Norman, 93, recalls long-disappeared cottages

There can be few, as Norman Jones of Marchamley tells us they were knocked down in his childhood – and he is 93.

"There were six thatched cottages which were knocked down in the early 1930s and two council houses were built in their place," he says.

"My granddad lived on one end and my aunty lived on the other end. My granddad's name was Jack Jones and he was a cobbler."

Mr Jones thinks he would have run his cobbling business from the property.

"My aunt who lived at the other end was Ethel Campani. I think it was an Italian name. She was my granddad's sister.

"I am 93 and I remember these houses. When I was tiny we had to spend a night in my granddad's house. There was a hole in the bedroom floor. You could look through the hole and see what was going on in the kitchen below."

Mr Jones is not sure exactly where he was living at that time.

"We lived in various houses. I have lived in Wollerton and Marchamley for most of my life. I lived in Wollerton for 30 years and had 12 months in Wellington, got this house in Marchamley in 1962 and have been here ever since.

"I left school when I was 14 and worked on a farm. That was not far away, only three miles away from where I am living now."

Mr Jones did work as a farming contractor, then worked in a meat factory in Shrewsbury.

"I finished my working days at Dairy Crest in Crudgington, packing butter."

We also have the memories, albeit from 1983, of Mrs Freda Lewis, of Chestnut Road, Market Drayton.

The cottages at Bean Bank were opposite the village post office. Mrs Lewis had her own copy of the picture, passed on to her by her mother, Mrs Sarah Richards. The cottage on the right was owned at some point by Mrs Richards' father, Frederick Bradbury.

"Some of my earliest childhood memories are of visiting that cottage to see my grandfather," Mrs Lewis had said.