Margaret Hayden was born at New Whittington, Chesterfieldon October 25th 1928.

My earliest memories are of a close knit community in Derbyshire in the 1930s, wrote Margaret Hayden (nee Barker). Members of my mother's fairly large family, my aunts, uncles, cousins, with the exception of Uncle Len and Auntie Nellie in Lincoln, lived in villages or districts in and around Chesterfield, the town with the crooked spire church.

Our pleasures were simple, mostly visiting each other or taking a us into the countryside. A Sunday school outing was a real treat when we were taken to a field belonging to a farm and took part in games, races and a picnic. Uncle Len owned a lorry and would come from Lincoln and take a horde of children in the open truck to a local beauty spot, Somersall, where there was a babbling brook in which to paddle on hot summer days.

I remember the celebration of King George V's Silver Jubilee in 1935 when I was chosen to plant a tree at my Junior School. Many years later on a nostalgic visit I couldn't recognise which one it was among the subsequent growths. Between this State occasion and the Coronation of King George VI in 1937 my parents, younger brother and I moved to Southern England, Worthing, in Sussex. To a child of eight this seemed like a journey to the ends of the earth!

Few of our contemporaries owned a car in those days. Our journey by L.M.S. (London, Midland and Scottish) Railway from Chesterfield to St. Pancras - across London - then by Southern Railway, Victoria to Worthing, took all day.

We were the only branch of the family to leave the environs of coal mining and iron and steel industry to a life that was very different. The clean air and gentle climate of 'Sunny Worthing' attracted many visitors in those days before package holidays and travel abroad became commonplace.

For many years both pre and post war, our house was like a boarding house in the Summer with a constant stream of visiting relatives and it was really sunny from Easter to September as we tend to remember! My Mother never tired of joining us on the beach with quantities of sandwiches, as well as coping with changing beds and all the meals at home.
   
My brother and I settled into school at Holy Trinity in Howard Street, replaced now by a row of houses, although our speech marked us out as different when called to read in class! We went to Sunday school at St. Matthew's Church and I joined the Brownies and later the Guides, was married there and am still a member of the congregation.
   
I only have cousins left now in Derbyshire but still enjoy visits to my roots. The dry-stone walls, the moors and valleys of the Peak District draw me back to my childhood days.