People

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Jack Hall

I was born at Canister Hall but we left when I was very young. I can`t remember living there. It was pulled down eventually. It was a big place and maybe it took too much money to do up. I don`t know who owned it. I was named John George and Ida Hollingsworth was my godmother. My father worked as an engine driver on the ironstone railway and in his spare time he did gardening for Mrs Clem until he was 82 or 83. He then lived up the Ropewalk where Mr and Mrs Dexter now live. Read more....

David Howitt

I am David Howitt and I was born at Stainby but I now live at Skillington. I was born in 1946 and I was a big boy when I was born, eleven and a half pounds. I went to Stainby Primary School. There were 12 of us in the school at the time that was all. Then I went to King's School at Grantham for five years. I enjoyed it there up to a certain point but I was always associated with livestock and nobody was interested in that sort of thing at the school, it was all book-work. The thing that I did enjoy was the sport. I used to play cricket and rugby for the King's School. When I left school I played football for South Witham on Sundays and rugby for Kesteven Rugby Club on Saturdays every weekend when I wasn't working. I went to work for a farmer at Stainby, Mr Thompson, and stayed 7 or 8 years doing general work on the farm but mostly sheep. Then I went to work for a gentleman at Saxby near Melton Mowbray because I got more money and there were more sheep. I worked there for five years and then I was offered a better job working for Mr Bradley at Skillington. He was going to have a big sheep flock and wanted a shepherd who was capable of looking after a lot of sheep. Read more....

George Howitt 1925-2006

My war-experience, I`ll tell you, is not all that dramatic. A lot of people had enough things to write a book about but I didn`t. I volunteered in 1943. 0bviously, we all knew when we were young that sooner or later you would get calleddup unless you were very lucky to be in a reserved occupation or something like that. If you volunteered you could choose which branch of the Services you would like to go into. Otherwise you went where you were sent. Well I knew that I wasn`t in a reserved occupation so when we were seventeen, another lad from the village, Bill Wright, and myself went to the Newport Drill Hall at Lincoln to join up. This was in 1943, the beginning of 1943, that`s when I was seventeen, although you can`t officially join the Forces until you are eighteen. Read more....

John and Sylvia Hazlewood

My name is John Hazlewood. I was born in Colsterworth in a house next door to the Chapel on Back Lane. There were 3 cottages, the Warrens lived in one, we had the centre one and Tommy Childs lived in the end one because there was only one room downstairs and one room up. I was born on the 7th of January 1933. I went to the local school under Mr Harrison, Mrs Harrison, Mrs Ball and Miss Lowe. It was a good school; they were strict but no more than normal. I think it did us good, we were kept in order. I left school at 14 and went the United Steel Company and worked there as a welder, a training welder at first. There was a big welding shop and we could build anything with metal like gates or anything you like, and if anything broke, say of steel, we welded it back together again. Read more....

Julia Higgins

I am Julia Higgins, born Julia Rosemary Nickerson in Grantham in 1957. My parents were Violet and Fred. My Mum was surprised because she was actually under the doctor for dyspepsia and she found out that she was pregnant two weeks before I was born. She was 47 and my Dad was 60. I have a sister, June, who is 22 years older than I am and a brother, Gordon, who is 14 years older. My Dad worked on the railway, he was a tube-blower and he retired when he was 67. He died when he was nearly 80 and shortly after, my Mum died as well. We lived down George Street and I went to school at Spitalgate Junior School and then I passed my 11-plus and went to the Kesteven Girls' Grammar School. I enjoyed science at school and I wanted to go to university and become a scientist or a lab technician. Read more....

Shirley Harding

My name is Shirley Harding and I was born in Edmonton in London. I moved around the country for many years doing various jobs. When I had my three children, Rebecca, Duncan and Rosie I stayed at home for some years looking after them. When they went to school I did voluntary work for the school. I was the main fund-raiser, Chairman of the Parent-Teacher Association, helped with the toddler group and I organised all the Summer fetes. I also ended up going into school one or two days a week hearing the children read and so on. Read more....