At Home With the Edmunds' - Barkers Hill

My father was Robert Percy Edmunds. His father was Herbert Edmunds and his mother Ethel Cobern. The family home whilst my father was growing up was Hill Top, Barkers Hill, Semley, Near Shaftesbury, Wiltshire.

My late father left passed-on several memories of this home ...

It was from one of the upper floor windows of this house that my father fell when he was about two years old. Fortunately no lasting damage was done! 

My grandmother one day dropped a pudding on the floor. It fell to pieces but she put it back on the plate to serve it anyway. My grandfather apparently said: "Well that looks a bloody mess dear", upon which she deposited the contents of the plate on his head!

My grandparents ran a small grocery shop from the house. It is listed in Kelly's Directory from 1923; for 1939 it reads, "Edmunds Herbert, Grocer, Barkers Hill". Mention is made of the shop in a discovered childhood memoir by a woman only identified by the initials K.K. "Mrs Edmunds had a little shop at the top of Barkers Hill - just a few groceries and stamps. I often had to run up there when we ran out of tea or sugar".

Click here to read the full memoir of a childhood in Semley

My grandfather apparently had little formal education but was self taught and local people often came to him for advice; my grandmother would often be called upon to attend births and deaths.

My grandfather often said that this cottage would one day be worth a fortune - he was right, today it is probably worth about half-million pounds! Shame it is no longer in the family!

Electoral Register

Looking at the 1925 electoral register, Herbert and Ethel are both there.
On the electoral register for 1934 Herbert and Ethel are both listed as living here, along with their son Albert William Edmunds and his wife Hannah Elizabeth.
The 1939 register mentions Herbert and Ethel, and also my dad's brother Clifford.

Evacuation Register

The Edmunds' home appears on the Evacuation register for 1940.We find there that the house has five habitable rooms and four people ordinarily present. The possible number of persons who could be accommodated is given as one.

To be continued