2024 01 Spring with bleed V4 - Flipbook - Page 13
If you regularly use Tiverton Parkway station
you might have met Fi Young, daughter of
Gillian and Brian Gill. Here she remembers
her childhood in the village, and spills the
beans on some starry (and right royal!)
encounters in her day-job!
Living and growing up in Kingsnympton in the
70's, 80's was great, there was no internet or
mobile phones, so we had to either walk or
ride our bikes to knock on our friends doors to
come out and play4a favourite game was close
driving on our bikes (usually in
the square), to see how close we could get to
each others bikes without crashing! I went to
the village primary school, Mrs Turner and Mrs
Sing were the school teachers, Mrs Waldron
was the cook, and Mrs Hughes helped her in
the kitchen. We were made to lay the tables
properly with tablecloths and the correct
cutlery, and say a prayer before sitting down to
eat our dinner. It was proper homemade food4most of it was
delicious. If we didn't like anything we were made to sit and eat it or miss
out on play- time! We always thought that we came off the worse in the
winter when it snowed really bad, as all the village kids still had to go to
school, but Margaret Westacott the school caretaker always made sure
there was a safe path to walk from the school gate to the door. I considered
myself one of the lucky ones as my mum and dad farmed at Brewers Farm
in the village, and before them my grandparents farmed there, so I had the
run of the fields to play in, but I was also made to help on the farm by
mucking out the cows, pigs, and the other animals, and helping with the
lambing and harvest. I used to look forward to Sunday mornings after
Sunday school when dad and I would exercise his horse and my pony. Dad
was born at Brewers Cottage, and died 88 years later just down the road at
The Laurels, where mum still lives. I feel lucky to have grown up then, rather
than nowadays when kids sit indoors gaming, and on phones all the
time. Growing up I moved away to Germany for 12 years, lived in Wiltshire
and Northampton for a bit, then moved to Mid Devon where I work on the
refreshment booth at Tiverton Parkway train station.
Cont on p 25
To read onlineāwww.kingsnymptononline.com/latest-edition
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