In Dec 2008 John Wright, a former inhabitant of
Aston/Swallownest from 1940s-1980s emailed me the following
reminiscences and memories of the villages during the middle of
the 20th century.
My memories of the Schneider/Wright family of Park View Park Drive off Chesterfield road Swallownest early 1940's to 1980
Having read with interest the article "Memories of Aston Parish-The Assorted Ramblings of Jonathan Layne"on the Swallownest web site.
I felt that i could add a little more information regarding Park View Park Drive and my family who lived there.
My Great Grand Uncle was George Andreas Christian Schneider who was born in Germany 27 Dec 1850 and died in Park View Park Drive off Chesterfield road Swallownest 12 august 1927.
My Grand Father George Frederick Schneider was born in Sheffield 1881 and died in Park View Park Drive Swallownest in December 1951, and was buried in Aston Cemetry
My mother ,his Daughter Rosina Stansfield Schneider was born in Dronfield in 1906 and married my father Frederick William Wright in Rotherham Registry Office in 1933.
My sister was born in Swinton 1934 and I was born in Swinton 1936.
During the war we lived in Swinton with my Grand Aunt (my mothers aunt )Caroline Schneider as my father was in the army serving in Egypt,India and Burma.
During this time and up to my Grandfathers death we visited him regularly at Park View Park Drive.
As I recall he spoke perfect English and did not have a cleft palet.He worked at the colliery down the road towards Beighton, tending the gardens.
He certainly had a sense of humour. In order that he could speak to my mother without our flapping ears being present, he would send my sister and I to the shop down the bottom of Swallownest to buy a quarter of sweets,and being children we would have the odd one of two from the bag,before we got back.
On our return he would weigh them but never chastised us for the shortfall knowing full well we would have dipped in the bag.
In 1952 my parents and younger sister(she went to school in Swallownest) moved into Park View,shortly after I joined the army as an apprentice,so I only lived there when I was on leave.
The bungalow was not modern but solid having three bedrooms.Outside was a workshop,an air raid shelter, three green houses, and a sold fuel boiler room to heat the greenhouses.
There was a large flower garden an orchard and a large area where veg was grown.When I came on leave it always seemed it was the time for rotivating the veg area.
The coal seam ,(opencast in the field to the side) came up in the orchard.during the time my parents lived there thre field next door was open cast worked.
Mother and father ran the property as a small market garden selling veg,tomatoes, eggs, fruit in season and flowers Customers all came from the village.
The solid iron gates to the property bore the name Park View.Park Drive.
Serving the houses in Park Drive was an unmade road going up to Memory's yard and the Tarvers bungalow which was at the top end of our land.The road remained unmade until the new houses were built.
In late 1970's , the land became too much for mother and father to manage and a lot of it was sold I believe to Mr Memory to build houses.
In 1980 my parents sold the bungalow and moved to Dinnington .
I and in later years my wife and children have many happy memories of Park view,during the frequent visits we made there,whether climbing the trees and picking fruit in the orchard,being chased by the geese, or eating tomatoes straight of the vine we always felt we were out in the country.
The bungalow has now changed hands again and had a makeover.My wife and I visited the area in 2006 and we were surprised to see the bungalow now surrounded by houses
We still remember it as it was with the flower and veg gardens and the orchard.
These are my memories of Park View Park Drive Swallownest
Regards
John Wright, Pembrokeshire
12 October 2000
Copyright Jon Wright 2009, reproduced with
permission
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