Peter's Comments

Thanks Peter I will send my next correspondence to your email. Best regards

Hi Peter, Hope you remember me. I must apologize for not keeping in touch for a few years. I t was a shock to me when I discovered that my son Andy and his wife visited you a while ago. Thank you for welcoming them and allowing them to have a look around. Of course the house is much changed , very pleasantly so but still it hit me with a lot of unwelcome memories. If you are interested still I have written in depth about Valerie and her son Andrew an article that you might be interested in. 

I do hope to hear from you and once again I apologise for being silent over the past four or five years. Best Regards Tanya Shirley

Hi Peter, I tried sending you a message on that private thing but it wouldnt send

I will try again later and give you some more info about us and what life was like in the 50s

best regards Tanya

Ok Peter, just to fill you in about Valerie. I reckon she must have been about 16 when she got pregnant (quite a stigma then) The baby boy was named Andrew and I think he kept that name. I remember skiving off school a couple of times to go to the mother and baby home in St Johns Wood to see them. He was fostered and then adopted (she had no say in it at that time). She begged to be allowed to see him occasionally but it was denied. She was very badly affected by it and she blocked it all out for many years. Of course discovering about his death many years later was devastating thank goodness she had some good friends to help her through it.

As for Nick (we called him Nicky) I was shocked when they got together , he was very childish and very young 19 I think. So having listened to his 'peers' he agreed to go back to Cyprus for a year to see if he would still feel the same about Valerie! While there he got married to a young girl nearer his age and that was the last we heard of him. I do remember Valerie and he got on really well and were always laughing together. Did she forgive him? Possibly she never mentioned him much. She led a stormy life with lots of twists and turns and I hope she has at last found peace. As for me my life took on an entirely different route! I am nearing the end of a book I have been writing (my memoirs one could say) and hopefully I will get it published. Anything else you would like to know just ask me , best regards, Tanya

Hi Peter, sorry i havent replied I have been so busy. I'm ok with our communication  (actually I am not sure how to do the private one!!!) but this is fine . I was quite taken aback with the info about Valerie. It was such a terrible shock that after all those years of waiting and campaigning to find out about her son that she discovered he had died in an accident. I will contact you again tonight with some more info , best regards, Tanya(Shirley)(I actually have to smile about my name I changed it years ago but still everyone calls me Shirley!!)

Hi again Peter, Shirley(Tanya) here. Some gen on my family at 57---they moved in around 1940,my grandparents lived upstairs till they died. Valerie was born in 1941 at St Ann's hospital, I was born at home in 1947. My dad left home in 1956 and we didn't see much of him after that. After various jobs Valerie settled into working for the tax office in Tottenham for many years. I married in 1968 and went to live in Iraq for over 30 years. Valerie moved into farming with her partner in the late 1980s up in Buckie, Aberdeenshire. Due to ill health mum moved up to Buckie with Val and she died in 2007. Valerie also became rather frail and she sadly dies in 2011. I hope these dates are correct as they are all coming off the top of my head at the moment, I might be out be a year or two!!

This is a very brief account and if you want any other info please just ask

best regards, Tanya (I changed my name from Shirley many years ago and took Batstone which was my grandmothers maiden name when I returned to UK and got divorced.

Hi Peter, just seen your message. Yes I am happy to give you some info about me and Valerie. I will send you some info tomorrow and hope you wont find it too boring, best regards, Tanya

Hi Peter, Sorry don't think I can help with your collecting info on Chesterfield Gardens. The only person I remember well is Brian Wikinson. However will maybe think of more at another time, as things do come into my mind at various times.

Please reply if you have anything that may jog my brain cells"

 Cheers Roy.

Hi again, not sure if you got my first message, a bit difficult finding my way around this. Just to let you know if you are still interested in the Woodhouses and their time at 57, Chesterfield Gdns. Will be pleased to answer any questions you may have, best regards, Shirley. (might sound a bit odd as i changed my name to Tanya many years ago)

Hi, just by chance I saw a message on the internet from 2014. I am the Shirley Woodhouse you were looking for. I have just joined this otherwise my message would not get to you. What next?

Hi Peter, thanks for letting me know re cattery, most useful!