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Jan Dunstan (nee Seymour) was born at Swindon, Wiltshire in 1963, where the family lived at Swallowfield Avenue.
Her father's job then meant the family had to move to Wharfedale, Thornbury, Bristol where Jan went to Leaze Infant and Junior School.
As she grew older the family moved again, to follow her father's work, this time to Hazeldene Gardens, Exmouth, Devon, where she attended Withycombe Junior School, and Exmouth Comprehensive School.
I had a very happy childhood. We moved several times with Dad's work in the bank. I loved living in Exmouth in Devon.
As a child, it was wonderful to be able to play on the beach in the summer, bragging to all the children on holiday that we lived there all year round! Why did they never believe us? Perhaps it was hard to imagine that anyone actually lived by the sea. Perhaps in their minds, once they went home, the sea no longer existed.
Were the summers always hotter then, or as a child, did I just not notice the cold? Once all the 'grockles' --- the Devonshire word for holidaymakers --- had gone, the sea became ours again.
To be able to walk along the seafront in winter when the waves lashed against the wall (and more often than not over it!) was wonderful. In the winter the sand blew all over the pavement and road. The car tyres left tracks as if in snow.
All the beach shops were closed and shuttered and we could walk for miles only meeting the odd dog walker. In winter too, our games teachers at school sent us on long cross-country runs along the cliffs and down to the seafront!
It was the only sport I enjoyed and occasionally I even won! I am glad we moved to Churchdown. I would never have met my wonderful husband, Philip, or had my beautiful children, Ruth and Peter, but sometimes I long to live by the sea again.
Jan Dunstan, 2002
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