Above - Ivy's parents, Richard and Clara Watkins

The following text was written by Ivy Batten (nee Watkins) about her life as a child in Bream in the early 1900's.
The material was kindly loaned by Pauline Blythe (nee Edwards), Ivy's grand-daughter.

I was born in a little cottage at the bottom, of the lane called Pig Street, Woodside in Bream. I can just remember when I was about 5 years old my mother and father moved to Fairview just 5 minutes walk away. I had brothers called Charlie, Stanley Harold, Norman and Frank also I had sisters called Elsie, Esme and Maggie and also a little brother called Grantley. We were all a very devoted family.

I remember playing hopscotch, skipping, hoop, running and Jack with 5 stones.
We were never afraid of lightning and when it rained we would stand at the front door and sing, "Rain, rain go away and come again on Mother's washing day". When the snow and ice came we just loved it. Playing snowballs on one another would keep us warm, we would make great big snowmen that would still be there at the beginning of Summer. I also remember when the snow was too bad to go school, about 6 feet deep, we dug a trench all the way to the school also to our 'closet' as we called them in those days. We could only just manage to get in as it was 30 yards away it was an earth toilet, my father had to clean it out every week as we were a big family of 10 children.