First bit of Framilode Remembered
Walking up from Framilode mill the stiles and the path at the high level were perfectly gravelled, manicured and maintained I was told the Church paid for the upkeep as the ecclesiastical parish for St Peter’s went as far West as Wick Court Cottages. Whereas the low level path was overrun by tides on a regular basis and not suitable for ladies going to Church in their Sunday best. I am sure in my childhood there was a resident Vicar at the Rectory but I am unable to recall his name. This was way before Rosey and Sidney Ayland went to live there. Next the Church and the small path up to the School house. Living There was Mr and Mrs Scrivens their daughter Diane and son David. The school room at that time was empty. Across the road was Forest View a really robust minibrix red house which Mrs Broacher and her daughter Gillian lived . Mrs Broacher was really the quintessential Victorian Lady, time warped into the 1950’s. Gilliam attended Saul National School and later rode the School buses to Stroud.
Opposite was one complete Huge building which must have been warehousing for the Canal and I an unsure who lived where within the complex but in the first cottage was Mrs Agnes Smith “Aggie” and her daughter Joan. I never understood what was going on but on a regular basis Mrs Smith would visit my mother with a bag of groceries and lay them out on Rosemead’s kitchen table. Mother would lay out a similar range of groceries and they would swop. It was a sort of high stakes chess but with baked beans and peach halves. In the complex was Mrs Davis and Bonnie and Gail her daughters and next door or somewhere was Mr Baldwin the builder who ran his business as Lewis and Baldwin and his family. I never knew who Mr Lewis was. Finally in the small cottage next to the Canal was Mr and Mrs Hickman and their son Keith whom I always did the disservice of calling “Dasher” even when I had the privilege of knowing his real name. Mr Hickman was the local cobbler and in the post war years you had your shoes repaired and a lot of people used the services of Mr Hickman to keep their footwear usable. My memory of the canal bridge says it was still swingable. Probably last swung in the late 1930’s for salmon fishing boats in transit to Davis’s at the junction for their annual overhaul. But prior the the canal’s abandonment in 1954 I think with a small bit of bar and a good shove one could have opened that bridge, Build by T.H.& J. Daniels of Stroud it would last forever.