Richmond House Memories: Cousin Pauline and the house next door
When I moved into Richmond House in 2000 I never realised how many connections my husband ( Mervyn Willmore) and I had with the village and its residents.
My husband Mervyn Willmore and I discovered an unusual coincidence when we attended his cousin Pauline Mills’s (ne Willmore) 70th birthday party at the pub in Sedgeberrow. Mervyn knew that his cousin had lived in Mickleton for some years in the 1960s- with her then husband Graham Mills (known locally as Tracker).
Pauline Willmore the girl next door
Pauline had with her a photograph which shows her, as a young woman, sitting in the garden of the house that used to lie next to Richmond house. This I believe is Cotswold House owned by Mr and Mrs F. Mills. Our woodshed can be seen in the background of the photograph. The other photographs show the front of the house and the family dog in front garden with what might have been Pauline’s mother-in-law.
Graham and Pauline Mills
Graham and Pauline were married in Sedgeberrow in 1960. Mr Leslie Williams was best man and Mr. R.J. Niblett and Mr B. Willmore were ushers. On leaving the church the bride was presented with silver horseshoes by Alan Hutchinson, Timonthy Niblett and Lindsay Kinchin.
After their marriage they initially lived at Cotswold House with Graham’s parents and then later at Pecknall, a bungalow in Chapel Lane. Graham was employed by the Saville organisation.
In the 1960s Graham was a prominent member of football team ( goalkeeper) and a member of the darts team. He was a bell ringer in the 1970s. Pauline was a member of the WI
Cotswold House demolished, and Richmond House sold with the land
The purchasers of Richmond House and the site were a couple from Hampshire Mr and Mrs Thompson. Some digging in the British Newspaper Archives revealed that they applied for planning permission for construction of a dwelling in April 1992. (Gloucestershire Echo) which they then received.
Building work faltered
However, the building work was not straightforward, and work stalled. The site became somewhat of an eyesore and was brought to the notice of the Parish Council in 1995. In a letter to them the gentleman purchaser ‘apologised for the state of the site but said his architect in Bristol was completely in charge during his absence.’ The Council agreed to write to the architect to have the site tidied up and made safe.
The Mickleton Society were also unhappy with the state of the building site and the Vice Chairman Mr George Gott but said ‘that there were difficulties as the original builders had gone into liquidation’.
The correspondence about the state of the site was still ongoing in August 1996. It was reported that the building site was becoming a safety hazard with 2 large stone gate pillars leaning towards the pavement. The Parish Council stated that it planned to send letters to the planning office and the architect and to the owner (again).
( Source: Stratford upon Avon Herald)
Chandos house is now situated where it once stood and currently owned by James and Jackie Birch.
Other connections
This was not the end of the coincidences. My mother, Margaret Cotterell (nee Checketts) met Pauline Mills at my 55th Birthday celebrations in the barn at The Kings Arms and in conversation they discovered they had mutual friends. Margaret Kinchin started work at the NFU in Stratford upon Avon on the same day in 1944 as my mother and my godmother Margaret Walker. Aged 14 they were known as the three Margaret’s. Margaret Kinchin was related to Graham Mills and hence the connection with Pauline.
My mother worked at the NFU for 4 years until she was 18 and old enough to start training as a nurse at Warwick Hospital. Margaret Kinchin and my mother became good friends, and they often went to local dances together. My mother lived in Tredington, during this period, and would cycle to Mickleton for the dances and then stay with Margaret and her aunt ( Mrs Beatrice Margaret Kinchin or Kitchen) in Granbrook Road.
They also went to the dances in Ilmington together. My mother remembers one night, shortly after the notorious witchcraft murder on Meon Hill, the two of them walking in the dark lanes to Ilmington and being frightened to death when they touched something furry. It turned out to be donkeys that had got out of their field.
Margaret Kinchin later married and became Margaret Hutchinson. A photograph in the early 1950s shows her and Graham Mills outside the garage on the high street where they worked. She was president of the WI in the late 1970s. Later still she moved away from the village and she and my mother lost touch.
Some years after ( c. 2012) my mother and Pauline met Pauline arranged a reunion lunch with Margaret Kinchin at the Three Ways.
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