Pets aloud, no pets allowed.

What must it have been like for Mum to grow up in the Nilgiri Hills of South India and then move to England and live with her Mother-in-law (who’d she’d never met before) and then in a flat with fleas, cockroaches, a shared toilet and a landlady who would steal your milk from your doorstep?! There would have been no shortage of milk and eggs at Joville, Coonoor!

Mum and her sisters & brother had animals around them all the time at Joville. There were cows, chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits, dogs, cats, birds and a deer! I have photos of them all and will post them soon. Mum used to talk about a pet monkey, does anyone remember what sort of monkey? She also talked about Nero a lot, an alsatian, and I think she was very fond of him.

Mum always had pets at The Ginnel too, cats, chihuahuas and a mad alsatian called Max who really was mad! Keith was fond of Max and used to take him on long walks & runs around the village. I don’t think Dad was too keen on all the pets at home, they just made him sneeze! Dad never sneezed without it being followed by a “dam” and a “blast” !

Dad would cycle to work everyday, from Liscard to Port Sunlight, which would have been about a 15 mile round trip. They must have been very happy to be offered 35 The Ginnel. I think they moved there in about 1952 or 53? When Dad arrived home from India, they lived with his Mum and brother(s)? in Windy Bank, Port Sunlight, opposite the Lady Lever Art Gallery. Keith was born there in 1947 and Rob in Liscard in 1951. Anne and myself were both born at The Ginnel in 1955 & 1962 respectively. I wasn’t actually born in The Ginnel, that happened at Clatterbridge Hospital, Bebington, but I always say I was born and brought up in Port Sunlight. Where do you say you where born?