LFR 26 Aug Number 619

North Berwick, East Lothian, Scotland

Welcome to the Laws Family Register. 

A Child of the Twenties

A suburban childhood of the Twenties 

seen from the Ninteen Nineties


by John Robert Laws 1921-2008

Part 21

Further Afield

We spent all the family holidays on that little bit of east coast and going further afield did not arise until I could go off on my bike alone or with a friend. I had already been to scout camps, all on a shoestring. About the same time school journeys were started, only in the holidays of course not in term time like today.  The camps were for boys only. I doubt whether our devoted school staff thought they could cope with the tribulations of a mixed camp. The journeys to foreign parts  however were co-ed without any problems.

I recall one school camp at St.Audries Bay, near Watchet in of course wonderful summer weather. Our site was in a field between the coast road and low cliffs above the beach. 

We must have gone to Somerset by coach, an uneventful journey of which I remember nothing except that our kit was moved by horse and cart from the road down a narrow track to the field beside the farm where a line of bell tents had already been erected for us. We had the luxury of palliases which we filled with straw from the tumbledown buildings near the farmhouse and the cooking was done by the school caretaker with a small amount of help from us on a rota basis. A few cows were kept by the farmer and we were able to see the milk he supplied to us hand milked into the pail.

Behind and above our camp on the other side of the road, rose the warm late summer colours of the Quantock hills, an almost impenetrable terrain of bracken and bilberries guaranteed to stain ones fingers and lips and scratch ones knees to ribbons. We had time to wander on our own and there were organised trips when we visited Dunster and walked to the top of Dunkery Beacon. 

The timeless stone cottages and ancient butter market of Dunster were already an attraction to visitors but as boys we were too keen on looking forward to really appreciate the glimpse back into the past that such places are able to give us later in life. Exmoor’s wide vistas and stony ground thatched with heather and berries were pure joy, the purples and crimsons of the foliage stretching out through the sunshine to a distant hazy horizon and the world at ones feet.

In our free time we wandered into the little town of Watchet  lying somnolent in the sunshine, seemingly untouched by tourism. There was a corner shop selling sweets and buns, and Cydrax to refuel the inner man for a walk into the hills.  Watchet was minding its own business  around its tiny harbour where cargoes seemed to be black coal in and white china clay out. There must have been a few holidaymakers about however because one day we went by paddle steamer along the coast to Lynmouth where  we disembarked in small boats  and had a day to explore and wade up the river to Watersmeet. This was decades before the catastrophic flood  destroyed the town which had previously stood secure for centuries. 

Nearly everyone who holidayed around Somerset visited Lynmouth but the numbers were small and it was not crowded.

Back at St Audries Bay the beach is stony with grey rocks and flat stones ideal for skimming the waves. The most interesting find was that it abounded in fossils of spiral creatures up to a foot across, ammonites I believe, which had been preserved when their nice grey slimy mud was pressed into rock a few million years back.

Another boys only school trip took us youth hostelling to the hostel at Millersdale in Derbyshire. There were about fifteen in the group with two of three school stall including ‘Sammy’ Stewart one of the most popular masters. He taught geography and seemed to be a member of nearly all the journeys. We walked the hills and dales and went by train to Edale where the station name board said ‘HOPE for Castleton’ though we never saw Castleton as we walked away from Hope over the hills. A visit to the Blue John Mine where blue fluorspar is mined showed us something new in this glowing rock and in an underground trip by boat through a low tunnel which led us to a cave where there is a hefty waterfall from above which went down below us into the depths of that the guide told us was a bottomless pit. At least it never filled up with water.

To be continued tomorrow

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If you are a LAWS or a LAWES or have these surnames in your family or perhaps it sounds like this but in fact is spelt differently, we would love to hear from you, we need to extend and expand our knowledge of the families we have already discovered,

Come and join us, theres no better time than now.

The LAWS FAMILY REGISTER is here to serve you the members, Just send a email to me at registrar@lawsfamilyregister.org.uk

We reach out to all, regardless of race, colour, creed or national origin with support for researching family and documenting cultural inhertance

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Family Events from our database for today August 26th

If you are interested in anyone listed here, email us with the name, date and reference number, and we will happily do a look up, you might get a whole tree! 

