Bream, the Lower Village - pre 1909

Postcard - by the Cotswold Publishing Company, postally used in September 1915 . The Maypole can just be made out at the top of the road. The old cottages to the left of the church have long gone. The same card came up on EBay (Jan 2006) as "postally used in 1909".
Megan Hastelow added (August 2011): "... The two cottages to the left of the church were demolished in the early 1960s as they were condemed by the council. My Grandmother Annie Vaughan (nee Lee) also married Walter Peart who died in 1921 lived in the left hand cottage. It had no indoor plumbing or running water. The loo was a shed up the garden path The water had to be collected in buckets from the right hand cottage. When the neighbours moved out that cottage was closed so my Gran had to get water from the churchyard under cover of darkness. As a child recovering from TB I stayed with my Gran & Grancher for about 18 months and can rememeber going to collect water with her. I used to say I was afraid of the churchyard in the dark. She would say to me Its the living youve got to be afraid of the dead can't hurt you. She was moved into a newly built bungalow in Highbeech Rd but died 3 months later. The land was eventually purchased by my Aunt & Uncle Dorothy & Albert Ellsmore and is still owned by the family. I believe building cannot be allowed as the old mine workings run underneath".
John Palmer added (June 2015): "... I lived next door to the Vaughans from 1940 until January 1947 when we moved back to Epsom. We moved just in time as a few days later the very severe weather set in with deep snow and all the power cuts. My mother was a born and bred Breamer Nancy Palmer (nee Drew) her father kept the Miners Rest (public house) on the Tufts where Pat Lewis used to live .I remember that Mrs Vaughan had 5 children, Dorothy, Trevor, Basil, Joan and Pam. I think Dorothy had a child named Loraine. ...The cottages were very damp that's why they were condemned, My father came down stairs one morning and stepped into 2 or 3 inches of water".
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