My grandmother with four of her grandchildren – my cousins. On the right is Barbara, and next to her her brother Adrian. The other tw0 are Pat and Stephen. I think the picture was taken in about 1951 or 1952  at The Hawthorns, the bungalow in Poringland which was my grandparents’ last home together. It had a pump in the kitchen for water, and the ooutside toilet was not connected to mains sewerage.

We had just moved to Coventry. My youngest brother, Philip, was born there in 1952.