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And so the years rolled on, I married Martha and in 1956 took both the Missus and our daughter Lesley there to meet the Robinsons. In the 60s Nelly Radcliffe moved away having got herself fixed up with a retired Colonel and then the vicar went off, nobody seemed to know or care. Some of the older villagers passed away, whenever I went to Norton Mrs Robinson would tell me the latest scandal, (I learned a couple of years ago from one of the men who was a couple of years younger than me about a scandal much nearer to the farm) and gossip, who had died or moved and new people were moving into the village from places such as Birmingham and Coventry.
Lady Beatrice Thynne died in the late 50's after which the whole area was put up for sale
And the farm and the fields attached to it was bought by one of the Oxford colleges, it was about this time that gas, electricity and all the other essential services was laid on. The White Horse, still owned by the same brewery had many landlords and with each landlord the service and especially the meals improved and today from my side of London its worth the hour's ride for a good lunch at extremely low prices.
The late 60's brought the sad news that Fred Robinson .had passed away. He had been ill for sometime. During the night he became very bad and MrsR. had to go into the village about 300yards away and telephone for the doctor. Needless to say by the time she got back to the house Fred had passed away.To this day I still do not understand why they never had a phone installed. Mrs R. could not manage the farm by herself and moved in a cottage in the village. I still visited her but in '72 whilst I was abroad on holidays died. I learned this sad news from the village post mistress, Jean Waldock(Mrs Yates had long gone) kindly phoned me. Jean was about a year younger than myself but was fancied by one of the braves. Jean unfortunately passed away just a couple of years ago and with her passing left just two people who I knew. Every time I visit the churchyard to lay flowers on the Robinson's grave I see more names including that of Dennis Ellard, a guy about 5 years older than me who worked on Robinson's farm. He was in many respects a bit of a simpleton but I would have backed his knowledge of farm and animal husbandry against anyone.
About 4 years ago I took my Granddaughters to Norton and I was able through the kindness of Miss Smith who lives in the farmhouse to show the girls around. I also met a lady (whose husband travels to London and works for one of our big account
Customers who was writing a book on the millenium and the history of Norton. When I told her I had been evacuated there she persuaded me to write about my adventures there. The book was later published in time for 2000.The book is actually called "Norton Parish 2000" and a tremendous amount of research went into it. She also arranged for me to visit one of the local farms with the girls, although I did not know these people they were very pleased to show us around. With the girls visit this made 5 generations of the family who had been to Norton as my Grandparents made a visit to us in 1941.
Lennie, the authoress moved out about two years ago leaving just Tim Luck and Bobby Wells the sole survivors from my day, so as I said at the beginning I don鈥檛 think I'll be visiting Norton again but there will always be a small part of that Northants village in me.

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