Memory Mixtape #16: Reighton Gap - A Correction

In a previous edition of Memory Mixtape, I wrote about the bungalow we often holidayed at when I was a kid. It was in Reighton Gap, near Filey, and I just found some more photos. It seems that even at a young age, I recognised this as a special place I'd want to remember, and wasted a few precious shots on my holiday film roll to immortalise it. Good job, as the bungalow (and all those surrounding it) was bulldozed a few years later so the land could be used to put static caravans on.

When I last wrote about it, I said "the owner was a lady called Mrs. Kershaw, and I think she worked with my dad", but after a recent conversation with my parents, I have reason to correct that. Apparently it was Mum who knew Mrs. Kershaw. I'll let her explain...

"My friend Mina used to work for a butcher, delivering meat. I helped her sometimes. Mrs. Kershaw was a friend of the butcher, and she let Mina stay at the bungalow one time, but Mina took her dogs and they made the place smell, so Mrs. Kershaw fell out with her and wouldn't let her stay there again. We didn't take dogs on holiday with us, so we kept in with her."

So there you have it. Recorded here, as with so many of these things, to help me remember when I'm older still. 

That's my mum in the doorway. The bungalow lives on, but only in my memory. I also remember that they had an electric fire in the fireplace, with a poker next to it. Because I was used to poking the coal fire at home, I wondered what would happen if I poked the electric fire with the poker. Answer: I blew up the fuse box, but amazingly didn't electrocute myself. Sparks did fly though, and not just from the fire...