What I may remember of going house to house as a child in Priding during the 1940’s/50’s.
Starting at Framilode Mill … Mrs Ayliffe lived there with her son Claude. She was a widow and the dress code was all in black. The mill had ceased trading although I have memories of a lot of equipment there with pulley shafts and the mil pond full of water. Claude rode a massive motorbike but seemed to do little else.
Next was the Darell Arms run by Mr and Mrs George Leach and their daughter Pamela. As a child Pamela was much older than me so we ignored each other. Today with age we converse for long periods…all about history of Severnside. George was, I remember, a powerful man who operated a busy ferry during the summer months. A large Western National fare stage notice board was pinned to the wall as their buses had previously run here. Be aware this family was followed by another Mr and Mrs Leach with sons Les and Tony. Les being a renown photographer and upon his arrival at the Darells you could get a roll of film printed (eventually).
Up the lager lived Ada Pocket a very small lady again always in black. Back on the road lived Mr and Mrs Asher and one son with Mrs Hudd, her daughter Mary and grandson Roger next door. These cottages like almost all at Framilode Passage flooded on high tides despite the efforts of stank beards and clay stopping dug from the top of the pitch. A small cottage next with Mr and Mrs Fellows and their son Derek. Mr Fellows had worked at Framilode mill as a drayman working horses. Derek became a lifelong friend.
Working down from the Darells on the opposite side of the road was the fish house where live Mr and Mrs Goulding their daughter Mary and son George. Finally on that side was Walter Long’s famous tea garden pictures of which have featured on this site. Built as a bungalow then raised to a house clad in corrugated steel. In my childhood was still operating as a tea room by the Markey Family who predated the Vallenders. For years a magnificent “Lyons Tea” enamel sign graced the building.
Next the postbox and Severnleigh.. did it get flooded on tide, oh yes enough to float the chairs! But wash it out, put the coconut matting back down and go on again. This was home to Framilode Bakery purveyors of the finest dough cakes on the planet. Mrs Goodman lived here with her daughter Marie, son in law Bill Magor and their son John but the bakery was run by her son William assisted by “Baker” Holbrow a spectre like figure covered in flour. Smoking a clay pipe upside down so the ash fell into the bread. At this time the area had no mains water or electricity so the bakery was operated simply on coke ovens. On the corner was a small orchard which was our football pitch because two apple tree’s were just the right distance apart for the goal. Three goals and you are in as goal keeper. Around the corner towards the pitch the cottages followed. Firstly Tom and Maisie Ashby with daughter Christine and son David and the most remarkable Black Labrador called “Flax” having been acquired from Flaxley and of course fetched by boat as not one household had a car but most had or had access to a rowing boat. Next Door Mr Clements and his son Jim whom I think worked at Saul Co-op. Next “The Laurels” with Fred and Lucy Cox, their daughter Cathleen Short and her son Richard. They had recently moved there from Priding Farm. Richard had the first electric train set operated by battery as there was no mains. Next to the Laurels lived the Young Brothers, Cedric and John, both were extremely well educated with no local dialect and both had professional careers and an appetite for hard drinking. Their catch phrase was “ The name is DUNG but spelt with a Y” The last two cottages were much smaller and in the first live Jack and Lilly Fellows with their foster daughter Elsie Snell. In the first cottage down the pitch was the Rudge family of Mr and Mrs Rudge and two sons one of which was an Air Ministry Policeman.
From the Corner all along the River Bank through Priding was no tarmac road, just a track which was topped up regularly with clinker from Cadbury’s at Frampton and that only went as far as Priding Farm. Beyond that was a grass track which became impassable in winter. None of the bank was enclosed all the way down to Priding House although many residents mowed sections of the bank. At that time there was only one car in Priding, a Morris ten owned by Mr Blakelock. Of the fifteen homes in Priding I may count nine rowing boats. In former years the Camm Family had owned the whole of Priding from the Homestead to Priding House. This include two hotels, one alcoholic and the other temperance so you covered all of your bets. In my time they still owned a few cottages and Charlie would walk down on a Saturday Morning carrying a velvet bag to collect the rents. Knock Knock! “it’s Charlie come for his money!”
Starting at The Homestead were the Camm Brothers Clifton and Charlie Camm. Charlie ran an antiques business from the house in which every room was filled with treasures for sale, specialising in Bristol Glass. Every room was dark and stained with smoke from Tobacco and oil lamps. It was an emporium of treasures all with a price tag attached. Charlie ran the business and Clifton ran the house providing shot goose, rabbits, duck, fresh salmon and any other free food. The orchard was a wealth of every type of fruit
Beyond the Homestead pond was a large black shed which today would feature on airbnb but was used as a weekend retreat for many of Charlies family from Bristol. Later it was to become the home for Charlie Hall and his family.