Family Events
1713 - Marriage: Henry LAWES-32183 and Elizabeth SYMONDS-32184, Norwich NFK UK

                                                      The Cathedral Norwich NFK UK

1742 - Baptism: William LAWES-42180, Coombe Bissett WIL UK

                                             St Michaels church, Coombe Bissett WIL UK

1798 - Baptism: Edward LAWS-41975, Gateshead DUR UK
1817 - Baptism: Louisa LAWES-58939, Andover HAM UK
1821 - Marriage: James BECKHAM (Widower) -30496 and Sarah LAWS (Widow)-30497,                          Norwich NFK UK
1849 - Marriage: William LOVELL-3882 and Jane Ann LAWS-7447, Portsmouth HAM UK

                      HMS 'Victory' Nelson's Flagship moored in Portsmouth Naval Dockyard

1850 - Birth: John William Horton LAWS (Bricklayer) -4593, Cheriton KEN UK

                                                                    Cheriton KEN UK

1858 - Occupation: Francis LAWS (Steward on Ship)-51785,
1868 - Marriage: Thomas Cresswell LAWS (Master Mariner & Steamship Agent)-8893 and Hannah            HARTLEY-121996, Stockton Upon Tees DUR UK
1877 - Death: Amy Delila LAWS-45348, Union Co IL United States
1881 - Marriage: Charles Adolphus MANGUM-29654 and Delia Ann LAWS-29644, Orange co.NC
1884 - Birth: John William LAWS (RN F5314) -47609, Brixton SRY UK
1889 - Death: William LAWS (Fancy Draper) -8005, Belle Vue, Staines Road, Hounslow MDX
1894 - Birth: William Mckinley LAWS-55258, Madison Co KY United States
1904 - Birth: Rose LAWS-53885, Wandsworth SRY UK
1905 - Miscellaneous: John James LAWS (Grocer) -5243,
1906 - Baptism: Ivy May LAWS-167882, Hackney MDX UK
1907 - Marriage: John LAWS (ARMY  L/ 10176 Private) -5494 and Mary ???-130773, Kensington              MDX UK
1907 - Admon: Mansfield Gibson LAWS (Farmer 80 acres) -6193,
1913 - Birth: Cecil Arthur Edward LAWS-35211, Molong NSW Australia
1916 - Death: Mary LAWS (Widow)-48220, Kidder, Caldwell Co MO United States
1922 - Arrival: Charles Alfred LAWS (Engineer Fitter) -122802, Acton Quebec CANADA
1922 - Birth: Mansfield Gibson LAWS (Royal Australian Navy) -32351, Malanda QLD                                AUSTRALIA
1929 - Birth: Patricia LAWS-118679,
1933 - Birth: John William LAWES-50765, Basford NTT UK
1938 - Residence: Allan Bendict Clayton LAWS-168005, New York NY USA
1946 - Marriage: Harry Ford LAWS (I) -33901 and Clare ARENDALE-33904, Sturgis MI USA
1948 - Birth: Leaman Warner LAWS-40258, Harris Co TX USA
1949 - Marriage: Low Fuman LAWS-119071 and Lonnie KLUTZ-119072, Charlotte NC USA
           (Central Avenue Pasonage)
1960 - Miscellaneous: George Cruse LAWS (Burser of Lincoln Coll OXFD since 1953) -96281,                    (Benefited in estate of late mother)
1960 - Miscellaneous: Winifred Ruth LAWS-96278,
1960 - Miscellaneous: Arthur Thurlow LAWS (ARMY Lt. Colonel)-96273,
1960 - Death: Florence E LAWS-43848, Botany Bay NSW AUSTRALIA
1963 - Residence: Harold Nugent LAWS (Retired Advertising Rep)-167841, Portsmouth HAM UK
1985 - Burial: Barbara LAWS-120485, San Mateo CA USA
1986 - Birth: Matthan Arthur LAWS-40762, TX USA
2004 - Death: Tony Ray LAWS-38157, Harmony NC United States
2005 - Death: Howard Sterling LAWS-29727, 78624  Fredericksburg, Gillespie County TX USA
2012 - Marriage: Curtis Lee LAWS-125308 and Kimberley Tracy REINERO-125309, Pigeon Forge           TN United States

MISC

1809 - Baptism: Michael Harrison  BIRD (Seaman)-7569, Kingston Upon Hull ERY UK

           (My wifes Grt Grt Grandfather drowned at Sea, Loss of HMS Cambrian)

1811 - Baptism: William LUSH (Thatcher) -46839, Bower Chalke WIL UK

                                              Holy Trinity church, Bower Chalke WIL UK

1838 - Marriage: Robert BRANT (Labourer) -42854 and Jane GLOVER-42855, Boston LIN UK
           (My grt Grt Grt Grandfather)
1838 - Baptism: Elizabeth CHARTERS-7083, Aspatria CUL

1867 - Birth: Mary Anne CLEGG (Cotton Winder) -7574, Kirkcudbright KCD UK

1908 - Birth: Leslie Norris WALKER-19686, Yeadon WRY UK
1918 - Death: Elizabeth CHARTERS-34628, Blennerhasset CUL UK

          (My wifes Grt grt Grandmother)

1926 - Death: Anna HIRSCHBERG-167895, Grand Forks, BC CANADA
1935 - Birth: Sylvia BINNS-50636, Keighley WRY UK

1942 - Death: Hannah MASON-4259, Seaham Harbour DUR
1942 - Death: Hermione Octavia C SCHENLEY-57281, 

2005 - Birth: Connor Terence GIBSON-46088, Southend-on-Sea ESS UK

                                   Southend on Sea ESS UK (Worlds Longest pleasure Pier)

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