My name's Geoff Norman. We lived in the Thatched Cottage from 1974 till 1991, extending it and having it totally re-roofed not long before we left. I remember Arthur very well. He was very spry and worked in his vegetable garden till he was well into his eighties. He kept a very close eye on Bill Bacon, our thatcher, when he re-thatched our cottage and was sufficiently impressed to give Bill his old eaves knife. Arthur used to keep up with the cricket scores on his transistor radio. Unfortunately Elephant Cottage was totally removed to make way for its would-be replacement, I suppose in the mid-eighties.
J & D SOPP
01-May-2006 16:27
ONE OF ECCHINSWELL'S 'OLD CHARACTERS' - THIS IS MR ARTHUR SMITH (KNOWN AS 'THATCHER' SMITH - BECAUSE OF HIS TRADE, NOT HIS POLITICAL PERSUASIONS !!!)STANDING AT THE DOOR OF ELEPHANT COTTAGE, BROCKS GREEN. THE COTTAGE HAD NO INSIDE LOO, NOR ANY ELECTRICITY; AND YOU CAN SEE THE OUTSIDE TAP,WHICH WAS HIS ONLY WATER SUPPLY, BY THE DOOR. HE LIVED HERE UNTIL HE WAS IN HIS EIGHTIES, WHEN HE WENT TO COPPER BEECHES, A HOME FOR THE ELDERLY, IN ANDOVER......
