Dear Jane
The
stone cottages you are looking to locate were next to Blind Lane and in
fact the one to the left was two up and two down. The reason for knowing
this was that my grandmother Mary Monk kept house for the occupant who was
Harry Goode. She stayed with Harry from 1939 to 1962 although they did
move to the new Council House development in Middleton in 1950s. The
blocked off door by the cottages was where the bucket toilet was sited
along with all of Harry’s gardening tools. There wasn’t a lock on the door
so every one sang very loudly.
All
of my family came to the village during the World War 2 and even after
1945 we came back and stayed at the cottage many times.
I’ve also read David Dodd’s war time piece
about the evacuees and at the end he mentioned my cousin Harry
Farey (correct spelling) – well he is now 74
but he can still be found tap dancing at family weddings and parties!
I
intend sending an E-Mail in the next couple of months about our time as
evacuees in Cottingham with a few photos which I’ve managed to obtain. The
Email will give a lot more details about the cottage and all of us are
intending to invade your lovely village next year – so look for a crowd
carrying our little cases and gas masks.
Mike Williams
(on behalf of the Williams, Monk, Farey, Irwin
and Hebden families)
26 August, 2005
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