Village Tales from 1973
Finding Harley
The road descended diagonally through dense enveloping green down the steep escarpment of Wenlock Edge. Exploring the area I first drove into the village of Hughley, which was in 1973…
Neighbours
Our neighbours next door, was Forge Farm, the home of Jim and Mary Brookshaw. Jim was the tenant farmer holding the farm from Lord Barnard. He had farmed the land…
Owd John and the Pig Running Game
In our early days in the village, that is the 1970s, Harley was a more agricultural village than it is now in 2024. There were five farmhouses in the village….
Strictly Ballroom
Jim and Mary Brookshaw were good neighbours and we became quite good friends. There was a gate from Cyril’s garden through into the yard at the rear of Forge Farm…
The Coal Dealer
Thursday March 4th 2004 we got a visit from the coal dealer: A certain Mr. Hayley delivered coal on that day. It turned out that he had been brought up…
‘Harley has Changed’
“Harley has Changed”. These words are often banded about and are of course true depending upon the timespan under consideration. I am often struck by such remarks, usually deploring the…
Mary’s garden at Forge Farm
Mary’s garden was her pride and joy. She usually spent five days a week working in it alongside her gardener. It showed. She knew her plants and was an accomplished…
Merle’s garden at Longlands
Merle James developed a garden at Longlands easily equaling Mary’s garden but in a totally different and more sophisticated less folksy way. The name is connected to old strip farming….
Gingerbits and the piglets
Early on, round about 1982, Mary came scuttling round saying bring your camera quick. I got my camera and followed her to the pig sty across the road. The huge…
Christmas with Cyril
Christmas and the Punk Every Christmas Cyril would come round on Christmas morning dressed as usual in his smart grey suit too match his silver grey hair, back straight as…
Son Brazier and his mother Martha
By the year 2000 Son was the oldest resident of Harley. When he was born, the midwife, so the story goes, exclaimed to Martha, his mother, ‘ Oh, it’s a…
hilda Preece’s Diary
Hilda Preece was born in 1903, lived in the village all her life, attended the village school, then became a teacher and later taught at the village school. When we…
Betty Blake, the first Evacuee
On a sunny Sunday 6th September 1999, I was mowing the lawn when I heard several voices coming down the lane. Not unusual in itself, but these were no ordinary…
Dancing at the Windmill
Sunday 4th January 2002 I talked to Phyllis Munslow today in the road outside the Church gates. She told me that the old mill, that is the Tower Windmill, to…
Tom’s Tale
Tom Jones regularly walks down Domas Lane and stops for a chat as he did today – 27th June 2005. He has his own characteristic way of waving with his…
Cyril’s Portrait
About six months before he died in May 1984, I drew Cyril’s portrait. It has since hung near to where he used to sit, although it seems to follow me…
Garden Archeology
Garden Archeology The garden around Glebe Cottage has been in use at least since the early 1600s assuming that no other dwelling previously existed on the site. The Glebe field…
The Tin Whistle
How we discovered an old tin whistle… The old outside toilet belonging to the cottage ‘next door’ as we still call it, was only demolished, along with the adjoining pig…
Death of a Shropshire Lad
On a morning of a fateful day in May 1984, Mary Brookshaw came running round crying ‘its Cyril, its Cyril’. I followed Mary into the familiar kitchen of Forge Farm….