Easter Cottage
THE TENANTS OF EASTER COTTAGE
(formerly Eastcote Cottage)
(since 1987 it is part of Prospect House)
GEORGE AND MARY ANN SALMON
I am so very glad I was able to take many notes from the stories that both Mrs. Margery Tustain and Mrs. May Huckvale told me before they died. Their maiden names were Salmon (part of the numerous Salmons in the village, all descended from Thomas and Sophie Salmon originally from Preston-on-Stour).
Their paternal grandmother, Mary Ann Salmon lived at Eastcote Cottage. At the same time, another Mary Ann Salmon (whose husband was a younger son of the said Thomas and Sophie) lived at No. 23! The husband of the above mentioned Mary Ann, (the grandfather of Mrs. Tustain and Mrs. Huckvale) was George, the oldest son of Thomas and Sophie
George was a gamekeeper who refused to go to Church for fear that his pheasants would be poached whilst he was dozing in the pew during the sermon. After George died in 1895, his widow spent every Sunday teatime with her son John and his family, and two of her grandchildren. May and Ray used to sit with her whilst their parents went to Church, teaching their Granny to read! She had a lovely sense of humour. And her giggles joined in with the children’s at her poor attempts at reading.
George and Mary Ann had seven children, but one of their little boys died only a few days old. William, their oldest son, lived at No. 21, and he and his wife Margaret were known as Mr. and Mrs. Pickles Salmon! John, their next son, fell in love with Fanny Woodward whose parents eventually came to live next door, and they were married in 1893.
Another tenant who came to live at Easter Cottage was Harry Radbourne. It was in his lorry that the Boy Scouts from Clifford were taken to a Jamboree somewhere in Europe – possibly Holland. Harry had two sons – Bruce who married and settled in Stratford with his wife, both running a flower shop. The other son was always called Tiny. He was well over 6 feet tall, skinny and no-one could look him eye to eye because he was so tall. His actual Christian name was Arthur