Notes for Katharine Mary 'Katy' ADKINS At around the age of 21 she was sent away from home to live with the
Townsends, parents of her step-mother, in Cheadle, Staffs. For how long we
are not sure. It is said that she was disruptive at home due to a
breakdown in her relationship with her step mother after the marriage to
her father. She was a member of Claverdon tennis club and competed in
the annual knockout competition for almost 50 years, winning it on
countless occasions, often with playing partner Hubert Adams. Her final
appearance was in her late 70s! The club made her Life President. In her
last years she suffered from dementia but the one thing she remembered
clearly was that she was 'the President'. You may imagine that this caused
some difficulties in the care home when she demanded the respect befitting
the office! Her poor brother, living in the same home, was required to
follow her into dinner one step behind her! [269]
Notes for Samuel Rodney 'Roddy' BODDINGTON Prior to c.1937 worked for Avery Scales. From c.1937 farmer: 1) c.1937-Nov 1945 Mistletoe Farm, Five Ways, Hatton, Warwickshire, UK; 2) Nov 1945-1980 Barnmoor Farm, Claverdon, Warwickshire UK. Claverdon Parish Councillor; Stratford-upon-Avon District councillor; charitable support for the WRVS at Hatton mental hospital. [269]
Always known as Roddy, he was a very successful farmer, beginning with pigs and chickens (eggs) on a smallholding at Mistletoe Farm, Five Ways, Hatton, Warwickshire UK and then dairying and chickens (eggs) at Barnmoor Farm, a 40 acre farm at Kington Lane, Claverdon, Warwickshire UK from 1945. His dairying success was followed by the development of a large broiler (chicken fattening) unit of 36,000 birds which was also very successful. The farm was for ten years an ICI demonstrator farm - ICI provided advice on, particularly, the use of fertilisers in exchange for copious record keeping, regular open evenings to show other farmers what could be done, and £500pa, a substantial sum in the 1950s. This scheme proved to be extremely worthwhile and the farm's output rose significantly - twice the number of dairy cows, each producing more than twice the usual amount of milk. He made regular appearances on a late night farming programme on BBC TV. ICI also made, in 1955/56, a film about the farm called Milk and Money from Forty Acres. His reputation for growing fantastic quantities of grass was widely known! His success was rewarded by his appointment as part time farm manager at Claverdon Hall Farm, owned by Sir Ivan Stedeford, on a salary of £1,000pa. Here he trained John 'Jack' Masters who later went on to farm for himself. A history of life at Barnmoor Farm . [269]
A letter from Roddy to his mother indicates that they lived at Wichmont, St Bernard's Road, Oulton, Warwickshire in 1931. My father said that they lived in five different houses in St Bernard's Road at various times during their childhood. The letter, dated 25 September 1931, was sent from 70 Ampthill Road, Aigburth Vale, Liverpool, at a time when Roddy was working for Avery Scales. The letter indicates that he was selling scales and earning commission for doing so. He had sold 'two dial m/cs this month about £310 altogether ... I ought to draw about £12 commission.' [269]
Family notes for Katharine Mary 'Katy' ADKINS and Samuel Rodney 'Roddy' BODDINGTON Roddy was told by Henry Adkins that he could not marry Katharine unless he
had £200 to his name! He applied some creative accounting and they were
married. Katharine prepared a huge list of relatives and friends to be
invited to the wedding but her father said it would be too expensive and
that she should reduce the list to key people. Katharine refused saying if
she couldn't invite them all she wouldn't invite any. So her father said,
well we won't invite any - and they didn't. Only Roddy, Katharine and the
witnesses attended the wedding at Hatton Church. Marriage witnesses were
Katharine's sister, Nan Adkins, and close friend Eileen Fisher. This
lack of sociability didn't stop them getting a few wedding presents.
Roddy's brother and sister-in-law, Peter and Marion, gave them a set of
glasses, table glasses, wine glasses, and liquor glasses, probably 18
glasses in total. I later discovered that these cost, in 1937, 10/6 -
that's ten shillings and six pence, 52½p in decimal money. Though some
have been broken in the decades since, the remainder are in my dining room
sideboard and occasionally brought out for their proper use (2022)! [269]
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