Open days

The lych gate at our village church. As part of the Heritage Open Days Weekend the village Historical Society held a display of old photos of the village and surrounding area in the church. There were several photographs of our house on display, some of which we had seen before and some which were new to us. Our house was built in 1902 as a cottage, workshop and bakery with two doors opening onto the street, both of which have long been bricked up. The bakery was demolished many years ago and we now have a conservatory where it was, and the inside of the house is much altered. One of the previous occupants was the local 'night soil' collector, who used to go round the village emptying the privvies in the days before mains sewerage, and there was a photo of him with his specialised horse drawn cart. One of the older locals remembered that as kids, they used to put a brick into their privvies so that when it was emptied, the night soil man would get splashed!