Keepers Cottage was a two up two down cottage on Common Lane which is the no-through lane on the right as you go down Building End.  The cottage has been demolished and replaced with a large house built in traditional materials and oak timber frame and is now known as Highwood House.

The lady on the left in the picture above is holding a cat but sadly we currently don’t know who the family are.

Above is the side view of Keeper’s Cottage with the left of the house facing the road when the Pitches family lived there – George, Charles, Lewis and Jessie(?). It can be seen that several bricks are missing from the external chimney breast.

A black labrador appears to be guarding an impressive array of flower pots all planted up with canes, or perhaps it is just watching the scarecrow – a stylised cat, tiger or zebra on top of the post amongst the brassicas. We know George Pitches who lived here was a keen gardener. See the memories box below.

Photographs courtesy of the Rogers/Edwards families.

Memories from Kenny Wilson

George Pitches was in [the] Army during the Great War with my father Henry Wilson, and remained friends years after. George was a great gardener and loved growing Chrysanths, and grew some beautiful ones and encouraged my father to grow some – but [father’s] were not up to his standard. Later my father built a greenhouse for him, as he was a carpenter by trade. This he made at Killhams Green and my father and George transported this in sections to Building End down Roughway Lane. It took about six trips using two poles to carry the sections down the lane, and the glass was put in later at Building End.

George was also a barber in the army and used to cut my fathers and my hair, and talk about time in the Army.