Your letters
Memories of people & places past
When you’re a child wanting to play outside with your mates, having to go on a Sunday with your parents to see your great-aunt and uncle becomes a bit of a wretch. Back then I wasn’t interested in history and thought it very weird that they had a toilet outside, didn’t have a TV and grew their own fruit and veg.
Whilst my mum helped in the cottage and dad helped on the land, my brother and I had the job of picking the apples, plums and gooseberries. Then once all the jobs had been done it was time for tea and I fondly remember my great-aunt singing to the hymns on the wireless.
Having got the family history bug many years ago, thinking about those Sundays now, I wish I could turn back the clocks. I have so many unanswered questions as to how they got through certain times of their lives. On the other hand I am also very lucky to have many photographs, diaries, newspaper articles and letters along with memories from my dad that have now been passed onto me.
Their wonderful early to mid 17th century thatch cottage in the village of Over in Cambridgeshire is full of history.
Mrs Smart and then Jonas Smith had a sweet shop and general stores within the cottage which had to be made larger due to increased trade in 1847 when the railway was built. The shop opened in 1826 and closed in 1926 – exactly 100 years
