Community Articles
William Arthur Bruton
Ruth Mancktelow (nee Bruton) writes about her father and her own life.
This photo shows my late father, William Arthur Bruton outside his ironmongers shop at 18 Long Street. I believe it was taken during the late 1940’s or early 1950’s.
He sold the business during the middle 1950’s and retired to a new property in Queensway - No:- 1. He died there in 1957.
During the war years he maintained an ‘open house’ and many servicemen spent an evening playing billiards or snooker in a room above the shop. Also during the war years, he was a member of the ARP. ("Put that light out!")
He was a one time member of the local council and also the rifle club which met, I believe, in the attic of a pub at the top of Long Street.
My family moved to Wotton in 1940 and I then attended the school near the church. Convent of the Holy Cross. After that I went to KLBGS and then to the Bristol college of Technology to do a course in institutional management.
My first job was at Rose Hill School as assistant matron during which I met my husband to be. He lived in Sevenoaks in Kent but knew the school via a friend who worked there who in turn was introduced to the school via a contact at Cotswold Collotype.
I was a bellringer at St Mary's Church and was also involved with local Brownies and Guides.
In 1958 my then widowed mother and I moved to Sevenoaks. I married in Sevenoaks and have lived there ever since, occasionally passing through Wotton - and reminiscing - when visiting an old friend - Cynthia Curtis nee Browning - in Stinchcombe.
It may be of interest to know that a lifelong friend, Ann Griffiths nee Willcock (married Peter Griffiths) who lived in Wotton now lives in Meopham in Kent, about 12 miles from Sevenoaks.
Ruth Mancktelow.
Nee - Bruton.