Ron Levett's childhood memories, from the early 1930's, when he lived in the small village of Alfriston in Sussex

My mother's sister Florrie was married to a London bus driver called Arthur Terry and they lived in Clapham in London. They had a son called Stanley, who was two years younger than I.

One day Florrie arrived on our doorstep with Stanley and announced that she had left Arthur. We were told that she had a 'Fancy Man'. I didn't know exactly what this was but it sounded quite exciting.

We found out that he was the man next door, and was a bus inspector who had a wife and children. He had a small car, which I believe was a Standard 8. We were very impressed. Pat and I were pleased to have Stan living with us because we now had someone extra to play with.

When we were out one day we found a young jackdaw that had probably fallen from its nest. We carried it home and from then on we reared the young bird until it could fly. It found life so congenial with us that it decided to stay.

We had about a dozen pigeons living in the loft above the barn opposite the back door and Jack, as the jackdaw was now known, took over the whole of the top section of the loft for himself. The pigeons let him get away with it!

One day we were just finishing dinner. Freddie had just one piece of meat left on his plate, when there was a flutter of wings. Jack swooped down, across the table, took the meat and was gone out of the back door.

This saga came to end when Jack was feasting on the fruit in the garden of the house opposite. The owner came out of the house and Jack fell victim to a blast from a 12-bore shotgun. Aunt Florrie stormed across to the householder and let him have a torrent of abuse. We were very upset but, looking back, I don't suppose the chap could be blamed.

Ron Levett, 2001