Compton Street in 1937
Memories of Compton in the early to mid 20th Century
Anna Howard’s mother, Frances Parsons, heard that I was returning to Johnby Hall and having noted in the Visitors’ book that I lived on Compton Down, she was determined to meet me.
We had a wonderful meeting and it transpired that Frances had many happy memories of visiting Compton Down as a child, in the 1950s. Her Great Grandmother, Mary Cremer (née Awdry of Thomas the Tank engine fame), her grandmother Hilda Willis, an artist and watercolourist, and her great aunt Vera Wethered all lived together in Peter Betts’s house – Compton Down, Hurdle Way. They were all Clergy widows! Mary Cremer died there in 1959 aged 103.
However, not only did Frances have these wonderful memories but she also has the most enchanting collection of watercolours of Compton Down and the environs, painted by her grandmother, Hilda Willis, mostly in about the 1950s, and she brought these with her to show me.
I photographed the pictures she was able to bring and she has since, very generously and thoughtfully, sent me photos of a whole lot more which I have now shared with Peter Betts and with Adrian Walmsley. We are hoping that we may be able to get some postcards made from a selection of the photographs that we have of her paintings. This view along Compton Street appeared on the front cover of the Parish Magazine for September 2013.
This is an edited version of the article by Susie Evershed in the September 2013Parish Magazine