Top posts

• Cousin anecdotes

  05 September 2014

  Our family (by today's standards at least) being a rather large one - the four Hughes girls have all had many girlees and boyees - I certainly won't have stories about every one of them...! BTW, I count 24 direct cousins, and Mary raised one of her daughters'...

• The English abroad

  19 June 2014

  I have only got a few pictures of the English family abroad, and most of them naturally refer to Mum's trip when she left for France in the 1950's. There are also a few not shown yet on this blog when her sisters visited her there. But as for the rest,...

• Noël's English stays

  12 October 2013

  Noël was recently concerned that he didn't have a post devoted to his English stays, and all I can say is that he's right: he didn't have one! Now this overlook is corrected! Thanks Mark for this one! (Summer 1982) 1983 Cotswolds tour And of course, if...

• Grandma's love

  18 September 2013

  Or rather, signs of it. How can one sum up Grandma's love in one post? So anyway, here's one of her rather later letters, dated 1984, one year before we organized that party at 9DR: I like the way she had written "Your fair lady" on one line, and continued...

• Hélène at 9 Derwent

  27 June 2013

  Helene sent me these photos of herself, knowing the blog was going to exist... But there are MANY pictures of her, especially when she was little! I'll just give a sample, and will keep the rest for later! 1959, grub time Later on the same day: playing...

• Palmers Green Railway station

  05 February 2015

  I knew I'd have to do this one sooner or later... Today the train station has acquired a number of features it didn't use to have when I was a boy in PG (above, the 1970s). Compare with below: For me the story of this little train station starts as we...

• Heating at DR

  27 August 2014

  Hi, during a conversation with Mummy recently, we spoke about the heating which used to be set up at 9DR. She told me that originally there didn't use to be any heating in any of the rooms; the house had been built with fireplaces only, not radiators...

• Signatures!

  05 January 2014

  Over the recent months, I had kept some copies of signatures from the family, and then recently Noel has sent me many more, photographed from Mum's books at home, so it clenched it: a post on this subject! We start with Ethel (I presume E.V. Fletcher...

• Cecil and Olive Hughes at Southgate County school

  07 October 2013

  (check here for this pic) Okay, this was long before the times of 9DR, but... Mark has unearthed a real treasure: the long ago recordings of a few details of Monsieur Père's and Auntie Olive's youth as they were pupils at Southgate county School. There...

• More magazines!

  29 September 2013

  Noel has recently sent me a huge amount of material that lay dormant in Bonnebosq, among which some more magazine scans. So here we go, all you lovers of pre-video times!!! We start with pages of Teddy Bear, which I am almost sure now, must have been...

• Monsieur Père anecdotes

  17 September 2013

  I have already mentioned a few anecdotes concerning Grandma; here are additional ones with Grandpa whom we used to call Monsieur Père, you probably know why: it’s young Tini’s transformation of the French: “ce monsieur c’est mon père”. The first one that...

• A mission back in 1981

  09 July 2013

  Hi, here are some artifacts referring to a mission which Grandma had entrusted both Helene and myself with back in 1981: to take care of her friend priest Father Romuald as he went through Paris on his way to Rome: Here's the photo I was sent in order...

• Tea-time at 9 Derwent circa 1966

  27 June 2013

  Thanks Tini for this photo (which was taken in the front room, because we can see the street outside, and I wonder if the white gate is the entrance to n°9, or n°11? Did the house have a gate at one stage??) Below are some items sent by Hélène along with...

• Grandma's trinkets 2

  29 September 2013

  Here's an addition to Grandma's trinkets 1 , where you'll find some things that used to belong to her or were present at 9DR: These funny animals used to in her front room, or perhaps on the kitchen dresser, or both! Our brother Jean drew this portrait...

• Plan of the house

  04 September 2013

  Hello, I have tried to draw the plan of 9DR from memory: there are probably some wrong dimensions and missing elements: don't hesitate to comment and tell me! This is the downstairs: And here's a description of how it used to be upon entering the house:...

• Groups of cousins

  25 July 2013

  I have a few photos of groups of cousins (or brothers and sisters). All photos have at least 3 characters. A picture taken in Sept 1966 just before Grandpa and Grandma left for the Holy Land (see their Holy Land account ); there was a frog in Carmel's...

• Cath's childhood & youth

  07 July 2013

  1936 in the pram 1937 with Mary (but not at 9 Derwent yet) same year, same company 1940 on the door-step (ready and eager to go to school for the first time!) 1943 First communion 1945 Victory dance 1946 With her Daddy (not sure he's being completely...

• Grandma's mug

  29 June 2013

  Hello, do any of you remember this object? Jean sent me this photo with the comment that he used to love it when at 9 Derwent (and used to drink his orange juice from it)and Grandma had noticed it, so when Mum went back for the sale of the house, she...

• At the door

  29 June 2013

  A series of pictures of people standing on the threshold of 9 Derwent: 1940 (perhaps) Cath: she said the photos was taken just before going to school for the first time: the grin on her face said it all! 1958 Mary and Nick. You can see that there is only...

• Catholicism...

  13 February 2014

  ...was an important aspect of life at 9DR. It didn't interfere a great deal with the happy holiday time which we spent when we came over though. We went to mass on Sunday, and at some early stage we did have a go at the Sunday school which was held at...

• New old pictures of the family

  30 August 2013

  Hello, I have recently recieved a number of old photos of the family, as yet unknown to me, and so here they are, in (a hopeful) chronological order. I will also place them where they will enrich the pages devoted to individual people like Grandpa, the...

• Christmas pictures of 1962, perhaps

  23 August 2013

  Hello, when Cath and Charles were here yesterday, I asked mum about those strange photos, as yet not posted: I didn't know why some of them were yellow, and where they had been taken. But mum reassured me that yes, they were 9 Derwent pictures, and the...

• Broomfield Park 1

  23 August 2013

  I'm hoping, with this post, to begin a series on Broomfield Park, series which would hopefully be chronological, and correspond more or less to the period of occupation of the Hughes in the vicinity! Thanks to Noël for a number of these pictures! (they...

• School in England

  20 September 2013

  Going to school in England was for us a mixed experience. What you must understand was that it was presented to us as a way “to improve our English”, and we knew we also had to go because we couldn’t stay at Grandma’s all day long doing nothing. The first...

• New family tree

  05 June 2016

  Hi everyone. The previous family tree which I had started on a French website has been suppressed, presumably because of costs on that site, making many people rather angry, but I suppose it was to be expected... Anyway, I have started a new one which...