John Inge
The Inge family during the first half of the 20th century around Whittington

Towards the end of the 19th century and in the early part of the 20th century the family lived in the farmhouse on the road leading from the Whittington Hurst crossroads towards Huddlesford.

They then lived for a short while in a house at Fisherwick. This house had a garden surrounded by a huge hollow wall that had been built so that heated air could be circulated down it allowing tender fruit trees (peaches, nectarines and grapes etc.) to grow against it. This walled garden must have been the garden to the "Big House" long since demolished. When my Father (Charles Henry William Gillard Inge - called "Harry") lived there with his parents (Charles William Giffard Inge and Lilly Inge - nee Andrews) he told me that honeybees had colonised the wall and they had been able to collect "barrow loads" of honey in the comb.

The family then moved to Broom Leasoe (Broom Meadows) a large house of three floors and substantial cellars close to Whittington Hurst. I understand that a north-country wool merchant built the house and the cellars were in fact a "kitchen basement" area, complete with large fire range, as it would have been in an industrial wool town. I believe that he found that the local domestics were not prepared to live and work in a basement! The house has a one acre walled garden with fruit trees everywhere and before the war there were three green houses of which two were heated, as were two lengths of frames, by a coke boiler. In the "hot" house my Father grew orchids but with the war coming there was no coke for heating and the greenhouses fell into disrepair. During the war we had an RAF officer from Fradley Airdrome and his family living with us. My Father was the Chief Air Raid Warden and my Mother served at the WRVS canteen at (I think) Trent Valley station (where all the Americans arrived before going up to the barracks).  We used to get a lot of bombs dropped in the Lichfield District Council area but I believe the only casualty was one cow. I seem to remember that Tom Flaherty, who was a builder in the village, got a dent in his tin hat one night from shrapnel. I can remember as a child standing on our front steps at Broom Leasoe and you could see the sky lit up with Coventry burning to the left and Birmingham burning to the right.

My Father had a younger brother John Giffard Inge who died when just a boy and his Mother died shortly afterwards. My Father married in 1930 to Irene Florence Ward and I was born in 1932 and we all lived with my Grandfather at Broom Leasoe until his death when the house was sold and my Parents moved down to Darnford Lane in the village.

After Broom Leasoe was sold it was, together with the out-buildings and including the house at the bottom of the drive, turned into 7 or 8 separate dwellings as it is today.

When I left school I worked as a pupil with George Pearce at Packington Hall Farm before going to Harper Adams Agricultural College and then got on with my career never living in Whittington again.

My Grandparents and my parents were involved with many activities in Whittington such as the cricket club, Parochial Church Council, WI, Red Cross etc.  My Grandfather was a JP and my Father seemed to be Treasurer for many organisations and a long serving District Councillor and Tax Commissioner. After my Father’s death my Mother was Chairman of Whittington Primary School’s Governing Body for many years.

My Grandfather and Father were Land Agents with offices in the Lichfield Cathedral Close.