MKPS School History
1970s The family grows
1970s The family grows
1. I was born in Bishop Auckland and spent my childhood in Billingham and Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham. I went to college in Winchester, met my husband there and married at the end of our course, at the ripe old age of 21 years old in 1967. We stayed in the South to live and work. First in Portchester, then in West Meon before having children in 1970. We moved to Witcham near Ely while Michael studied for an MA at Cambridge.
In early 1972 our family, Andrew 2 years and Nicholas (about to be born), moved to The Gables, a beautiful period house in Gaddesden Turn, Billington, so that my husband could take up his first Headship of what was known as an SSN (Severely Subnormal) School near St Albans. The Gables was the house of our dreams.
In order to move we had to sell our thatched cottage “Hill House” in Witcham, Cambridge. We had a buyer quickly and the move was well under way. With a toddler and a baby due in November we decided to arrange a bridging loan and move together as a family in August. As soon as we had completed the purchase of The Gables, the sale of Hill House fell through. Over the coming weeks and months the interest on the bridging loan grew and the debt mounted.
The property market collapsed, a deep recession hit and interest rates soared to a whopping 17.5%
Two years later the debt was unsustainable. The Gables had to be sold. However nothing was selling, we were in a Catch 22 situation. It was clear that I needed to have an income in order to halt the spiralling debt. I was a teacher, perhaps I could start a nursery business in my own home.
We were acquainted with the owner of a derelict building called Ravenstone House, which was on Hockliffe Road in Leighton Buzzard. He agreed to take our more valuable thatched cottage in Witcham in exchange for this derelict property.