Rosemead was an new bungalow when my parents bought it with a £400 mortgage. Built by Carter Greenway and Sons of Arlingham it was the first bungalow they had ever constructed and it was good. My mother was a music teacher and weekends would see pupil after pupil come and take lessons and extra tuition leading up to exams which were taken at Hickies in Gloucester. It was a decade later before it was wired for electricity…. Brown 5 amp round sockets and 15w bulbs.
Up the laurel drive to the Aviary where the Wrens lived.. Ivor Lionel Manning Webb a lovely man who lived there with his mother. Ivor worked for Harry Purcell a local haulier and eventually took over the business which he ran as Saul Transport. The Aviary was a Victorian add-on to the three Riverside Cottages which dated from the late 1700’s. Famously it was home to the figurehead of the sailing ship Prince Victor which has now been fully restored and in 2022 is on display in the museum at Quaco, New Brunswick where it was originally commissioned in 1870.
The three Riverside cottages were built in the late 1700’s presumably to accommodate workers for the newly constructed Stroudwater Navigation each built of Stoubridge brick and had later Victorian embellishments. Three earth toilets at the back serviced the four houses so there was always a spare seat. A communal well provided fresh water.
At the first house lived Dorothy Clyde and her fostered daughter Audrey Hammond. Dorothy ran a tea room in the summer months and unusually kept a cow from which she made a soft cream cheese. Next door at number two was Mrs Smith and later Walter Merrett. But But at number three was a totally different world. This cottage was owned by Cuthbert Blakelock and his wife Kitty. They had Central Heating….no one had Central Heating. Cuthbert also had a workshop, an air raid shelter and a swimming pool. In the workshop was a Lister diesel and generator for lighting and which also ran various attachments including a shoe polisher and a ridler for the ashes from the boiler. This was a rotating barrel with holes in. The barrel was rotated off the Lister and the ash fell through the holes leaving reusable fuel. Cuthbert also owned the only motor car in the area so no real urgency for any road to be provided.
Up the alley were four homes starting with the oldest home in the hamlet Sunflower Cottage. Why oh why with open ground do you build a home below high tide level so it flooded regularly? Bill and Gene Goodman lived here with their sons David and Bryan. Bill ran the Bakery at Severnleigh until shop bread overtook the business whence Bill moved onto the Bristol Channel Sand Boats.
Next an amazing tin bungalow the home of Redvers Leach his wife Norah and their daughter Irene. Norah had been a pharmacist in her early days and extremely knowledgeable very often leaving inscriptions in Latin. A lovely lady who lived there until the 1980’s
Priding Villa up next and a strong Victorian Villa the home to Caleb and Doreen Cordrey who in my childhood were newly weds and full of excitement and the joys of life which in an ageing population of the time was exciting. David and Jaquie had yet to arrive.
Harts Cottage was the last up the alley with Charlie and Mrs Hart who lived their with their daughter Marjorie and her Husband George Green later to be accompanied by Children Michael, Anthony and Susan. All four houses had busy footpath in front of them and at a time when everyone walked places was quite busy.
Priding Farm was not really a farm, it had been a hotel with a magnificent tea room, it sported two or three fields but few farmed them. The tea room was my playground when Richard Short lived there with apples and fruit laid out for storage. On the wall were the famous murals painted by “tubby” Allen which remain today.
Fred and Lucy Cox and their daughter Cathleen lived at the back before moving to the Laurels. Then Mrs Allen senior and her son Gerald moved in. Her husband Ralph had recently been killed in an horrendous accident surveying for what would later become the Severn Road Bridge. Her other son and daughter in law lived in the front with daughters Lynn and Gail.
Beyond Priding Farm was only a grass track used mainly by farm tractors and became rutted in winter making it impassable. Midway along was a magnificent hen house with a grand nameplate “Hope Villa” in the hope they would lay. At the end of the track on the landside was the remains of the cottages which stood there until the early 1900’s. Then on the opposite side of the track was Priding House, no longer a hotel but the home of Major and Mrs Graham. He was a veteran of the First World War and being partially sighted had a white painted bicycle The two Wick Court Cottages came last before you entered the cobbled road up toward the Wick, In the first Cottage lived Mr and Mrs Smith with their daughter Jane. Mr Smith was a salesman for Cordwells Garage at Ebley and Mrs Smith was a seamstress with a workshop in Stroud. Jane attended St Roses Convent and proudly supported a blue blazer with the motto “Veritas” which I had learnt enough Latin to realise was “Truth”. Lastly in the second Wick Court Cottage was the Munday family with Mother, Father and three sons Eric, Cyril and Royston. They had their own football ground in the Lower Wick field so you always had a second chance of a game at either end of Priding.