Family history

We were reminded yesterday of an important part of BH's childhood, that is to say visiting a great aunt in her old farm house in Marston Moretaine, near Bedford. A great aunt who had retired by the time I knew her, but who still kept the home fields and still ran chickens - on whose feed she spent more than she sold in eggs. And she still had an old retainer to keep house for her.

BH has many memories of the place as a working farm, and her mother before her had still more. A lady farmer at a time when there were not that many of them about.

Turn to Google to see if it is still there, to find that it has morphed from Shelton Manor Farm to Shelton Manor and that a good chunk of the home fields have been sold off for housing. With one chunk of the housing being arranged around a street called 'The Rickyard', behind the newish leylandii right in the screen scrape above. See reference 1.

With the heritage listing being at reference 2.

Yet another business which became worth much more as building land than as a business. With another witness of same being all the suburban public houses torn down to make space for flats.

PS: note the problems that the Google people had splicing the various bits of this image together...

Reference 1: Shelton Manor, 52°4'30"N 0°32'56"W.

Reference 2: https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101157984-shelton-manor-marston-moretaine#.XQiIpXdFyM8.