” an even bigger smile.
We then sat and spoke for an hour about what an interesting life she had had (shame I can’t remember it all).
And yes she was right; I never would have guessed what she had done!
A man that lived on the corner
My opening words were; “I like your gate posts” (there were Lions heads on them).
After a while the gent said:
“They were a gift from the Royal Family, after a life time of service”
A little smile
“My job was a Gold Thread Embroiderer”
What a shame I did not record all these little stories over the years.
During these years I heard many fascinating and interesting stories, stories that I often remembered with a smile. Then I realised that as a human I had made an un-repairable mistake, because today I try and remember all those stories and all I now recall is the odd one or two.
My mistake: I thought I would never forget all those people or the stories they had told me, why didn’t I either record them or write them down?
Today I have learnt the hard way, so many questions I should have asked, so many stories I should have recorded, now I note everything including the little smile that I see when a story is told.
Snippets of memoirs:
Lady in Hyde
“My aunt was standing next to Mr Churchill looking out from the cliffs at Dover, there was a huge storm, crashing and banging of thunder and lighting. The aunt stood her ground so as not to show Mr Churchill her fear!
Short time later Mr Churchill was speaking to her husband explaining what an amazing wife he had! As she had stood so strongly as the storm raged.
Then poor Mr Churchill explained that he was actually petrified but had to stand his ground because of the wonderful strength of the chap’s wife! “
Lovely ‘old’ lady in Percy Avenue, Botany Bay, Kingsgate (Reminded me of the perfect Granny!).
After much debate and discussion, this Lovely Lady was sitting at her kitchen table with a big smile on her face, egging me on to guess what her ‘career’ / job had been. After about an hour I gave up, and said please tell me?
To which a simple reply came again with a huge smile.
‘’My dear ‘boy’ I and all my neighbours in this terrace were Mistresses of London Business Men’’!
Pause with smile
“We knew what was expected from us, and all the time we were in favour, we had a place to live and an allowance! I was one of the very lucky ones I got to keep this house, I suppose today you would say for services rendered” (with a big smile on her face).
“You didn’t expect that did you” an even bigger smile.
We then sat and spoke for an hour about what an interesting life she had had (shame I can’t remember it all).
And yes she was right; I never would have guessed what she had done!
A man that lived on the corner
My opening words were; “I like your gate posts” (there were Lions heads on them).
After a while the gent said:
“They were a gift from the Royal Family, after a life time of service”
A little smile
“My job was a Gold Thread Embroiderer”
What a shame I did not record all these little stories over the years.
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